Taiwanese fried chicken brand Hot Star entered the local market in November 2013, and Australian master franchisees Lili Shi and siblings Kyle and Wing Lam have big plans for their new venture.
They have already opened two Hot Star outlets in Melbourne and another is scheduled to open in May.
Sydney will receive its first store in March, and the trio is currently negotiating a second site in the harbour city.
THE PRODUCT
The Hot Star brand has its roots in Taiwan’s famous Shilin night market, and its chicken product is popular among locals, Kyle Lam says.
Lam told Franchising he and his partners, who are also the master franchisees for Taiwanese bubble tea brand Gong Cha, wanted to bring something unique to the Australian market.
“We consciously made a choice to pick stuff that other people don’t really have, because what’s the point of doing french fries when you can get that at McDonald’s?”
He explains Hot Star’s signature chicken product is free from artificial ingredients and cooked fresh to order.
“It’s basically one whole piece of chicken breast that is cut to a 30cm size chicken steak. We use a tapioca batter which coats the chicken so that when its deep fried the juices don’t escape – it’s not dry at all.”
Hot Star’s chicken breast can be topped with either salt and pepper, spicy powder or plum salt, and Lam says the latter is a little sour and incredibly popular in Asia.
The brand’s other offerings include deep fried mushrooms and sweet potato chips.
“They sound a little odd [the mushrooms] but once you try them you get it straight away – it’s about the crunch on the outside and the texture of the mushroom on the inside,” he explains.
“We also do sweet potato chips, which are hand cut on site and cooked to order and we use our own propriety batter for them. Again you can top them with spicy powder, salt and pepper or the plum salt.”
FRANCHISING
While franchising is definitely on the cards, Lam and his partners are keen to establish the Hot Star brand in Australia before they begin to recruit franchisees.
“At this stage my partners and I will oversee all company stores; however after we open five stores we will reassess the situation.
“Hot Star is relatively unknown in Australia so we really need to break the market open first and show people that there is a business model to be had here,” he says.
There is no set franchising timeline – and all will generally depend on how the brand is performing.
“Franchising will definitely come, whether its six or 12 months or a little further down the track depends on a number of factors.
“It’s really hard to recruit franchisees to something they don’t know, they just wouldn’t pay attention to that at all,” adds Lam.
TRAINING AND SUPPORT
Hot Star’s global franchisor has developed an international franchisee training program (it currently operates in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China and has its sights set on North America) that can be customised so as to suit the local market, Lam explains.
“If you read it then you’ll gain an understanding of the business and franchisees will pick up the skills required of them pretty quickly.”
Of course, Hot Star will deliver the training franchisees require to operate a successful business.
“We’ll train them up, it’s a pretty basic process,” says Lam. “No previous experience is needed in the kitchen as such but they definitely need to have a bit of business experience.”
“It’s not rocket science but there’s a bit of nuance there to how to fry the chicken perfectly and get it crispy brown and golden for every customer,” he adds.
Lam says Hot Star’s head office will operate out of the same location as Gong Cha, which is already franchising.
“We already have a support office and network, as well as marketing for our franchisees so it wouldn’t be too hard for us to take that next step [to franchise Hot Star], but the most important thing for us is to get the Hot Star brand out there so everyone knows the product and believes it is a viable business.”