Burger chain targets Vic, NSW expansion

FROM humble beginnings, a beach shack-themed burger chain founded on the Sunshine Coast is betting on a supersized expansion over the coming years.

Betty’s Burgers & Concrete Co managing director Troy McDough wants to double the number of outlets to 50 in the next 18 months, with a goal of filling “a gap in the market” for premium burgers.

Its newest store, to open in

Brisbane’s CBD, will be its 26th location.

It’s a far cry from the first shop front in 2014, founded by David Hales in Noosa.

Hales left the business when it was taken over in 2017 by Retail Zoo, owner of Boost Juice, as it began opening other outlets in Queensland and interstate.

Mr McDough said the success of the brand had come from three key areas – having a consistent theme hooked around a laid-back beach life“We’ve style, ensuring it employed welcoming staff, and maintaining a simplistic menu.

“Beach-shack ambience has been really important for us to grow,” he said. “That was captured well at Noosa, and we’ve really tried hard at each location we’ve opened.”

Eleven stores have opened in the past 12 months and Mr McDough said it was now aggressively pushing into NSW and Victoria as a natural direction for the company following its success in Queensland.

obviously spent a fair bit of time in the past six months, and in the (coming) six months spend more time getting our roots deep into those two states,” he said.

“We feel we’re an established and somewhat known brand in Queensland, so we feel like that’s our home state.”

The interstate expansion of Betty’s Burgers also mimics the growth pattern of Retail Zoo, its parent company, which grew from a single Boost Juice store into a food empire.