When the world’s third-largest burger chain announced its return Down Under for a pop-up event earlier this year, the first man to import an American burger franchise was nonplussed.
“They don’t realise that labour rates in our industry here are well over $20 an hour, where it’s still $[US]7.25 an hour in the US, so that’s a big adjustment, and the property prices for [restaurant] uses are considerably higher here too.”
Six months later, armed with a freshly-inked franchise deal to set up 200 outlets across the country, Wendy’s international president Abigail Pringle has fired back.
The chief development officer told 9news.com.au she took Cowin’s comments as “flattery” and vowed Australian bun and patty lovers she was cooking up “an experience that others can’t and where frankly others may have let them down”.
“if you pay attention to Wendy’s, it means that we perhaps pose a threat,” she said.
“So we’re excited about that.
“I’d love to invite Jack to the Wendy’s restaurant when we launch and have him try a real true fresh, never frozen, Australian hamburger.”
But Wendy’s has more than just Hungry Jack’s, which launched as Burger King before being forced to change its name thanks to an existing Adelaide takeaway business, to worry about.
Roy Morgan data from 2020 handed McDonald’s a commanding consumer preference lead with an average eight million diners a month, double Hungry Jack’s and more than a million ahead of the colonel.
Cowin told the Financial Review Wendy’s still hadn’t done enough to distinguish itself from the “big two” and Grill’d founder Simon Crowe agreed.
“What I do know is every time an American business contemplates Australia, they underestimate the Australian consumer and our discerning nature.
“Perhaps that fast food era of 30, 40 years ago – that ship has sailed. And I can’t see how Wendy’s would be the slightest bit relevant. We as Australians should be really proud of the produce and the quality of restaurants and cafes.”
The Australian burger market might seem crowded but Pringle said strength, along with predicted “exponential growth”, was actually one of the main things that attracted Wendy’s.
The sector was “ripe for disruption” and Wendy’s could deliver for customers where “frankly others may have let them down”.
“Don’t you want great quality experience, and you want fresh ingredients, you want Australian ingredients, and you want it at an affordable price,” she said.
“And I think that there are brands out there that are, you know, great quality, but you can’t afford it.
“And then there are others that are now taking shortcuts or what we say at Wendy’s cutting corners, to be able to get to a certain price point.
“We don’t cut corners. That’s why our hamburgers are square.”
She predicted Australians would be eating their first square burgers some time in 2025, with 200 stores in operation through 2034.
Hungry Jack’s has been contacted for comment.
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