46 Business Franchise Australia and New ZealandHoG’S
oN THE roAD
hog’s Australia’s
Steakhouse announced
earlier this year that it was
moving into the mobile foodindustry after 28 years of
operating exclusively as a
bricks and mortar restaurant
group.While Hog’s intends to keep growing its
83-strong restaurant group whenever great
opportunities arise, the operations team saw
huge merit in introducing a mobile offering
to complement their traditional full-service
restaurants.
Enter stage right... Hog’s Express. Hog’s
CEO Ross Worth, a stalwart of more than
30 years in the hospitality industry, says
constant evolution in food trends means you
have to be willing to embrace new initiatives
and adapt to change in the hospitality
business. “We’re an extremely agile company
that makes decisions and acts on them
quickly once the due diligence is done,
so we’re efficient in adapting and taking
advantage of industry trends,” says Worth.“There’s no denying that consumers are
increasingly looking for quick, accessible and
inexpensive, but still good quality, options
and we have a great food offering that can
be prepared in a quick service environment,
so developing a mobile offering was a no-
brainer for us really.”
Worth says that Hog’s Express provides
many benefits to the group as a whole
and to individual franchisees, not least of
which is having mobile trucks on the road,
essentially operating as moving billboards for
the business, thereby providing great brand
awareness for Hog’s.
It also allows Hog’s the opportunity to
attend events for their many valued sponsors,
as well as a wide variety of other occasions.
“We now have opportunity to attend various
happenings from sporting and cultural
events to music concerts and festivals,
and these could be at a small grassroots
community level up to major celebratory
events on the national calendar,” says Worth.
Hog’s sees another major benefit of the
Express model being the ability to provide
it’s very loyal fan base with quick and
accessible options, that are still fresh and
tasty, but able to be consumed on the run.HAvE yoUR SAy“The menu still features all the Hog’s
favourites cooked to order, including our
famous Prime Rib Steak served as the
crowd-favourite steak sandwich, and other
easy-to-eat staples such as burgers, wraps and
‘hog dogs’.”
The Express model is also a way for the Hog’s
brand to be exposed to new markets that
may not have a local area restaurant.
Hog’s also sees the Express business
as offering the existing franchisees of
traditional restaurants an opportunity to
cover their local area of influence more
dynamically and ensure they have constant
engagement with their community at local
events, from school fetes to sports fixtures.
As with all Hog’s franchisees, they will also
have the grunt of the brand behind them
with a proven Express menu, as well as
training and marketing support.
Hog’s Express will also come in the form
of a smaller static offering and over time
will make an appearance in select shopping
malls, service centres, airports and food
markets. Hog’s is about to launch the
Express model in a major shopping centre
in Perth, Morley Galleria, and in the Myer
Centre in the heart of Brisbane’s CBD.fEATURE:
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