The Aussie-based healthy burger chain had recently opened two restaurants (one in Sydney and one in Melbourne) that were specifically targeted towards vegans. However, both have reverted to serving a meat-based menu.
It was always going to be a gamble for healthy burger food joint Grill’d to try to convert two of its restaurants into vegan-only, as it meant that they would be excluding themselves from a rather large customer group and targeting a much smaller audience.
From a marketing perspective, the move appeared to make sense, as it was able to put the company’s name on the papers and for a very good reason, as vegans would finally have their own place to enjoy a meal without the looks and sneers of all the meat-eaters.
Grill’d company founder Simon Crowe had revealed his expectations in regards to this move when speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald: “We know and expect that we’re going to hurt our top line and our bottom line for these two restaurants.”
But, from a strictly cold financial point of view, it appears the change wasn’t as viable as the company owners had initially hoped for, as both the restaurants appear to have gone back to serving the meat-based dishes that are offered at all other Grill’d chains.
A spokesperson for the company stressed that changing the menu to target only vegans may not have been the best way to go, pointing out however that the entire concept has not been abandoned altogether: “We now think the way forward is not to convert existing restaurants but to open brand new locations with this concept.”
