Stars of the screen for surfer gear
Pizza chain hits road in food truck
RETAIL Food Group’s Pizza Capers chain is jumping on the food truck bandwagon.
Next month it will launch a mobile food truck franchise model, designed to tap into growing demand for the service.
Pizza Capers managing director Sherrie Halliwell said it was the first nationwide pizza shop franchisor to offer the business model.
The fully functioning pizza stores will have assigned territories around Australia.
Ms Halliwell said the business is designed to appeal to prospective franchisees looking for a flexible work/life balance and low cost base.
“Our mobile business model not only taps into a new market of consumer, but also potential franchise partners,” she said.
“With lower operating costs and the freedom to take the truck to numerous locations and events, it offers the ability to provide the Pizza Capers menu, without the costs and restrictions of a traditional store.”
Ms Halliwell said the franchisees will initially be offered for a start-up cost of $50,000, inclusive of franchise fees, training and marketing.
Pizza Capers opened its first store in Kenmore, Brisbane, in 1996. A GOLD Coast textile screen printing operation – which has ridden the wave of the surfwear industry – has come full circle.
Carl and Gail Birch started Print’n’Wear in 1977, producing small runs of T-shirts branded with surf shop logos from a rented Palm Beach house.
In the following four decades the business expanded to supply products to major companies including Billabong, launched swimwear label Cheetah, and turned over $1 million in annual exports to the US.
Today the Currumbinbased company has returned to making small runs of handscreen prints for a loyal client base.
The origins of the business lay in the burgeoning surf culture of the 1970s.
Carl had purchased several T-shirts branded with the logo of surfboard manufacturer Dewey Weber from a US surf magazine.
At the same time Gail was working for a small screenprinting operation and the owner was keen to sell the business.
“We looked at the T-shirts and thought something similar could be done on the Gold Coast,” Carl said. FOUNDED: BASE: BUSINESS: WEBSITE:
“There was an opportunity to fill a void for surf print Tshirts.”
The couple organised a loan and saw swift sales for their first runs of branded T-shirts for stores including Hot Stuff in Burleigh Heads.
The business took off when it started to make prints for upand-coming surfwear label Mango and T-shirts and board shorts for Billabong’s surfing team.
“One minute we’re doing short runs of a hundred promo T-shirts for Billabong’s surf team, the next it was a thousand,” Carl said. “It was the beginning of people turning away from the understated style of the ’ 70s; everyone wanted to look the part.”
The next major development came in 1978 when Gail spotted a gap in the market for women’s swimwear and launched the Cheetah label.
The label achieved widespread success due to the distinctive designs with Print’n’Wear expanding its production to meet export demand, particularly from the US where it achieved $1 million in annual sales.
The employee count grew to 130 plus contractors.
The Cheetah label was later sold and another brand, Kulu Atoll/Kulu, launched to take its place. Carl said the company has scaled back over the past two decades due to high overheads and competition from offshore manufacturers.
“At peak production we had two large automatic machines capable of printing thousands of garments a day,” he said.
“The overheads were crazy, and we found we were working constantly just to feed the machines.”
The business now focuses on niche projects for surf stores, bands, events and small up-and-coming clothing labels instead of mass orders.
Carl said it is a comfortable position for Print’n’Wear, which is now run by son Alan
“There’s a return to demand for smaller labels. And there will always, always be girls continuing to look for new and exciting swimwear.”