Retail Zoo appoints Scott Meneilly as new Chief Executive

QSR Media: What makes you excited about your new position?

Meneilly: There are so many things that make me excited about being appointed CEO of Retail Zoo. The first is that in my opinion Retail Zoo is one of the greatest young food retail businesses in the country.

We have three amazing brands all at completely different stages of their lifecycle, a very strong cash-flow enabling us to deliver five years of double digit growth on EBITDA and a fourth new and exciting brand about to open at the start of July. The diversity within this role is enormous.

With the support of a tremendous retail-minded and entrepreneurial board of Directors, an incredible team, powerful tools and systems, everything about the future is exciting. It’s a dream job.

QSR Media: What three goals are you focused on?

Meneilly: Firstly we must nurture and protect our current position. To this end I am focussed on the profitability of the group, the existing brands and the franchisees within the brands as they are all in a very healthy position right now and set on a great growth trajectory, so this course must remain the same. Change and diversity is exciting and invigorating, however it cannot come at the expense of our current positive position.

Cibo Espresso is our latest acquisition and our plan for this exciting brand is to take it from an iconic South Australian coffee brand to a strong player across the country. This is a huge challenge with a category such as coffee however we are very optimistic about the niche this brand will own.

We have a start-up fourth brand called Chicken Central that we are opening in the first week of July and we are very focussed on launching this correctly to see just how much market acceptance it gets, as we strongly believe that this could be our next exciting brand.

QSR Media: What will you do differently in this position?

Meneilly: I have worked very closely with Jeff (Allis) over the last five years. The course the business is on has been a collaborative work in progress so I don’t see that there will be any significant change. Jeff and I do have different management styles so there may be some internal change from that perspective however the strategic direction and tactical planning remains unchanged.

QSR Media: What changes are you planning for?

Meneilly: Right now it is business as usual. We are going through quite a growth curve at the moment so we are focussed heavily on nailing that, recruiting more team membersand on-boarding new mobile and digital technology.

QSR Media:What are your key business philosophies?

Meneilly: · The door to success is labelled PUSH and that is something that everyone needs to do regardless of where they sit within our business. Doing your “job” is one thing however greatness comes when people step outside the box and achieve something extraordinary. These are the acts that make businesses great and the workplace must encourage them.

· Only work with amazing people that you trust implicitly. This is an incredibly tough thing to do and takes a number of failures before you eventually find people the right people whether you are the employer or the employee – this philosophy is the same. When you find the match, work hard to maintain it.

· Uphold the values of trust, integrity, transparency and respect. This is quite simply an expectation that we have right throughout our business. During the interview process with potential Franchise Partners or team members, we always set the tone immediately so they understand this is the way we do business and if that doesn’t work with you, then this isn’t the right place. If you do this well, you will never be surprised by someone leaving your business.

· Be generous. Success comes from having a generous spirit and finding ways and moments to go that extra mile. Being tight does not make you a success…nor does being frivolous.

· Have a plan that is simple and make sense. Ensure that your team have been involved in it, take ownership of it and are incentivised to achieve it.

QSR Media: What previous positions prepared you for this one and how?

Meneilly: I feel like my entire life has been a training ground for this role as so many facets of my previous experience have prepared me fully for this challenge. In the distant background, I used to do a little acting and even though that all ended in a screaming heap, the elements I learned gave me the confidence to present, and knowledge of how to use emotional drivers to align people with a message.

I studied hospitality, owned a number of my own businesses and of course I have been groomed intensely through my career at Boost. I am a great believer in the school of hard knocks and that failures and hard times provide the tools and lessons for learning and future success.

Beyond that, it is the same old cliché of surround yourself with great people. When I started at Boost five years ago, great people were here and fortunately surrounded me, and Jeff and Janine Allis have been no doubt been the most influential in my growth and development.

QSR Media: Anything else you'd like to add?

Meneilly: The only thing that I would like to add is that the performance of Retail Zoo both today and tomorrow is all determined by the quality of people we have involved within the brands we possess, and of course the incredible support team. Our biggest challenge always is to keep our energy up, not work ourselves to death and take time to stop, reflect and reward ourselves when we reach each milestone. We have some very exciting times ahead and I am proud to be given this opportunity.