Australia, your chicken is ready.
The country's biggest chicken processor, Inghams, delivered this year's biggest sharemarket float. Australians are among the highest consumers of chicken per capita, at 43 kilograms a year.
And now Red Rooster is tipping at least 5 per cent growth in sales this financial year to $500 million, driven by its new home-delivery service and new flavours: Moroccan, honey soy or hickory barbecue.
"Red Rooster has had to evolve," chief executive Chris Green told Fairfax Media. "It's been very traditional and we've had to add more flavour and variety."
Mr Green admits the fast-food chain was "concerned" and "surprised" when supermarket giants Woolworths and Coles slashed the price of a roast chook to about $8 at the start of the year – about $5 less than Red Rooster's price.
"There was a little bit of a panic," he said. "We decided not to go down the price path. Our differentiation is really around quality, convenience ...
"Even though the supermarkets are moving into the dinner space, the big drivers for our business are really convenience: the drive-through and delivery. The one thing you can't get from Woolworths and Coles is a chicken delivered."
Red Rooster serves close to 5000 home-delivery customers a day, he said, comprising about 14 per cent of overall sales or up to 40 per cent in some restaurants. The Victorian town of Ballarat, and Coburg and Richmond in Melbourne are big users of home delivery, he said, and home-delivery customers spend more than people ordering in store or through drive-through.
Cushioning the blow from the supermarkets' cheaper roast chook, Mr Greens said less than 10 per cent of Red Rooster's sales were whole roast chickens.
Red Rooster is the flagship brand behind Quick Service Restaurant Holdings (QSRH), which is expected to be floated or sold next year by private equity firm Archer Capital for an estimated $650 million. Archer Capital bought it in June 2011 for $450 million from rival Quadrant Private Equity.
Together with chicken chains Oporto and Chicken Treat, QSRH generated $718 million in sales in 2015-16, and is forecast to bring in at least $750 million this financial year. The sales pitch will focus on the three brands expanding locally and abroad.
Mr Green said about 95 per cent of Red Rooster's 360 restaurants were franchised and this would continue to rise. A new store costs between $350,000 and $700,000, and an older store between about $100,000 and $1 million.
Red Rooster targets everyone from children to people in their 80s who enjoy a roast chook with peas and gravy. "I would say it's healthy but naughty," Mr Green said. "If you look at my favourite, which is the roast chicken and chips, it's real, it's healthy but then you can have a bit of fun on the side."
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