Good things come in threes and this has certainly been the case for three Melbourne based brothers.
Elias, Sam and David Elia, the founders of
Trios Food Group, have a story that’s worth telling. The history of the three brothers extends back decades, when their Lebanese born mother would have the brothers helping her in the kitchen every second Friday to make authentic flat bread, because it couldn’t be bought in supermarkets.
Little did these three brothers foresee that the flat bread technique they had learnt from a young age would in fact be the lifeblood of their business venture; to create a
fast food franchise that offers fresh, healthy and tasty sandwich wraps, trading under the name suggested by their mother – ‘Trios’.
Managing Director of Trios, and the youngest of the three brothers, Mr David Elia, said the reason behind the company’s success, since it began operating in December 2002, has been the close partnership between the brothers.
“We always ensure that the decisions affecting the company are made three ways; we all have certain strengths that have complemented each other very well, we are one business and one family,” Mr Elia said. Trios currently operates12 leading stores in Melbourne selling reasonably priced, Laffé Wraps™, salads and spuds.
But the success of Trios hasn’t come dished up on a silver platter. The Elia family came from a very modest background, arriving from Lebanon in 1966 with not much to their name.
Hard work, persistence and a bit of risk taking, with their parents help to fund the venture, enabled the brothers to establish the Elia Group in 1984. The brothers have been in the food service industry for over 20 years. Their first café began operating in 1985 and the brothers were at the forefront of the re-birth of Melbourne’s café society in 1991.
“We’ve certainly come a long way since we used to help our mother make our family’s flat bread by hand and wait anxiously while it was baking so we could have a piece with Vegemite smeared all over it.”
Sixteen years after they took that first daring step into the world of food service, the brothers put their heads together to develop a sandwich style of flat bread that wasn’t as dense and high in fat as other typical sandwich breads were.
After months of research and development the brothers had created their own style of flat bread and their signature product, the Laffé (pronounced: Laf : fay), that was low in fat and salt and high in fibre. In 2001 the secret behind the brother’s burgeoning franchising success story, the Laffé Bread was developed in three different styles, white-linseed, wholemeal and sourdough, to suit different tastes and dietary requirements.
“There’s an art to making the perfect Laffé Wraps™ sandwich,” Mr Elia said. “We ensure that our Laffé Wraps™ have just the right balance of bread and fillings so that the focus is primarily on the gourmet fillings and dressings.”
The Trios stores operate under the ideal that fast food doesn’t have to be deep fried and full of fat and salt, but instead can be served quickly while still being fresh, tasty and healthy.
“On average, Australians eat more than 450 million sandwiches annually and we are working towards owning part of that market share, through our signature Laffé Wraps™.”
The Elia brothers are confident Australians want a fast and healthy lunch alternative and their Laffé Wraps™ sandwiches are destined to be the next big thing in the take-away market. “People are searching for tasty, healthy and nutritious, all natural food options,” Mr Elia said.
“They want a guilt-free alternative that is still convenient, portable and just as tasty as other fast food options.” To date no-one has yet claimed the new age sandwich wrap market and the doors are now wide open for Trios to assert its brand throughout the country, with each Trios store currently selling, on average, 500 Laffé Wraps™ per day.
There are over 30 carefully selected meal choices on Trios’ menu with a variety of fillings and world inspired flavours for the Laffé Wraps™, all of which make for a healthy, satisfying meal choice for the millions of Australian sandwich lovers. “In the two and a half short years since we opened the first Trios, healthy sandwich wrap store in the tourist precinct of Southgate in Melbourne, we have grown to 12 stores.
“Our vision now is to open 150 stores by the end of 2008 and fast become Australia’s only major healthy food brand to dominate the ‘fresh sandwich’ market with our signature product -The Laffé Wraps™,” Mr Elia said. Trios also sell ‘hand tossed’ crunchy salads and oven baked spuds with a variety of tasty fillings and healthy gourmet combinations. “We really have got fresh and tasty all wrapped up!”
6-Aug-2007