Learn more about Guzman y Gomez and how it plans to take its Mexican food abroad

QSR Media got a chance to talk with Mark Hawthorne, CEO of Guzman y Gomez, about the brand's expansions abroad and how the Mexican food chain is managing its growth.

Guzman y Gomez opened its first restaurant in 2006, with the intention of sharing the real flavours of Mexico with the world. The brand aims to serve street-style Mexican food that is simple, and made with fresh, quality ingredients.

QSR Media: Tell us about your experience in Japan and Singapore?

Mark Hawthorne: Guzman y Gomez has has been incredibly well received in Singapore and Japan. With Mexican food and culture being quite new to both countries it’s great to see people welcoming our taquerias and enjoying the authentic taste of our food.

We opened our first taqueria in Singapore in 2014 and have since added three more, plus one in Tokyo.

We have outstanding partners in both Japan and Singapore who are incredibly experienced in introducing Australian brands into their local markets. They are executing the brand to a very high standard and it is exciting to see that GYG’s competitive advantage of high quality food, served at fast food speed, has strong appeal in markets out of Australia.

Proof of this success are our plans to open at least five taquerias this year in Japan and two in Singapore.

QSR Media: Quality franchise recruitment is often cited as stopping growth plans - how are you overcoming this?

Mark Hawthorne: With over 60 taquerias operated by franchisees it is incredibly important to ensure all our guests receive the same seamless and enjoyable experience regardless of which one they visit. We are all about serving high quality, fresh food at a fast food pace. So we are incredibly fortunate to have built a family of franchisees who care about our brand and our guests just as much as we do.

We have created a model that enables us to identify the right franchisees who can operate the taqueria even better than we can. When selecting our franchisees we always look for great people who share our values, our ethics, our goals and whose entrepreneurial spirit can help co-create the brand.

It is equally important that we take care of our people. We have a responsibility to our franchisees that we build an economic model that’s stable, works and is profitable. We treat our franchisees like family, because that’s exactly what they are.

We are proud of our incredibly high standards at Guzman y Gomez, we have built our entire business on never compromising. And our culture is just one example of where we have never compromised since day one.

QSR Media: How are you, as a business, managing this growth?

Mark Hawthorne: Co-founders, Steven Marks and Robert Hazan, continue to lead the brand with the same authenticity, energy and passion that saw them open the first Guzman y Gomez taqueria in Sydney’s Newtown, ten years ago. Fast forward to today and we have bolstered the Australian leadership team to support our continued national growth and international expansion. Remaining founder led while leveraging the expertise of new executive talent is important to ensure our culture is preserved and our brand’s integrity is never compromised.

In the past two years, we have opened 30 new GYG taquerias and that’s thanks to our continued investment in the right people. We invest in talent for the future today, making sure we have the right strategy and the right team to drive a great execution.

We are also focused on building a stronger franchisee pipeline by identifying highly skilled, ambitious entrepreneurial minds who believe in what we do and who care about what they do.

QSR Media: How many GYG taquerias do you think Australia could have?

Mark Hawthorne: Today, Guzman y Gomez has 73 taquerias across Australia and while we continue to grow. We’ve figured out how to beat fast food giants at their speed game. We have created incredibly powerful operating platforms to deliver quality fresh food and do it fast. Our bespoke technology driven model is what let to us to launching our first drive-thrus - a move that takes GYG into a completely different playing field. Drive-thrus will enable to scale at a rapid pace, so there is no reason why GYG could not have over 500 taquerias in the country in the not too distant future.

QSR Media: Any other comments?

Mark Hawthorne: We are going from strength to strength, and are having a hell of a time doing it. There’s a reason we have been named Australia’s fastest-growing fast food brand by the latest Consumer Report on Eating Share Trends (CREST). Our commitment to doing the right thing and never compromising on our mission to become number one is working.

We are proving that fast food doesn’t need to be bad food. It is possible to serve high quality food, that tastes good, and do it at the same speed as fast food chains. We do this with no freezers, no microwaves, and no BS every single day in over 70 taquerias across the county.

We have big plans for the second half of 2016, with 20 more taquerias planned for opening in Australia, Singapore and Japan. And we want to work with people and franchisees who feel just as passionately about cleaning up the fast food industry as we do.