To suggest that Luke Baylis and James Miller have carved out a new culinary and business market since hitting the scene with Sumo Salad three years ago is an understatement.
“People’s perception of salad was of a little side meal that rabbits would eat,” Baylis recalls of those early days.
The twenty-something Sydneysiders now dominate a niche market, using healthy food, generous portions and irreverent advertising to attract customers. With 40 stores, Sumo Salad is one of the fastest-growing franchises in Australia. Five international stores – in the Middle East, Ireland and Britain – are a taste of things to come.
“We strongly believe that in the future Australia will be a reasonably small operation in comparison to these other international opportunities,” Baylis says.
The success to date justifies the confidence he and Miller brought to the business table after examining healthier trends in the United States fast-food market. On the menu are pumpkin and pine nut salads, lentil and bacon soup and falafel wraps. There is a nod to more mainstream tastes, too, with coffee and bread rolls having been added to help boost profits and woo male diners.
Baylis says menu choices have been very carefully managed.
“In a business like this you want to be on the leading edge but you don’t want to cross that line and be on the bleeding edge. It’s a very fine line for us.”
A NEED FOR SPEED
To be in business these days is often not enough for entrepreneurs. Fast-growth companies are the new engine room of the Australian economy, and being on prestigious ‘best-of’ lists is the aim.
Sumo Salad has been there and done that, appearing in the BRW Hot Franchises 2006 list as the fastest-growing franchise.
To outflank rivals, Baylis and Miller focus on building the right
team. Early in the piece, they decided to hire specialists in business
divisions to improve performance and fast-track growth.
“In a small business sometimes your financial resources don’t allow that luxury, but what you find is that once you make that leap your performance improves and it covers itself ten-fold,” Baylis says.
“You can run a business to a certain stage by being a jack of all trades, but when you want to get to that next level you really need specialists managing their dedicated areas.”
This approach has also enabled Sumo Salad to run a consistent marketing and branding campaign and build a better rapport with suppliers and stakeholders. Success has brought greater scale, and even more momentum.
“Once there you are not constantly pushing the business up hill and the business gathers its own momentum,” notes Baylis, who says fast growth of stores has also given Sumo Salad better buying power.
“If suppliers support your concept and buy into your vision they will be really aggressive on price and bend over backwards to help you get to that next level of growth.”
