How this Aussie brand 'bolt-on' concept evolved

Aussie brand Rosie's Chicken shares how its concept has started to change from 10 years ago.

First and foremost, Rosie’s Chicken is not a franchise, that’s what David Coles, CEO told QSR Media in an interview almost 10 years ago. It is an 'add-on' or 'bolt-on' concept that is added to an existing fast-food business to add more options for customers.

The brand strives to maintain a unique co-branding approach to each business installed across the country, to ensure its successful operation. According to David, many people have approached him to build stand-alone franchises however they have always declined.

But 10 years is a long time and now the brand is now delving into franchising but in a unique, cost-effective way through the Rosie’s Chicken Franchise Challenger.

Rosie’s Chicken’s business model is that it isn’t a franchise but technically an add-on business which is added to an already existing business that elevates that business with Rosie’s Chicken brand.

“Rosie’s Franchise Challenger is a major shift up on that concept becoming instead: a bedrock cheap, alternative to a major franchise. All international fast-food franchises have significant set-up costs. They then apply perpetually ongoing fees and levies essentially just for providing franchisees with operational knowledge of their concept. The Franchise Challenger is different because the set-up and some services are established by the owner” David Coles, CEO of Rosie’s Chicken said.

The Franchise Challenger was conceptualised almost by accident. David said many of their licensees were eager for them to develop a stand-alone franchise-style variant however they have always declined as they were already making money off their current model.

“We sold our systems all over Australia, mainly in regional centres, fuel sites and holiday destinations. With the advent of Skype and then Zoom, we started selling them online, instead of face-to-face to keep our costs down and our selling price competitive. Then we did the same thing with both the installations and the site training. This enabled us to dramatically reduce travel and staffing costs. We now have a very low-cost range of Rosie’s options. The Franchise Challenger is the apex of those options,” David said.

The price for Rosie’s Chicken FC service is less than $50k. This includes the branding service, training, and supply of exclusive proprietary consumables. This is compared to more than $1m cost of owning a major international brand.

With the Franchise Challenger, business owners would also keep their independence. The concept is ready for both domestic and international expansion however David said they want smaller family business structures as co-partners rather than huge corporate entities.