THE franchisee behind Mount Gambier’s new digital drive-through KFC restaurant – the second of its kind in the world – is cooking up plans to potentially expand further into the Limestone Coast.
Traffic queued at the Mount Gambier Marketplace site yesterday on the city’s northern gateway as the fast food giant’s new concept store opened from 10am, using a tech-first approach to service customers.
Speaking to The Border Watch at Monday’s family and friends evening ahead of the official launch, franchisee David Bird – who along with wife Marie also operates the existing KFC restaurant in central Mount Gambier – teased about potential growth in the future.
“I have bought some land in Naracoorte and I may start to seriously looking at it at the end of this year or start of 2021,” Mr Bird revealed, also revealing plans to investigate a second Warrnambool location.
With 28 years experience as a franchisee, the Birds operate the two Mount Gambier stores, along with outlets in Portland, Hamilton, Horsham, Ararat, Maryborough and Warrnambool.
This latest undertaking has been a mammoth project for the Birds, who originally did not plan to build another store until at least 2021.
“Head office then approached me about the new store concept and whether I would be interested in doing something like it for Mount Gambier,” Mr Bird said.
“Originally it was just going to be another normal store but this new concept is very exciting.”
Mr Bird said he was just in the right place at the right time almost three decades ago when he made the career change.
“I was working in the wine industry and running hotels, but I just woke up one morning and said to my wife that I would not mind working for myself,” he said.
“A friend who I have became close with used to work for KFC introduced me and we went from there.
“We have around 500 people on our books so it is a full-time job.”
Mr Bird said he was largely unaware about the extent of the digital drive-through concept’s technology until a company meeting.
“They were planning and building the store in Newcastle because they thought it was the future,” he said.
“It leaves a smaller footprint and does not cost as much to build due to the smaller size.
“We are hoping at some stage it will begin to take pressure off of the bigger (Mount Gambier) store.”
Fingermark solutions architect Simon Foley said the store’s technology completed revolved around the KFC app.
“Fingermark does all the sequencing behind the digital screens and has the software which opens the gates,” he said.
“KFC are really about speed of service and the idea behind these lanes is to eventually to remove all bottleneck involved with ordering fast food.
“The biggest bottleneck is the pay window and if people pre-order and pay through the app we remove all complications.”
Mr Bird said the new technology would be something the site’s younger employees would be familiar with.
“I do not think technology, apps and pushing buttons are anything new to them,” he said.
“One of our biggest challenges will be educating Mount Gambier residents to use the app.
“You are not going to educate everybody, which is why we have a walk-in store and order on-site options.”
Mr Bird said people would travel from across the globe to inspect the concept store, which could be adapted in other states or countries.
