What are the main stories making news in and around franchising this week?

26 July 2023

Grill'd Opens first drive thru restaurant

In its 165th opening, Grill'd has just opened its first drive thru location at Mt Ommaney in Brisbane.

The store opened on the 29th of June.

According to a report in Smart Company, the brand says it plans to build a drive-thru network.

What really stands out to me here is;

1) how long it has taken to get to a drive thru for the brand when everyone else in the QSR space is surging into drive thru, and

2) how quiet this opening has been, which almost feels deliberate, with what appears to be just a handful of very vanilla words about it from the company.

No state of the union type statements on 'this is where they see as key part of our growth into the future', and the role drive thru is going to play in expansion or anything like that.

From the outside it would suggest to me that the shift is not as simple as it may have appeared for the brand and its operation - or I may be wrong.

Aussie Pooch $1,000 spotters fee

In an innovative approach to finding potential dog loving franchise partners and growing its network, Aussie Pooch Mobile Dog Wash is running a '$1,000 spotters fee'.

The basic terms are that if you refer someone to the brand who becomes a franchise partner, they will give you $1,000.

It's good to see brands trying different approaches to help encourage people to get into the business, do what they love, and grow the brand and network at the same time.

Diggermate expands its offer to skip bins

Fast-growing earth-moving franchised brand Diggermate, which has quickly grown across the country with franchises in machine hire aimed at the DIY home and small business market, is now doing the same for skip bins.

Offering two sizes in trailer skip bins and mini-skips, brand Franchisor Mick Watkins said the skip bins range is designed to meet the needs of efficient waste management for DIY projects and trades sector small businesses, "...offering convenient, cost-effective, and environmentally-friendly solutions."

I think this is a great and almost natural move for the brand. Clearly, their existing customers have waste management requirements as well, so for a franchise owner to be able to offer both solutions for the customer is a win-win all-round in my view and makes what has already been an attractive franchise offer of Diggermate, even more compelling.

Coffee Club owner buys Sizzler

Minor International, the company that owns 70% of The Coffee Club has acquired the rights to the Sizzler name.

In a report by QSR Media, it includes 64 restaurants currently trading in Thailand and Japan. This does not include rights to the US market.

Your guess is as good as mine what this might mean for the potential of the brand back into the Australian market. But given the number of food brands seemingly eyeing off our market for entry or re-entry, given their knowledge of the Australian market with operating The Coffee Club, would suggest they know the market as well as any.

Domino's reckons they can predict your order with 98% accuracy

In a recent news piece from the company, Domino's revealed that they can predict with 98% accuracy, what you are going to order when you enter the brand's online store.

According to the brand, this is all driven by 'pizza maths' and technology that sees these 'future orders' being sent to the store even before you have checked out online.

Really interesting use of tech to practically benefit store performance and satisfaction for the customer.

And I'm not sure it makes any difference, I couldn't help but notice, that the statement in the article that refers to "...Using this technology, Domino's has been able to deliver Hot and Fresh pizzas to a customers door in less than 5 minutes*." - is referenced as a result by a store from 4 years ago in Sept 2019.

Still amazing whenever it was done!

Grill'd goes all-in on Barbie

I don't know about you, but I'm almost all Barbie'd out, barely before it started.

I guess given an Oppenheimer Burger doesn't have quite the same appeal to it, Grill'd have gone absolutely all out on aligning the brand with the Barbie movie in cinemas now.

With a fully immersive Barbie experience at their store in the Galleries in Sydney running from 11 July to 14 Aug 2023, the brand has well and truly put a huge amount of effort behind an extensive promotion.

There is a lot going on with this offer, with cheap movie tickets when buying a Barbie Dreamburger at 21 participating restaurants out of their 165 outlets by our count.

With pink drink, pink buns, pink mayo, pink limited edition handbag box, it's all really well integrated.

And as a person with children, a Grill'd Dreamburger bundle with a movie ticket included is a great deal! 

Not sure we're doing the Barbie thing though :-)