PIE LOVERS IN TUNE WITH BANJO’S
TASMANIAN chain Banjo’s Bakery Cafe has pinned its growth strategy on pie-loving Queenslanders.
The family-owned company has opened four franchised stores employing 122 workers in the state over the past four months, the most recent a drive-through outlet at Bokarina on the Sunshine Coast this week.
“We originated in Tasmania and are now expanding across Australia with Queensland being the main focus,” said managing director Jessica Saxby, whose father Mark started the business in 1984. The first Queensland store opened at Cleveland in 1998.
The company has a national footprint of 44 stores, including 11 in Queensland and wants almost 40 outlets in the state by 2025.
The chain bakes about four million pies a year and Queenslanders consume half a million of them.
“We are aiming for 85 stores nationally by 2025 – obviously the coronavirus has slightly impacted (the rollout),” Ms Saxby said.
Most of the growth will come from drive-through stores which have proven successful over the pandemic period.
“With all the COVID restrictions people feel more at ease coming through the drive-through,” she said. “Also there is the opportunity for customers to come in and have that cafe experience if they want to.”
“(Drive-through stores) also create a larger market for us than just having a stand alone store.”
There are no plans for any more stores to open in Queensland for the rest of this year but Banjo’s is in negotiations with developers to locate suitable drive-through sites.