Malaysian-based food business, The Chicken Rice Shop is looking to enter the Australian market, and first off the ranks will be Melbourne.  

The company includes 70 stores across Malaysia (where there are 60), Singapore and the Phillipines. All of the Malaysian stores are company-owned, meanwhile the rest are franchised.

“We only franchise stores outside of Malaysia,” says Richard Backstrom, the company’s international business development head of international franchising.

THE PRODUCT

The Chicken Rice Shop specialises in Hainanese chicken – a steamed chicken that is served with rice.

“We also have barbeque chicken, roast chicken and soy chicken. All of the products are baked or roasted so it is a much healthier option than the fried chicken that you get elsewhere,” says Backstrom.

“We also have items on our menu such as Nyonya Pai Tee, which is a Malaysian appetiser, and Rojak, a vegetable dish served with rice.”

He says The Chicken Rice Shop is the largest Hainanese chicken chain in the world. “It is our signature item, a lot of places have Hainanese chicken on the menu but it’s kind of a side item whereas ours is a primary product.

“If you say The Chicken Rice Shop in Malaysia everyone knows it because everyone dines there – it is the McDonald’s of Malaysia.” 

EXPANSION

The Chicken Rice Shop is seeking partners in Australia to help grow the brand on a global scale. “We are looking for master franchisees – people who can open between eight and 10 stores over a 10 year period. 

“We will be recruiting partners by state, unless we meet someone who wants to specifically look at Melbourne for example, and only grow Melbourne. We will consider that and do city by city however we do prefer state by state,” Backstrom explains.

There aren’t plans to open an outlet on every corner – The Chicken Rice Shop strives to set its franchisees achievable expansion goals.

“We are looking at a minimum of 10 stores over the next 10 years, so that’s one store a year. We don’t have a huge growth plan because we are new to the market here in Australia,” he says.

“We don’t want to over commit to our franchisees too much, and we figure one store per year would be attainable.”

The brand is eyeing a number of other overseas destinations, says Backstrom. “We are looking at the Middle East right now – Abu Dhabi and Dubai will be our two target cities and then we’ll also look at Quatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi, as well as Europe because the Asian population is growing in all of these areas very substantially, and of course China.”

THE FRANCHISEE RELATIONSHIP

The Chicken Rice Shop is a family-owned company, and as such it seeks out people who want to become a part of the family, Backstrom says.

“A franchise agreement is usually for 10 years minimum – it is a long term relationship, so we look at it as more of a marriage rather than just a business partnership. You really have to get along with that person.

“They have to understand your views and values and you have to understand theirs – there has to be a good match,” he adds.

The Chicken Rice Shop subsequently devotes much of its time to recruiting the right people. “The system of us finding the right match takes time – there are a lot of interviews and there is a lot of talking and visiting.”  

THE IDEAL FRANCHISEE

A background in the industry is desirable yet not necessarily required, Backstrom explains. “We would love to have someone with experience in the restaurant industry, however if they don’t have experience we’d like them to have a passion for food and a passion for building their own brand and their own restaurants.

“We want franchisees to take ownership of their restaurants, so they need to have a good business sense when it comes to building and growing restaurants,” he adds.

TRAINING AND SUPPORT

Training is held in high regard at The Chicken Rice Shop, and both kitchen and front-of-house staff travel to Malaysia to take part in training before they commence work. 

“They learn our techniques and food products and they learn how to create all of the ingredients and dishes.”

When a franchisee is ready to open their first outlet, brand representatives travel overseas to help them smooth out any creases.  

“We send our team out to help with the grand opening and deliver as much support from our end as they can – it helps to make sure the stores are sustainable and that they continue to grow.”

Support is ongoing too – Backstrom says franchisees are encouraged to pick up the phone and call head office whenever they need to.  

“We want them to have the comfort of being able to call us if there is a problem or issue or they don’t understand something – all of our franchisees have that now and we want to continue that.”