Latest / Best of Business / Chris Henderson: Mammoth Brands co-founder on the return of Burger Burger

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Chris Henderson: Mammoth Brands co-founder on the return of Burger Burger · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from Newstalk ZB. Follow this
• 0:13
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• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Now, less than three months after the chain Burger Burger
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  Speaker 2: went into liquidation, it is back. The chain has been
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: saved by a group of local food suppliers and the
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  Speaker 2: company Mammoth Brands. Those guys run Peter Pert, Bold, New
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  Speaker 2: York Bagels and so on. And Chris Henderson is the
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: co-founder of Mammoth Brands and the guy bringing back Burger Burger.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: Hi, Chris. Hey Heather, how are you?
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  Speaker 2: I'm very well, thank you. So why did you decide
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  Speaker 2: to save Burger Burger?
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  Speaker 3: Oh look, I'll tell you what, it was quite simple.
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  Speaker 3: And when you see the amount of love for this brand, Heather,
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  Speaker 3: it's a no-brainer. I'm up here now with my family,
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  Speaker 3: trying to get a table for dinner at Torbay, but
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: probably having burgers on the beach right now. Just seeing
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  Speaker 3: the love from the community and the connection, and it's
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  Speaker 3: just beautiful. And brands in New Zealand really need more
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: of that.
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  Speaker 2: Is it chock at the moment, is it?
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  Speaker 3: It's chock-a-mate, and I'm probably going to be getting takeaway
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  Speaker 3: burgers for sure.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, that must just fill your heart, though, to see
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  Speaker 2: that the thing that you've put your money into is
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  Speaker 2: actually doing well.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it totally does, especially when you know how tough
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  Speaker 3: hospitality is at the moment. You know, there's a lot
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  Speaker 3: of sad news stories, but it's just so people need
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  Speaker 3: this type of brand in the country, and it just
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  Speaker 3: fills my soul. After 20 years in business, running 120
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  Speaker 3: hospitality businesses with my partner Duane and our team for
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  Speaker 3: 20 years, it's so nice to be seeing this.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, good. Hey, so what went wrong with it last time?
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  Speaker 3: Oh, look, Heather, I think the main thing really is
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  Speaker 3: there's some locations that were chosen. You know, there were
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  Speaker 3: seven at its peak. We took the three that were
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  Speaker 3: good performing locations that really lined up with the burger
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  Speaker 3: burger values, which is connection with the customers and community.
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  Speaker 3: And four of them didn't have that and they were
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  Speaker 3: losing money. And so these three that we kept, which
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  Speaker 3: is Torbay, Commercial Bay and Bayfair, which we have our
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  Speaker 3: first franchisee. are all the top-performing stores. So I guess
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  Speaker 3: we're resetting the system again, Heather.
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  Speaker 2: And how's it working? You putting some cash in, the
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  Speaker 2: suppliers putting some cash in too?
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks for asking. So it's a real paddock-to-plate type
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  Speaker 3: story now with the ownership structure. So, you know, we've
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  Speaker 3: got a bunch of farmers, you know, fishermen, brewers, and bakers.
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  Speaker 3: And so it's a real full circle of our supply chain. And,
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  Speaker 3: you know, obviously we run restaurants ourselves, so we know
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  Speaker 3: how to operationally run them. But it's a really good connection.
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  Speaker 3: We're so close to our customers that, But now we've
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  Speaker 3: got the ownership group that are connected to, you know,
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  Speaker 3: the farmers and all those people. So it's a real
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  Speaker 3: tight loop now and we get a real voice through from,
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  Speaker 3: you know, real good quality beef right through to the
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  Speaker 3: service and the restaurants.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, so the good quality beef, is that
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  Speaker 2: the quality of the burger? Is that the game changer?
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  Speaker 2: That is the game changer. In a cost of living crisis, right?
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  Speaker 2: It's a lot of money to shell out for takeaways
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  Speaker 2: for a family.
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  Speaker 3: It is, but it's a value proposition, right? If you
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  Speaker 3: earn the right to charge that for the burger, people
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  Speaker 3: are prepared to pay that for it. It's a really
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  Speaker 3: proliferated burger space in the market. You've got so many
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  Speaker 3: brands in that middle band that it's a race to
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  Speaker 3: the bottom. So we're proud that we're not the cheapest
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  Speaker 3: burger because we're proud of the connection with our customers
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  Speaker 3: and the value proposition they receive. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, which burger are you going for tonight?
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  Speaker 3: I'm going to get the beef and cheese, dirty old bacon.
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  Speaker 3: Love it. But I've got actually my business partner here
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  Speaker 3: from Sawmill Brewery I'll probably have to partner that with
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  Speaker 3: a nice hazy, so we'll see.
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  Speaker 2: Mate, I love you. You know what? I love your enthusiasm.
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  Speaker 2: We're getting you back on the show 100%. I hope
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  Speaker 2: it goes brilliantly for you.
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  Speaker 3: Give us a call on our 50th restaurant and I'll
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  Speaker 3: probably be more enthusiastic.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, brilliant. I'll get the guys to organise that with you.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: Go well, mate. Chris Henderson, Mammoth Brands co-founder, bringing back
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  Speaker 2: Burger Burger. I'll tell you what, with an attitude like that,
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  Speaker 2: that much optimism, of course the bloody business is going
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  Speaker 2: to go brilliantly, isn't it?
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