WITH the dust settling after its purchase by Peter Holmes a Court’s AA Co, Jester’s Jaffle Pie Co is making its long awaited move into the eastern States.
Jester’s operations director Bill Richardson said the company would be opening its first eastern States outlet in Melbourne in late May.
He said the purchase by AA Co meant that what was intended to be a slow rollout could be accelerated.
“We have 13 people who are very interested in taking a franchise but I think only about half of them will come on board,” Mr Richardson said.
In Melbourne the company will be targeting high-traffic corner locations and shopping centre sites. If the strategy is successful then a move into Sydney is planned for early next year.
Mr Richardson said the Jester’s stores in the east would carry a smaller range of products as their Western Australian counterparts.
“We’ve found the three things that sell for us are pies, sausage rolls and cold drinks. That makes up about 96 per cent of our turnover,” he said.
“We don’t want to be trying to sell coffee in stores that are near a Starbucks. We don’t want to become a little corner cafe.”
Mr Richardson said the company would be taking some of its key staff interstate and would be restaffing to bolster its WA operation.
The company has 32 stores in WA, including its one regional outlet in Albany.
It is also embarking on a new radio advertising campaign.
The campaign is titled ‘Get Real’ and pokes fun at the plastic food, childish language and cliche promotions that abound in the fast food industry.
Marketforce creative director Mike Edmonds said a lot of people were fed up with fake fast food.
“Our radio campaign makes fun of the whole [fast food] industry,” he said.
