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Consumer trend: Inside the healthy fast food sector

Nick Hall

With the success of global chains such as McDonald’s and Subway, there’s no undermining the influence fast food businesses have had on the franchising industry. However, a rising trend for specialist diet offerings and healthy options is strengthening a new sector of the market.

Consumer demand has dictated a move towards health-conscious menu items, further backed by legislation that requires nutrition transparency.

While big name players still dominate the fast food market, the specialised nature of certain paleo, keto and low-fat franchise brands is helping to carve out a healthy lunch-time hub for Australians.

Inside Franchise Business cuts the fat on three brands putting healthy fast food on the menu.

Boost Juice

One of Australia’s most successful and recognisable exports, Boost Juice was founded by Shark Tank investor, Janine Allis in Adelaide in 2000.

Since then, the brand has grown significantly, serving fresh blended juices and smoothies in over 480 stores across 18 countries.

In October, Boost Juice was awarded the Excellence in International Franchising and Excellence in Franchise Innovation awards at the Franchise Council of Australia’s annual awards ceremony.

The vibrant smoothie bar provides franchise partners with a proven business model, first-class support structures and the opportunity for career development and multi-site growth.

There are a number of available opportunities on offer across the country, with prospective franchisees also encouraged to suggest a location.

Soul Origin

Salad and sandwich bar, Soul Origin has quickly become one of the country’s most well-represented franchise brands, achieving the milestone mark of 100 outlets in just a few, short years.

The QSR concept provides consumers with healthy breakfast and lunch-time offerings, with a firm focus on high-quality coffee, showcased earlier this year when the brand took over Martin Place in Sydney for its national barista championships.

Franchise partners who join Soul Origin receive comprehensive training on day-to-day business operations as well as wider business mentoring from the support office team.

The brand also provides national and localised marketing campaigns to help drive foot-traffic and increase the rate of franchisee success.

misschu

The healthy hawker, misschu is the original Asian street-food tuckshop, an innovative and unique food retail concept that blends traditional Vietnamese and Chinese recipes, served with a healthy spin.

The brand has a focus on fresh and fast, with fruit, vegetables, poultry and seafood all delivered on-site daily, meaning franchisees only serve up top-quality food.

The unique low-carb and low GI noodle and rice options provide Australians with a healthy alternative, something rarely seen in the Asian food market.

With a proven model that has been operating successfully since 2009, misschu is structured and supportive model that allows for strong franchisee returns.

Industry future

Traditional fast-food has always had a greater emphasis on ‘fast’ rather than ‘food’, however, Australian consumer trends have shown a strong appreciation for health-conscious and flavoursome food retailing.

Over 60 per cent of Australians are overweight or obese, with reports from the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicating that consumers value the health of the food they eat now, more than ever.

Fast-food offerings are generally found in high footfall areas, and this will continue to present the greatest opportunity moving forward, however, brands that focus on low-carb, low GI and ethnically diverse offerings will have a vast strategic advantage.