A ROADMAP TO BUILDING A CUSTOMER FIRST FOOD & DRINK BUSINESS TO FUEL THE AUSTRALIAN NATION
I have been helping my brothers reengineer Wixted Catering as its now growing at a stellar rate. The model is complicated. What do you want this business to be?
So we landed on the following “ to create the most memorable food experiences for everyone and a food business that fuels the nation, from the moment our customers wake up to the moment they go to bed (or wake for a cheeky snack in the middle of the night). We want to build a food production, catering, hospitality, consulting, innovation, NPD, Immersive experiences, training and recruitment business that is driven by customer first thinking, agility and future proof the sector in Australia”.
First and foremost, if we could source, recruit and train the many people we would need, it would be a huge boost to our business and edge us over competitors. But the issue is bigger than that, there are little or no hospitality or culinary trained chefs or staff to handle today's customers, let alone 5 years from now.
For us to deliver on our mission, we have to build industry capability and help train the next generation of food and drink professionals. According to the Department of Jobs and Small Business, the Hospitality industry is expected to increase by 12.1% in the next five years which means an additional 91,000 jobs. The Hospitality industry has been steadily growing over the past five years at approximately 1.9%, with the growth attributed to factors such as growing “foodie” culture, population growth and an increase in consumer demand. However, there is one major threat: the industry is seeing its lowest numbers in job applicants and workers in years. Our way would be to create a blended training programme and augment the teams with skilled international workers, to get give them the skills to hand over the reigns
HOW ARE WE GOING TO FUEL THIS GENERATION AND THE NEXT
The founders are my younger brothers Andy and Mark have trained chefs all over the world and have over 40 years’ experience in the food Industry. Mark is also a leading Culinary Lecturer and Assessor, whilst Andy has been building a food of contracts portfolio, new businesses and investments with me.
Together, they have devised a different, but simple business model by applying our own food, drink, retail and hospitality skills, knowledge as experienced entrepreneurs and innovators, to rapidly create & test on-trend, first to market, high growth food business customers love. This can be scaled across every facet of the industry. We simply took a leaf out of the agile playbook and have instilled a culture of foodie thinking coupled with insight and data driven strategies, customer first thinking, agile & rapid experimentation and love of products. These are the key pillars of what we call Rapid Entrepreneurial Innovation.
AN AGILE FOOD AND HOSPITALITY BUSINESS WITH A STRATEGY LIKE NO OTHER
· Use our Entrepreneurial Innovation model to rapidly identify, invent and create businesses that deliver benefits and value early on and often.
· Harness out global eco-system of industry experts, business leaders, investors and academics to validate and grow those businesses
· Deploy the latest in technology innovations, such as our own TABS, or Service To You, a food ordering platform which spans room service, cafes restaurants by our Lab in Belgrade) or our B2B online hospitality E-commerce platform. Cashless payments for events, retail and in schools sends reports to parents on children’s eating habits. If can invent, we will co-venture or partner in it.
· Recruit, Train, Develop and Retain teams of people that will be able to stay with business but gain experience in every facet of the industry.
.With such a diverse portfolio of businesses on horizon, the company is in a unique position to grow and fuel the human capital that will be needed to help drive the nation’s food economy, thereby creating specialists in every aspect of the food and hospitality industry.
A SIMPLE MODEL THAT NO ONE HAS SEEN, BUT IT’S REAPING REWARDS TODAY
No other business in Australia has a business model that’s this agile and a case in point the recent launch of their Schools & Co Canteens, within 3 weeks of agreeing a deal the team has, designed scoped, fitted out, developed all the operational elements within 21 days, if we can sustain this level we could have 70 sites in a year.
SERVICES TO HELP YOU GO FROM ZERO TO GROWTH BUSHINESS.
Catering: We offer a range of creative catering solutions, from private, corporate and public events to film &TV and contact catering.
Consulting: Food product development, managed hospitality services, training, recruitment, development chefs to unique food experiences. If you would like to know how we can apply this model in your business drop us a line greg@