Learn more about The Gozleme Co, the new gourmet Turkish street food brand
QSR Media got a chance to speak with Koray Ugur, Managing Director of The Gozleme Co, about the brand's mission to become a world famous gozleme chain.
In 2013, The Gozleme Co. opened with a single kiosk in Stockland Merrylands, Sydney, with a single goal, to bring Turkish culture and food to the centre. Over time the brand grew from one kiosk to many stores all around Australia, offering combined traditional Turkish recipes with modern methods and new flavours.
QSR Media: Can you tell us more about your brand? What makes it unique in the market?
Koray Ugur: The Gozleme Co was originally established by my father (Irfan Ugur in 2013) at Stockland Merrylands, with a simple vision of bringing Turkish culture and food to the shopping centre. My father had over 30 years of retail food experience prior to starting the business.
In 2015, my father decided to retire and I realised the great opportunity the business had, as well as franchise potential, so i bought the business. The business had a fantastic product that everyone loved, and our customers were no longer limited to eating gozleme at market stalls or events.
Over the next 12 months after taking over and re-furbishing Merrylands, I opened an additional 9 stores (Wetherill Park, Burwood, MLC Centre, Eastern Creek, Lidcombe, Miranda, Parramatta, Greenwood Plaza and Chatswood). This rapid growth was achieved by the systems and processes that I implemented to ensure product quality and consistency throughout all stores. All my team at store level have played a crucial role delivering the customers a product that is made fresh to order which keeps them coming back for more.
Our mission and philosophy is simple:
- traditional Turkish street food in a gourmet environment
- freshest ingredients
- happy staff
- great service for all our customers
- to ensure we meet our vision of being world famous.
QSR Media: What makes you unique?
Koray Ugur: Its our ability to surprise our customers by being first to market with new flavour combinations not previously seen in Turkish cuisine and gozleme. Flavours like peri peri chicken, Moroccan lamb, beef chipotle and our desserts with nutella and cinnamon apple have been well received by our customers.
Our systems and processes ensure that all stores have the same end product, no matter the location or crew member preparing the gozleme. We invested heavily in capital to achieve this consistency as we live in a world of social media and our customers posting their meals on Instagram / Facebook, so consistency and quality are paramount for a successful franchise business in today’s world.
QSR Media: Any big plans for the year?
Koray Ugur: Continue rolling out franchise partner stores, and expand nationally. We have new stores opening in Shellharbour within the next 4 weeks, followed by Gateway (Circular Quay) and Macarthur Square shortly thereafter. We are fielding enquiries from international partners, so we will be exploring them, but our focus will be Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
QSR Media: What can you say are the challenges currently in the industry? Opportunities?
Koray Ugur: Challenges: finding the right franchise partners that share in the vision of The Gozleme Co. We are inundated with enquiries for franchise partners, however we need to ensure that the right partners are chosen to ensure the success of the brand. We must learn from the mistakes of previous franchises that expanded too rapidly without the right partnerships.
We need to also continue to spread the word about gozleme and what we do. The Turkish culture is one of generosity, so the more we spread the word on gozleme, we’re inviting our customers to be part of our family. We continue to sample our amazing recipes at store levels to ensure that everyone knows about gozleme, our freshest ingredients and our made to order process.
Opportunities: our product fits well in every shopping centre/ food strip, so continuing the expansion with the right partners, to ensure that The Gozleme Co is an Aussie staple…
QSR Media: Where do you see your brand five years from now?
Koray Ugur: Being the premiere gozleme brand in Australia with 100+ stores, and growing internationally, firstly in emerging markets (Southeast Asia), then through the Middle East and then longer term plan into mature markets (U.S. / Europe).
QSR Media: Tell us about the people behind the brand, i.e. The management?
Koray Ugur (Managing Director)
I have over 15 years’ experience in the food industry, and over 12 years specifically within retail food. I’m responsible for the entire The Gozleme Co brand system, including management of national operations manager and support staff.
Prior to my involvement with The Gozleme Co brand system, I managed catering contracts for events held at Sydney Cricket Ground, Allianz Stadium, ANZ Stadium, Win Stadium, Randwick Racecourse, Warwick Farm, Rosehill Racecourse and Sydney Royal Easter Show.
When my father was selling up, i identified an opportunity to rollout a gozleme franchise business.
Matthew Taylor (National Operations Manager)
Matthew has over 15 years’ experience in the food industry, and over ten years’ experience in real estate. Matthew was a franchisee with Gloria Jean’s for ten years, and an area manager at KFC for five years, where he managed four KFC stores which were all in the national top ten stores in Australia.
Matthew’s role in The Gozleme Co is to work alongside franchisee partners to ensure that they are maximising their sales, ensure that The Gozleme Co standards are being met, whilst managing general operations and dealing with all stakeholders and employees.
Matthew’s real estate experience brings an added understanding of dealing with landlords and shopping centres. Matthew will be undertaking an MBA to further enhance his knowledge to coincide with his practical experience.
Head office also sees specialists accounting and marketing professionals to support the overall business.
