Find out more about Lord of the Fries' experiences as a healthy, sustainable, ethical QSR
QSR Media sat down with Mark Koronczyk, co-founder and CEO of Lord of the Fries, to talk about his brand's efforts to becoming the go-to ethical, sustainable, 100% vegetarian fast food chain.
Lord of the Fries began as a mobile chip van in Melbourne in 2004, before eventually opening permanent locations in various places in the country. The brand's menu, which includes Burgers, Onion Rings, Nuggets and Hot Dogs, is vegetarian, kosher and halal. The brand also offers Vegan and Gluten Free options.
QSR Media: Can you tell us more about Lord of the Fries' initiatives towards becoming a healthy and sustainable QSR brand?
Mark Koronczyk: Being a 100% vegetarian QSR, our business naturally lends itself to being sustainable – operating ethically has been one of our core values from the get-go. In fact, our business idea stemmed from our love of French fries coupled with our failed search for a French fry that was locally sourced and not fried in beef tallow or nasty chemicals. Our fries are fried in a cotton oil and sunflower oil blend, and the oil supplier we work with even repurposes the left over oil to fuel its delivery trucks!
With our vegetarian menu we provide customers a more sustainable and healthier offering with meatbased alternative to burgers, hot dogs and chips, as vegetarian food uses less resources to produce and has a significantly smaller eco footprint.
QSR Media: Can you give us some insights in becoming an ethical fast food chain?
Mark Koronczyk: In a competitive fast food industry, we simply wanted to offer an alternative to what was out there, something that aligned with our values (being a team of vegetarians and vegans), something that was inclusive (we cater for vegans, offer low-gluten menu items and are halal and kosher certified) and of course, something that is delicious – we think veg food is the best-tasting out there! We also want to have a positive impact on the animals, the planet and the people – so our thinking is the more we can expand and the more we can get people eating our food, collectively we can reduce the negative repercussions on the animals and environment caused by traditional fast food chains.
By providing a 100% vegetarian menu that’s interesting and tasty, we’re attracting vegetarians and meat-eaters alike, helping us do our bit to reduce the carbon footprint on the world.
QSR Media: What can you say are the challenges in doing so?
Mark Koronczyk: We source locally where possible, use recyclable and recycled packaging materials and generally look to implement sustainable systems and processes where we can at each level of the business, which can all contribute to making our costs higher. This can be a challenge, as our food prices do reflect these higher costs. Our aim is to educate our customers more on our mission, we want our customers to feel like they’re a part of something bigger than just a delicious meal, they’re a part of an ethical fast food movement.
QSR Media: How are your customers reacting?
Mark Koronczyk: We appeal to a wide range of customers, from the commuting crowd, shopping crowd, students, vegans and vegetarians, families who love to dine at our sit-down stores, the health-conscious, right through to burger and chip fanatics – so our job is to market and appeal to everyone within these demographics.
What’s cool about us, is we have evangelists from each customer segment; our vegans and vegetarians are passionate about us because they love that we’re disrupting the fast food industry and that we care for the animals, our students love that we’re a youthful brand who loves music and film as well as food, our healthy eaters love our menu innovations (like our most recent quinoa-based patty, P:Earth burger), etc.
QSR Media: Any big plans for the year?
Mark Koronczyk: We always have big plans. Continuously changing up our menu is always on the cards, depending on what our customers are asking for – a lot of our food innovations stem from customer feedback!
We have plans to expand our reign across Australia (and maybe even abroad) with more new store openings.
We’re also committed to spending this year working through how we can continue to have an even bigger positive impact on our world – from reviewing our supply chain, our systems and processes, giving back more to the communities in which we operate and how we can bring our community along for the ride with us… watch this space.
