MissChu spills the beans on $30 million dollar price tag

Nahji Chu "queen of rice paper rolls" is often considered an outspoken trailblazer in the industry. Find out why she thinks her business is worth $30million and what her franchise plans are:

QSR Media: How would you describe MissChu, the brand?

Nahji: It's vietnamese food fast. I'm the first person to marry Vietnamese Food with Chinese dumplings and am also the first Street Food brand in Australia. It's common now but let's not loose site of the fact that when I started in 2009, there was no one doing what I did. I rebelled against Sydney's slick interior and bland decors and more so the price tag. I branded myself a tuckshop to keep the food critics away because I didn't want to be involved in the wank- it was simply good fresh food, fast and at the right price.

I put my refugee visa at the forefront of the menus and then turned it onto a logo because I wanted to say to Australia, that misschu was a real person and she came here as a refugee. I wanted to say that Multiculturalsm is not just about food- it's about Australia's history and identity and that we are a young nation of people from all over the world that have all contributed to Australia's successes so get off your racist rants and take us on board.

QSR Media: What are your goals for MissChu for 2014?

Nahji: To keep all the current stores running at a profit and To find Joint Venture partners in Qld, Perth and SA and to open 2 more stores in Sydney and 1 more in Melb. I'm currently working on a smaller misschu model that is easier to franchise... a minichu so to speak. I can't reveal its details for IP reasons. People will copy it before I've even launched otherwise. People have already copied misschu anyway... just glad no one has done it that well. 'You Ling we bling' for example are appearing in people's home del, menus sadly. 

QSR Media: You have mentioned you may be looking for a partner to either buy you out or partner with you to open in different states, tell us a bit more about this.

Nahji: See Q2... It is my dream to sell Misschu one day (by the time I'm 45 hopefully which is only 2 years away) and I think it's fair to say that I can command at least $30mil today as is... I'd always retain 25% as a creative partner though to keep the brand as real and authentic as possible and to keep frontiering. There are a lot of ideas in my head still that need to be executed for misschu. 

QSR Media: You seem central to the brand identity, what have been some of the upsides and downsides to this?

Nahji: Many upsides and few down... It makes the brand unique and I'm hell bent on being original. It was always my intention to gain a large audience to tell the Vietnamese refugee story and I failed at being a journalist and film maker so I did it through misschu instead. Misschu is a community success story - not just mine. Down side? I wouldn't have done it any other way. 

QSR Media: You have 8 "tuckshops" and are looking to expand, is franchising something you would consider?

Nahji: As a full misschu the way it is, it's difficult to franchise. the minichu model I'm working on is the franchise model but is not ready to release yet. Once it does, it will roll out quite quickly. 

QSR Media: Who do you admire in the food business and why?

Nahji: I love Neil Perry. He's a visionary, he takes risks and he's an entrepenuer. He sticks to what he does and does it well. He did not give up on fine dining and I too think there is a place for it. I love fine dining and I'm so glad Rockpool Bar and Grill is still going. It's one of my fave Sydney restaurants when I dine out that is. I love it too that his his 2 little girls love eating at misschu weekly... sometimes daily!