Food is one of life’s great pleasures and that is especially true if you run a successful food franchise.
The food industry in Australia is changing, with more and more people moving towards healthy and sustainable produce.
Not only that, there’s also been an increase in focus on the vegetarian and vegan market, as more than ever before, consumers are choosing this diet.
That being said, some of Australia’s mostsuccessful franchises work within the fast-food industry, which just goes to prove that there is room for this type of business as well.
Here are some facts and trends about Australia’s food industry.
- According to Statista, revenue in the Food market amounts to US$82.93bn in 2022. The market is expected to grow annually by 4.47% (CAGR 2022-2027).
- This optimism is also shown in Atradius’ research, which states that Australian food & beverages value added output is forecast to grow by more than 2% in 2022, after a 1.1% increase in 2021.
- Environmental consciousness is an important element in the industry. A survey of 1,035 Australians by the intelligence platform Toluna revealed that one in five shoppers use sustainability to define their choice of retailers, brands, and products.
- IBISWorld has shown a boost in meal-kit businesses’ revenue due to time poor consumers looking for convenience.
- Consumers also identified recyclable packaging and biodegradable elements as the top two most important factors they associate with sustainability.
- Australia exports over $40 billion worth of food and beverages each year.
- The Australian fast-food industry takes in about $20bn in revenue per year.
- Australia grows over 90 percent of their own food supply.
- Australians love their seafood, which is unsurprising considering that there is a 11 million square kilometres coastline.
- Over 14 percent of people living in Australia get food delivered.
When starting a food franchise, you also have an abundance of advantages over those who start independent restaurants.
Here are just a few examples
Social Media
Take a gander at your local independent pizza restaurant’s Twitter, Instagram or Facebook page. Now look at the page of the franchise it is competing against.
It’s probably clear which has more followers, and it is also clear who is reaching more people with their statuses and posts. Of course, these posts aren’t always localised, but the deals and products they are advertising, more often than not, are available in most franchises.
For instance, Subway’s 2.4m followers are seeing pictures of epic sandwiches no matter where they are in the world. Thus, even if your Subway franchise is only opened one second, it is still being marketed to the masses.
Quite simply, franchises’ social media audience is often far higher than that of individual, independent traders, who are competing for the same hungry customers.
There may also be individual social media accounts for each store. This doesn’t change the fact that franchisees are benefiting from the larger umbrella accounts and their individual accounts. It’s a double-advertisement and a wider reach.
In terms of ‘social spend’, it’s very often non-comparable between franchises and single-restaurant owners too.
Media campaigns
The following point is quite simply an extension of the above, but very often food franchises benefit from ad campaigns which independent restaurants cannot afford.
These campaigns lead to greater brand recognition. This, coupled with a large amount of online spend, leads to many consumers instantly thinking of the franchise when ordering food online.
Of course, these advertising campaigns can cost a significant amount of money. Thus, many franchisees are relieved to see the franchisor is making the effort to put these campaigns together, because as a single business, it is a much more difficult task.
Established SEO
If you type “pizza delivery”, “burger fast food” or “family food” into your Google search, then the chances that most of the top results that pop-up are connected to franchises is quite high.
This is true for most combinations of relevant terms because franchise systems have the necessary SEO spend and expertise to push themselves to the top of these very important pages.
If you are an independent food restaurant, you will have to put in the SEO work to ensure your website is getting seen by potential customers.
When competing against established names, that can be a difficult task.
‘Find a location’ listings
Very often, the websites that belong to well-known food franchises have a “find a location” section.
When you pair this fact with the point that well-known restaurants are looked for online more often than their unknown counterparts, it’s easy to see why franchisees are at an advantage.
Picture this; you’re driving in a location that you are not familiar with and you’re looking for comfort food that you know and trust.
What do you do? If you are like many other consumers, you check where the nearest branch of your favourite fast-food restaurant is.
For most people, that restaurant is a franchise.
Trust
An established name, a high search engine ranking and a link within a renowned franchise’s website are all great advantages, but there’s one other element that makes it even easier for franchisees.
That element is instant brand recognition.
Even if you open an amazing food business and customers love your menu, you still have to establish your reputation and audience.
For most franchises, that stage of the marketing process is already done.