Burgerfuel To Build World’s First Gourmet Drive Thru
BurgerFuel (BFW) has announced today that it will build its first gourmet burger drive thru in Dubai. The company said that it had been working on development of a purpose built BurgerFuel drive thru operation for the past 3 years and that it had now secured the ultimate site in Beach Rd, Dubai. The project will be developed by UAE and Kuwait BurgerFuel Master Licence holders Al Khayyat Investments (AKI).
Chris Mason, CEO International Markets, said that “This is a significant step for us. There are plenty of drive-thru models in the traditional burger market, but to our knowledge, none in the premium gourmet burger category. We think this is the first true gourmet burger drive thru in the world”.
When asked about the site on Beach Road, Chris Mason, who is based in Dubai, added “The site itself is one of the best possible drive thru sites in all of Dubai. It’s a large prominent corner site with high visibility, 40 car parks and can seat 150 customers on one of the UAE’s busiest streets. Further to those positives, it’s directly opposite a key entrance to Jumeirah beach, a major tourist attraction in Dubai which pulls in over 10 million visitors per year”.
The new BurgerFuel drive thru will have its own unique design cues and will seek to ‘engineer the ultimate burger drive thru experience’. He said that it had been a challenging journey to solve the operational aspects around serving freshly made burgers fast and that the company had spent significant resource developing the ability to do this. “It’s all about the cooking time – we weren’t prepared to compromise on our quality by pre-cooking the burgers. We had to ask ourselves - can we deliver a freshly made BurgerFuel burger – without a single compromise on taste or quality, fast enough? We think we’ve cracked it - and now we’re ready to put the research into action. Dubai represents the perfect place for us to do that”.
BurgerFuel Worldwide Group CEO, Josef Roberts, said that the drive thru was crucial to the development of BurgerFuel and its ability to grow existing markets and enter new ones. “There are still many people who have not yet experienced our food, even in New Zealand. The drive thru will make BurgerFuel more accessible. People want and deserve speed and convenience along with high quality, fresh ingredients and an amazing brand experience. I think the BurgerFuel drive thru will both crystallize our position as the leading gourmet burger brand in the world and open up a whole new sales channel for us.”
He said that BurgerFuel would develop and perfect the model in the Middle East and then look to build drive thrus in New Zealand – “as soon as the right sites and opportunities arose.”
BurgerFuel Worldwide Ltd (BFW) is a NZAX listed company and is part of the exclusive NZ Trade & Enterprise Beachheads programme designed for high-growth NZ companies. BFW shares are currently trading at $1.33.
