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 Grill'd
17 Jul 2006
 Article PDF (
101KB)
Grill’d is one of Australia’s fastest growing hamburger retail networks, offering a healthy alternative to what is currently available in the market. Simon Crowe, the founder of Grill’d, opened the first store in Hawthorn in 2004 with a strong focus on quality which reached from the food to the fit out, people, product, service and branding. This foundation created the opportunity for growth and Grill’d expanded to four stores in Melbourne within 18 months.
Grill’d offers an eatery where the burgers are not touted as gourmet but quality, fresh, with a healthy focus. Customers form an emotional bond to the brand, and as a discerning consumer they choose ingredients and watch the theatre of an open grill. Underlying it all is a deliberate strategy to provide an unforgettable experience for the customer. Friendly and vibrant store staff complete the entire offering leaving customers with the need to return to Grill’d stores.
The Challenge
In March 2004, Grill’d successfully started its first store on Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn, Melbourne. Within months the second store at Malvern opened, followed by two others, duplicating this success. The founders knew that they had a proven formula and planned to grow the business into an Australia wide network of stores within 3 years.
Success not managed can sometimes dilute the core offering of a business leaving it unscaleable
The key challenges for Grill’d were:
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Developing an organisational structure to manage the growth
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Access to capital to grow the network
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Developing the business model to involve owner-operators in a business built on service
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The business needed to continue to develop their processes to scale beyond the initial number of stores
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The business had to have the combination of people, brand, product and service offering to attain market leader status in a competitive and growing market
The Solution
Grill’d understood the challenges and DC Strategy (DCS), a specialist in retail and business development, was engaged to work with the founders of Grill’d to address these challenges. Together with the proven competitive strengths of Grill’d, the project team identified the immediate areas of concern and focused on the development of the business.
Network growth can only be sustained by having the right combination of capital, people, operations and attitude to dominate a market.
Maintaining control and the continuous development of the successful formula was an important area for consideration, as this is one of the company’s unique selling propositions (USP) to the consumer. The “hamburger” segment of the fast food industry is polarised, on the one side by a handful of major international players, and the other an aggregate of fragmented independent operators. The protection of this USP is paramount, to ensure that the customer experience implemented at the coalface by Grill’d people delivers a consistent representation of Grill’d in the marketplace.
In recognition of the importance of the quality of service in the business and the requirement for growth capital, a franchise business model was developed to complement the company owned stores. This combination of business models harnesses the needed business skill sets to grow the network and provides a structured expansion plan without losing the USP offered by Grill’d.
The Outcomes
Grill’d reached a position of having a solid and extensive foundation for expanded network growth across Australia. The planning and attention to detail have created a dynamic environment to serve as a catalyst for the growth of a quality food retail operation.
Food retail is about detail. The combination of planning, people and the
ability to execute consistently are the determining factors of continued excellence.
The optimum organisational structure was identified to drive and manage the growth and together with the operating procedures to standardise the formula, Grill’d is well positioned to become the market leader in the fresh, quality hamburger retail industry.
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Melbourne, Victoria, 3000
Australia
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