Garry Sheeran in the Sunday Star Times covers the high risk nature of the Burger Fuel IPO. It’s a balanced article, with commentry about analysts looking atthe numbers, and quotes from founder Chris Mason.
But it is the last line of the article that is interestng. It’s not realy posible to tell where it came from – the authr or Chris Mason:
“Australia had no chain of gourmet burger stores yet.”
Let’s do a simple google search and see what we find…
To start, Korea’s Kraze gourmet burger chain was apparently looking to enter Australia and New Zealand..
Then Burger Wisconsin, “Home of the World’s best burgers’ (27 NZ stores in May 2006 – 7 more than BurgerFuel now) are also looking abroad..
and Wikipedia has a list of Autralian fast food restaurants
On to the Gourmet burger joints in Australia right now:
Burger Edge seems to have the edge over Burger Fuel – with 8 stores in Victoria and one is each of Queensland and NSW. Their ‘secret to business success’ is”
“using only quality ingredients and always striving to deliver the best gourmet burger dining experience – with a smile”
You can get into a Burger Edge franchise for $225-250,000, but hurry, since the googled article they have launched another, for a total of 11 stores.
Also on the Burger Edge referenced Franchisebusiness site, I was able to find GlobalBurgers (2 stores in Sydney) who have:
“created custom designed burgers you just can’t get anywhere else”
Then there is Grill’d, who have 9 stores in Victoria ($350-450,00o gets you a store), and who deliver:
“a healthy burger experience unlike any other”
Next is Oporto, a chain that Simon commented on in the previous Burger Fuel post here. Oporto have, wait for it, ‘close to 100 stores‘ across Australia and New Zealand, and serve 13 million customers per year. They are mainly in Sydney (where BurgerFuel is making its’ entry) and Oporto was listed at Australia’s 10th growing franchise, which is impressive at $450-550,000 per store. Their signature product is:
“..the famous ‘Bondi Burger’ with irresistible chilli sauce with that unique Oporto fresh, grilled taste.”
<update – BarnacleBarnes comments below that Oporto is not in the ‘Gourmet’ market>
I guess you could say that these businesses are blazing the path for BurgerFuel, but you certainly cannot say that there are “no chains of Gourmet Burgers” in Australia.
More importantly, the absence of Oporto in the comparison table on Page 51 and the discussion on page 52 of the BurgerFuel prospectus is highly disturbing. If it was deliberate, than one could suspect it was disingenuous and thus misleading to investors. If it was not deliberate, then clearly BF have not done their research on the Australian market.
Buyers beware.
Lance Wiggs 
Oporto is nothing like a ‘gourmet burger’ and I wouldn’t put them in the same market, they are something more than Burger King and a lot less than Burger Fuel/GBK/Wisconsin. In saying that however there are definitely gourmet burger chains in Australia and in fact a friend of mine set up Melbourne’s first gourmet burger joint years ago. It is a style of food that has definitely taken off and they are no longer unique from a food standpoint. In my mind Burger Fuel has the same thing going for it that 42 Below and Hell do – Marketing. Apart from that there is nothing to set them apart.
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Time for shares?
There are a thousand negatives about investing in Burger Fuel. Here they are, inflating the price of their company to raise fund by selling overpriced shares to go global. Fisrt Australia, an industry/country that many New Zealand companies have stuggled to crack. But they have some pretty decent things going for them, a good team, experienced execs, attitude, drive and ultimatly a damn good burger.
So about that high risk investment, im a gambling man, put me down for 2000 shares. Five years time, if theres nothing left, i can say i tried. You never know, they might just crack it…
– Matt
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I’m with Matt. i mean, hey i missed out in getting McD’s shares, so this is a good chance to get in on a ‘speculative’ food opportunity. and its only $1k. not like we are going to retire on it. what else would i spend it on, probably more bits for my mountainbike. at the end of the day this is just my fortnights spending money, its not the house money, and i didn’t borrow to invest. I think what these articles need to explore is that it is a speculative invetsment, but that it is not one to get into hock for – hell its a brave man who borrows aginst the roof over his head to invest, and a stupid man who uses a credit card to invest in something like this.
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I must say, I laughed my ass off when the waiter @ a Burger Fuel asked me whether I wanted to buy shares, in all seriousness…
Christ, just give me my freakin burger :)
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