Kiwis Dining Down

Dubai a better prospect

More hearsay evidence today that New Zealand has become an expensive place to live. The annual meeting of Burger Fuels was told today that in tougher economic conditions New Zealanders are trading down in their dining out options because food is getting too expensive.

Despite tough conditions in NZ, BF navigated its way through that recessionary period, with double digit growth. The decision was made not to open any new stores after Mission Bay, but instead to focus on system health and consolidation of the business.  

“The NZ economic position remains uncertain, with generally low confidence,” says managing director Josef Roberts.

“For us cost of goods (that's food) continues to rise. We see every sign that this general trend will continue. Ultimately, life is getting more expensive.  

“Whilst some of our customers, for reasons of price are being forced to eat at the cheaper multinationals, we are gaining new ones who are trading down from   restaurants to get a quality, dine experience, for much less money.  

One thing's for sure - everyone wants a deal, says Roberts. “And the multi nationals are certainly offering plenty of those. We can't compete on price discounting for reasons of economics and in the end this will only serve to de-value the brand and its premium positioning.

“We also can't compete with their large advertising spend,” he says. “So we have to be smarter than that and build customer loyalty by offering a top quality product and customer experience. That remains our key focus in the operational side of the business.”  

Roberts mentioned that BF had not opened any new stores since July 2009 due to the fact that there is still too much uncertainty around economic recovery.  

“We believe we are better to take this time to continue to work with our existing franchisees, building a healthier and more robust system and look at expansion as the economy begins to improve again, at a later stage. It is our intention to open more stores in NZ, as soon as we see real evidence of this happening.  

“In the meantime the company has reduced overheads to what we believe to be at the lowest possible level of what a business like ours needs to operate in NZ and Australia and service those regions that are opening up, such as the Middle East.” 

The company's founder Chris Mason is now leading the company's push into the Middle East with franchises opened in Saudi Arabia and Dubai.

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