THE VEGGIE VIBE

Plant-based and vegan food is the hot new trend in hospitality.

Plant-based foods are on trend.

Sydney-based Soul Burger is the latest plantbased hospitality chain to move into franchising.

The decision to franchise comes after running the three Soul Burger outlets in Glebe, Newtown and Randwick through a corporate structure.

Founder Dr Amit Tewari says “Franchising is our avenue to getting more stores around Australia open, multiplying our impact, ensuring passion in store through owner-operators and forever changing the comfort food in the Aussie food scene.”

He believes there is plenty of potential in the plant-based food arena.

“This is much more than a trend, it’s a burgeoning sector that will only grow further as more people incorporate more plant-based food in their diet.”

After just a year of trading, Soul Burger won PETAs Best Vegan Burger in Australia Award in 2016.

Soul Burger’s menu includes gourmet plant-based burgers, fries, shakes and snags. The hospitality firm works with leading plant-based brands including V2 Foods, Beyond Meat, Alternative Meat Company, Fable Meats and Pana Chocolate.

The environmental focus isn’t just on food however. Soul Burger’s company ethos revolves around building a better world one bite at a time.

This translates into initiatives such as working to reduce plastic use in restaurants, introducing a BYOP (bring your own packaging) discount initiative, partnering with green energy providers to offset carbon use, and recycling cooking oil.

Soul Burger has partnered with Loke to develop a loyalty customer app featuring a new internal online delivery platform – cutting out hefty commission costs charged by third party delivery options.

There are more than 14,000 loyalty app users and over 20,000 members of the “Beyond the Buns” loyalty program.

To emphasise the partnership element of the franchise relationship, Soul Burger has committed to develop a franchise model that avoids any rebate fees.

Amit Tewari says “Ours is a positive sum model because our franchise model will succeed only where our franchisees open stores and grow revenue. We won’t be making money any other way.”

MEAT-FREE MEAT PIES

Convenience chain 7-Eleven has embraced the vegan trend, loading up its shelves with plant-based snacks and meat-free alternatives to good old Aussie favourites.

The 7-Eleven No Chicken and Lettuce Sandwich ($5), 7-Eleven No Egg and Lettuce Sandwich ($5), 7-Eleven No Beef Pie ($4) and 7-Eleven No Sausage Roll ($4) are available nationally in all stores.

Julie Laycock, 7-Eleven Australia's general manager marketing, says taste was a key component of product development for the company's food innovation team.

"Our team developed these exclusive products with our suppliers, and we’ve done extensive testing with consumers to ensure the new products taste delicious,. Choice is paramount for today's convenience store.

“As Australia is one of the fastest growing plant based food markets in the world, it’s important to us that we continue to provide tasty, great value products for as many people as possible,” she says.

And joining the veggie tribe, iconic Victorian business Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses reckons its brand new meatfree pie is an absolute winner.

It has been working on perfecting its vegan version of the traditional pie and sausage roll for 14 months.

The plant-based Aussie Pie centres on chickpeas, with wheat, garlic, onion, and herbs and spices. In the sausage roll it’s the combination of shitake mushrooms, carrots, potatoes, onions, chickpeas, garlic, onions and a secret blend of herbs and spices that hits the mark.

“Whether it’s for health, the planet, the animals, or just wanting to cut back on a meat-heavy diet, Australians are getting curious about plant-based products,” says Ferguson Plarre CEO Steve Plarre.