Seven Red Rooster stores have closed overnight leaving the chain rattled.
Yesterday afternoon, Sunstate Foods Pty Ltd, the franchisee which owns the restaurants on the Sunshine Coast, closed the doors on two outlets in Noosa, two in Moreton, and three in Maroochydoore. The sudden mass closure has taken over 100 jobs in its wake, and it is uncertain whether the respective restaurants will ever open their doors again.
Cheap and cherished chicken chain, Red Rooster has been an Aussie household name since its inception in the early 1980s. Starting as a single store in WA, the fast food chain steadily grew into the 300+ restaurants we have today. These 300-odd restaurants are comprised of a mix of franchise-owned, and company-operated stores.
Sunstate Foods confirms it is transferring all of their enquiries to an administrative insolvency group. In most cases, a company becomes 'insolvent' when the business starts operating in arrears – that is, owing more money than the profit they're turning. Robson Cotter Insolvency Group – the corporate administrators speaking on behalf of Sunstate Foods - are now weighing up the potential for another individual or organisation to purchase the seven restaurants as a means of debt recovery.
Queensland University of Technology retail expert, Dr Gary Mortimer, told news.com.au his hypothesises that Red Rooster's crashing business model is largely in part due to their inability to adapt to customers' evolving palates. It doesn't take much to realise the rapid uptake of healthy eating and plant based diets as being undeniably in vogue.
“And if we look specifically at Red Rooster, I think in many ways it has been constrained by the menu items it can offer, which are predominantly poultry.” Mortimer notes that there are no items on RR's menu that can be passed as “quality, fast casual gourmet options”.
Even before the sudden closure of the affected Sunshine State stores, two Red Rooster restaurants had been converted into Oporto's for the latter's more attractive 'demographic fit'.
However, all is not entirely lost for RR's unlucky seven. A spokeswoman from 'Craveable Brands', RR's parent company, told news.com.au, that they're aiming to have the Sunshine Coast's restaurants reopened by the end of the week. “Our intention is that there will be no job losses — our key focus right now is to re-open and secure the ongoing employment of affected employees as quickly as possible.”
