Chicken brand to expand
PAUL Margaritis knows the highs and lows of running a small business better than most.
He came close to losing everything four years ago after an accident on the football field left him with a broken neck.
Mr Margaritis arrived on the Coast in 2008 as an outof-work builder during the recession. He went on to build a successful family takeaway shop and is about to open another in Broadbeach.
Mr Margaritis and wife Samantha bought Fat Chicken – a rotisserie-style chicken shop – in Burleigh in 2011, and based the food on his dad’s recipes.
The business has been a longstanding favourite, winning the Gold Coast Bulletin’s best chips award in 2015 and best burgers in 2017, as voted by the public.
But it wasn’t smooth sailing.
“Just when we were starting to find our feet I broke my neck playing football – a dual fracture to my C1 – and I was in a neck brace,” he said. “I couldn’t drive, I couldn’t work and we had two young kids.
“That was when we won the first Bulletin award and it was a pretty dark time. The award was huge for me – you can be so low and end up so high.
“It was tough times for the first three years.
“We bought our business from a guy who was only there 11 months and he sold the business for half of what he paid ... so that was a scary realisation that he hadn’t made it work.
“We were so close to pulling the pin, but so many people pull out of their business and they don’t realise how close they are to success.” always
Mr Margaritis also struggled with problems faced by many small businesses on the Coast, from landlords to low foot traffic.
“Rent is the killer on the Gold Coast. A lot of shop owners and complex owners are pretty selfish like that. They don’t really care if a small business is going to make it or not, they just want their revenue.
“If they dropped their rent and made it more affordable you wouldn’t have so many ‘for lease’ signs in every complex on the Gold Coast.
“You have so many people who really want to take that next step but can’t afford it so many are working from home or going online instead.”
Conditions are just as tough on the other side of the counter at the moment, with Fat Chicken inundated with hundreds of job applications from those desperate for work.
More than 200 people, mostly school-aged, applied for the handful of casual jobs on offer in the new shop within four days of advertising.
Mr Margaritis said Gold Coasters, particularly inexperienced teens, were keen to work and looking for a start.
“I believe strongly in kids getting jobs at 14 to build work ethic, and we’ve employed kids for years here. We have to push them out the door and they end up coming back so we must be doing something right.”