It has been an exciting and eventful year for Western Australia franchise
CHOOKS fresh and tasty which has undergone internal changes, award wins and yet continues its rapid growth - ending the year with 35 franchisees located across two states.
Chief Chook, Mr Steve Hansen, said it had been a productive year for CHOOKS and recognised one of the company’s biggest achievements had been expanding away from its Western Australia base into Queensland.
“We started out the calendar year with 21 stores in WA and are finishing the year with 31 new stores in our home state,” he said.
“However, our most exciting accomplishment has been further integrating ourselves in the Queensland fast food market.
“Two years ago we were eager to expand CHOOKS nationally which is why we started seeking franchisees outside of our home state.
“We set the goal of expanding to the eastern seaboard and decided Queensland was the best state to trial our concept and test consumer acceptance of the CHOOKS product.
“The response has been exceptional and has resulted in the establishment of four CHOOKS stores located at Keperra (2005), Moura (2006) and Springfield and Biggera Waters this year.”
Mr Hansen said CHOOKS’ target market had also become clearer following the organisation’s ongoing growth.
“We continue to target families and focus on being a very local and convenient quick service food outlet with a great product at a competitive price.
“We are about establishing relationships with our customers where they live, which is a very different strategy compared to our competitors.”
However, the success of the company has been off the field of franchise expansion as well.
Mr Hansen said he was proud to see his franchisees and Encouragement Centre team members achieving their own success and making a notable impact in the franchising Industry.
“In September our General Manager, Linda Steele, was awarded the FCA (Franchise Council of Australia) ‘WA Franchise Woman of the Year 2007’ for the second year running.
“Linda is great to work with and her wealth of experience in the franchising industry is an asset to CHOOKS so I am proud that she has again been recognised for her hard work.
“Our Warnbro franchisees, Mike and Joan Kemsley and Karen Phillpot, have also worked exceptionally hard and were awarded FCA ‘Runner Up Franchisee of the Year 2007’ for WA.”
Mr Hansen said despite the Encouragement Centre’s success, CHOOKS would always have its franchisees’ best interests at heart.
“One of the ways we care for our franchisees is through aiming to secure low occupancy costs for them.
“This means we generally open stores at centres in local neighbourhoods and individual main streets in order to keep our costs significantly down on the occupancy costs some retailers pay, which allows us and our franchisees to offer the best quality products at more competitive prices.
“The uniqueness of our business lies with our franchisees and their team members which is why it’s so important for us to maintain communication with them and ensure they have all the necessary resources to run their businesses successfully.
“This was the main reason we launched the new ‘CHOOKS Encouragement Centre’ – the new name for our head office, this year.
“The name was designed to better reflect the unique internal culture of CHOOKS and to make our franchisees feel more comfortable when communicating with the Encouragement Centre Team.
“The changeover involved updating all terminology and materials in training manuals to reflect the community culture that personifies CHOOKS and even my title of ‘Managing Director’ changed to ‘Chief Chook’.”
To make the operations side of the business more efficient, Mr Hansen said Mr Scott Greenwood was appointed to National Operations Manager this year.
“Scott has a wealth of senior management experience in the
food and beverage sector and more recently held the position of State Manager of Australia’s biggest pie franchise.
“He is directly responsible for staff training and compliance issues such as quality control and workplace health and safety – he ensures every CHOOKS store is operating to its full potential.”
“His role is also to support CHOOKS’ 2008 ambition to expand its operations further in Queensland and into New South Wales and Victoria, opening 45 stores by mid-2008.
“Our long-term goal is to open more than 100 stores across Australia in the next five years.”
19-Nov-2007