Grill’d on the front burner

He’s also determined to keep growing franchised stores in line with company-owned stores. He argues that chains that are mostly franchised are forced to grow too quickly – if they want to grow revenue and scale they need to keep selling franchises and that creates the risk of taking on dud franchisees.

The fact that Grill’d owns 12 profitable stores and is not desperate for cash allows it to control growth, choosing the best sites and the best franchisees and making sure each store is profitable.  

“Expansion creates cracks in a brand’s positioning, and that is something that we are very conscious of. If that control is even challenged, I’ll pull back on the aggressive expansion.”

To Crowe, brand is everything. He recognises that Grill’d does not have much in the way of intellectual property, and this means barriers to entry are low in his specific niche. In Melbourne, chains such as Urban Burger and BBNT have emerged as rivals offering similar products. 

Could the upmarket burger sector be about to experience the type of competition sparked by Boost Juice bars?

Crowe admits there is a lot of competition for a relatively small amount of customers, but says the level of investment required to set up a burger shop should prevent an explosion of burger chains.

“We don’t see that same dynamic in this category. Anybody that tries to expand from a zero base is destined to fail, just because the capital cost is so much higher than a juice bar,” he says.

“Sure there’ll be competition. But we undeniably want to be the category captain.”

Crowe, who previously worked for Proctor & Gamble, Davenport, and Foster’s, will continue to lean on business partners Simon McNamara (founder of Viva Juice) and Geoff Bainbridge, a former executive at Foster’s and Oakley South Pacific.

Crowe says both men have been instrumental in shepherding the business through its early stages, although like many entrepreneurs he admits he looks back and wonders whether he gave up too much of the business went he first took on investment.

Crowe says his other mistake was letting the business control his life over the past five years, and he says he has worked hard at strengthening Grill’d’s management team over the past year.

Now the challenge will be letting go of parts of the business and concentrating on branding and marketing, culture and site selection.

“To be perfectly honest, I should have put that team together earlier and had a bit of a life. Now I need to change my management style to make sure my senior management group don’t feel stifled.”

So what will he do with his spare time? The golf course? Travel?

No, Crowe says he’s almost certain he won’t be able to stop himself coming up with new business ideas.

“I know I will do that,” he laughs. “I don’t stop and relax enough.”