Dubai: Chris Mason dabbled in fields as far apart as photography and construction before working in the food industry. And once he did, he never looked back.
"In 1995, I'd just finished working in the building industry and knew I wanted to do something with food," he recalled. "I ended up finding a small store on the Ponsoby Road and thought I'd start a bar. "But the landlord suggested I should either start a dress shop or a takeaway because it was a small space. I ended up with a takeaway joint."
BurgerFuel was established in 1995 in Auckland's main dining district. The establishment opened at a time when fast food was synonymous with junk food. Mason tried to muscle his way into the burger market, but through a more wholesome, healthier version of the favourite quick-fix cuisine.
"We felt it was time to give the dirty old burger a good old Kiwi makeover and start making the world's favourite ‘food vice' healthier," he explains.
New options
He hoped to introduce a brand new food experience in the already saturated fast food market. "The quarter pounder in this new gourmet burger category had just come out, but it was all bun and the paddy was not significant enough," he said. "We thought we'd do the next size — the ‘Third pounder'."
In this new healthy food genre, Mason also offered the classic burger, as well as menu options for vegetarians and vegans, gluten-free bread buns and milkshakes made of soy milk.
Staying true to its Kiwi origins, BurgerFuel also offered more unusual options such as marmite and aioli sauces, corn chips and salsa and Maori sweet potato fries. He is justifiably proud of the fact that the all of his cuisine is free from artificial additives and stays as organic as possible, with all of the in-house sauces made daily.
The name of the outlet may trip off your tongue, but coming up with something catchy that would get across exactly what the business stood for, was not as easy. "I used to go down to the Auckland library and look through the international telephone books for name ideas," Mason explained. "There was a bar in San Francisco called ‘Fuel'. It was a weird use of the name at the time and I wanted to incorporate it into my company."
The neon tinted ‘BurgerFuel logo' pays homage to the burger joints of old. The store fit-out is retro and cleverly reflects the brand's image, while a branded car parked outside acts as the store's metallic mascot.
Brand-building
"The design concept is supposed to be grungy-looking and raw. It's important to develop the culture of your brand; to cultivate it and push it forward, which is what we focused on," he explained.
Having no previous experience in the food and beverage industry, Mason describes the first few years as a baptism by fire. "I had no idea how difficult it would be; I suppose if I had known, I would never have done it," he said. "You think when you branch out into two stores, it will be twice as much work, but I read somewhere that it is more like 12 times as much.
"We kept doing all these crazy moves to put ourselves into a position of pain in order to find ourselves out of it again," he laughed, adding that it was only when a friend suggested the need to outline a system and a write a work manual that he was able to properly structure the business and format it into a franchising model.
Four years after the first store opened, Mason was ready to branch out from New Zealand to Australia. From there, his growing reputation brought him to the attention of franchise investors in the Middle East.
Now he has a store not only in Saudi Arabia, but a newly-opened outlet in Jumeirah Beach Residences in Dubai, with plans to open up more across the Gulf.
"I did some research on Dubai. We started looking at the geography and the position of it, in relation to the north and viewed it as a springboard and a good place for us to properly push ourselves internationally."
The success Mason has had with his Saudi store (the police had to come in to control the crowd at the opening) has given him the belief that BurgerFuel will whip up a healthy appetite in this region as well.
What to do
Top five tips for those looking to enter into a new venture or business initiative:
- 1. When going into a business, choose something you're passionate about.
- 2. You need energy to carry out that passion.
- 3. Make sure you have a robust system and structure in place.
- 4. Choose your staff well and make sure they share the same passion.
- 5. Take a day off each month to sit back and think about where the business is going.
