Get a glimpse of Urban Burger's bold revival strategy

Limited edition burgers are in the works.

The current owners and management team of Urban Burger are focused on ensuring the growth of the brand and business. Urban Burger will be reassessing their menu and will be launching their limited edition burgers in the coming months. 

QSR Media talked to Urban Burger to get an update on the brand’s plans and priorities this year.  

QSR Media: What’s been happening at Urban Burger recently?

Urban Burger: It has been a very exciting time for the business, the people involved, and the people around the brand. There is a saying that ‘what comes of chaos is greatness’ and, to say the least, we have gone through some chaos and our goal and focus is greatness. We have been busy ensuring that everything is geared around a solid foundation to our business that is delivering value to our franchisees and ensuring that people continue to love the brand and its food. We are going back to what the brand is and should be known for, good healthy gourmet food.

QSR Media: The brand has had a few changes in ownership over the past few years (Urban Burger’s owner files for bankruptcy), what would you say to the market about the stability of the brand?

Urban Burger: Yeah agree, it has had a few and it has driven an instability amongst our franchisees. The current owners are very focused on ensuring the business and the brand grows, we re-engage our franchisees and they see a great future and direction. This has been hard work but I can proudly say that the brand is really starting to get back into the hearts and minds of consumers. The greatest thing is that consumers continue to tell us that they love the brand and the concept. This is something that we can continue to really hang our hat on and a solid foundation to grow the business.

QSR Media: Who is the current management team and what is their background?

Urban Burger: Jason Chainey is a shareholder and owner and comes with a long history of management in FMCG companies in Australia. Working for globally recognised brands such as Diageo, Campari and Vodafone coupled with ownership and running of Coffee Clubs. Further to this, he spent a number of years working across different hospitality sectors in Queensland. His partner is Dale Reeves who has owned run and managed a number of different restaurant's and franchised out gyms in Victoria. Emma runs our marketing and franchising and Joni looks after the books. Small but dynamic team!

QSR Media: What are the brand’s recent product innovations?

Urban Burger: We will be re-assessing our menu in the coming months to really evaluate and be able to provide what our fans want most from us. However, something exciting we are working on right now is a ‘burger of the month’ promotion where we will have limited edition burgers available each month in store. They will be completely new recipes. We currently are working on a lamb burger, a blue cheese and bacon, a sweet and spicy chicken and of course we will be doing something vege to suit our vegetarian fans. The feedback we have received from customers on the recipes already is all really positive so we are very excited.

QSR Media: What are your top 3 priorities this year?

Urban Burger: 1) Our top priority at the moment is to ensure that we have the right structure in place that will enable us to continue to grow our current sales but also leverage us to grow more stores in the future

2) Have a clear and concise marketing plan that gets back to the core of the business, good healthy gourmet food.. I think that the brand got lost there for a while, so we want to reach out to consumers again and really tell them that.

3) Gear ourselves up for growth in 2014. Our plan is to open a further 3 stores next year - its important to make sure we have the right plan, the right place, the right structure and all our house is in order.

QSR Media: What else can we expect from Urban Burger this 2013?

Urban Burger: The other big thing is that we are currently actively looking for an operations manager to ensure that we achieve our 2013 goals.. Further to this, watch our menus because there some exciting things coming out in the not too distant future as briefly mentioned before. Oh, and some exciting developments in our web and loyalty programs..Great times ahead...