2011 Outlook for Eagle Boys, Nando's, Burger Edge and other QSRs
Eagle Boys, Mad Mex and Nando's all aim to go outside the box and expand their borders in 2011.
Australia will taste more of the Mexican food offered by Mad Mex as this chain expand to almost double their current store number. By end of this year, up to 17 Mad Mex stores will be offering food to Australians. “We will continue to cement our status as the most loved and respected Mexican food offering in Australia within the minds of both customers and franchisees through our product offering, store design and location choices”, said Clovis Young, Founder of Mad Mex.
The peri-peri chicken will also fly throughout the country as Nandos’s increase their stores by 35 restaurants this year.
Pie Face will also spread its happy face to the capital cities and regional towns of Australia as it opens up to 50 stores.
Sunshine Kebabs will not be left behind. It targets to open 10 more stores for 2011.
More Australians will also be able to get a good taste of Eagle Boys’ pizza as it plans to open more than 24 stores in the first half of this year.
This year though is not just about opening new restaurants. Christine Hooper, Group Executive Marketing of the Eagle Boys emphasized that what drives this pizza parlor is innovation.
“We’ve considered it a priority over the past six months to bolster our online ordering and smartphone technology capabilities as part of a $3 million technological initiative to satisfy customers’ growing appetite for convenience,” said Christine.
For Nando's, happiness and profitability are the keys for their franchisees. Kim Russell, Marketing Manager commented, “To this end, we have invested heavily in local area marketing and operations personnel to deliver unsurpassed personal service to our franchisees and their staff to facilitate further growth”.
One of the continuing challenges among these restaurants today is to offer quality service to their customers and satisfy their cravings for food with better value. The need to meet this demand has increased since consumers become more cautious in spending their money.
For Eagle Boys Pizza, this will be one of their main priorities for this year. Christine Hooper, Group Executive Marketing added, “during the past 12 months, Eagle Boys has radically refined its menu to focus on real taste, real size and real value and this will continue to be our business focus for 2011. A cornerstone of this is our gourmet offerings, as well as regenerating our traditional menu favourites”.
On this, Mad Mex believes that its advantage lies in offering “exceptional value” to its consumers which include the price, quality and the health benefits of the products they serve. Clovis Young also said that compared to the value they offer, other restaurants may have a hard time keeping up. “In the food industry, the mid-tier market with dishes costing between $20-$30 per plate will have the hardest time maintaining their margins and customers”.
Issam Soubjaki, Franchisor of Burger Edge, sees the Australian retail and QSR economies making some mild recoveries. “…however this will be based on interest rates, easing of credit and continued investment in shopping centre developments”, said Issam. WA is a particular bright spot for this QSR with much of their expansion taking place there.
Murat Coskun has identified the cost of goods and labour as a key challenge to the industry and has set up steps to limit the prize squeeze. Coskun told us "with the increasing level of cost of goods and constant pressure on labor the environment is becoming less friendly and we will be looking at comprehensive training and consulting for our franchisees and their managers to deal with this extra pressure on costs. We believe that the new launched concept and the extended menus that come with it will assist in countering this situation".
Food industries are constantly in search for ways to improve their products and customer service with innovation and real food value as their chief component. Lastly, they see to it that these directions are not only extended to their customers but also to their own franchisees.
