Dubai: Fancy a $15 burger?
According to Jeff Weinstein, founder of The Counter, more people in the UAE and the Gulf are ready for an experience quite far removed from what “having a burger” usually means. “There are certain consumers who want the full-service experience even while ordering a burger and that’s the clientele we have been going for,” said Weinstein. “They get to build their own burger that comes hormone-free, doesn’t use processed food and all sourced straight from the farms.
“That’s helped us position ourselves in the ‘better burger’ category and at price points of around $15 (Dh55) an order in our domestic market, the US.”
In the UAE, The Counter’s franchisee, Americana, has opened two outlets and building up a gradual presence in the other Gulf states. (In Saudi Arabia, it has another franchise partner, which now has two locations.)
“There are some brands which require 100s of locations and some who don’t,” said Weinstein. “We are certainly in the second category and that’s how it was always meant to be. If in executing the perfect burger, there’s slower growth in the beginning, then so be it.
“Our partner Americana took its time with the UAE store openings, because it takes time for a franchisee to learn what our brand is about. And it’s not just the food — that learning has to extend to the lighting used in the restaurants and the music that has to be played.”
The UAE is emerging the biggest battleground for US burger chains, offering everything from standard fare to the gourmet kind. Within Dubai’s F&B sector, the number of new burger locations — both franchises of US chains as well as those operated by domestic brands — seem to have outpaced all other genres in the last two years. And more locations are getting served up. The number of competing burger brands in the UAE is estimated at over 40.
Currently, the California-based company has a 40-plus store network, with more than 30 of these being in the US itself. “I would be comfortable adding 10-12 new locations each year,” said Weinstein. “But the way I operate is as if we are 500-location brand and with all the attendant pressures on performance that come with it.
“In Los Angeles and Northern California, we own the outlets while it’s the franchising way with the rest.”
Weinstein will also be sticking to the ‘privately held’ status of the company and not blaze the IPO trail that propelled Shake Shack early this year. (On its opening day, Shake Shack’s price soared to $ $45.90 and valuing the company at $1.6 billion.)
“The problem with going public, for me, is the kind of pressure that will be exerted by Wall Street. That’s something I want to avoid.”
