Freshness, production on site and good cheer are part of the successful recipe at a gelato outlet, writes Ed Charles
FINDING and motivating the right staff is always a problem for business. Now Trampoline Gelato chain is looking to develop a gang of at least 40 small business entrepreneurs to grow its chain.
Trampoline opened its first store on Brunswick Street in Melbourne’s fashionable Fitzroy on April 14, 2004. Trampoline general manager Richard Furphy had been given the task of developing a brand that could be made using the quality dairy ingredients produced by the Gippsland-based Burra Foods.
“We didn’t have a brand so we wanted to offer a brand,” Furphy says. “And we didn’t want to go into supermarkets because that’s not much fun. We wanted a retail brand.”
Furphy had seen the innovation in the retail market for premium ice creams and gelatos in the US and Britain. By contrast, most of the chains in Australia were lacking in personality and innovation.
While none of the people in the development of the Trampoline brand is Italian, they all believed in the Italian tradition of making gelato on site.
“If you can make it on site, like the churning on site, you can do a whole lot more on the product,” Furphy says. He wanted an original brand that stood out.
Influences on him in terms of brand personality included the irreverence of Mambo and Crumpler. And Britain’s Innocent Drinks, the original influence behind the local Nudie drinks business.
“I love what they (Innocent) have done and the honesty and integrity of their business. We wanted something that was going to stand out.”
He presented a short list of designers with a very tight brief. Avoiding Italian cliches was important. Freshness had to be communicated, with the fact that everything is made on site, plus honesty, with a local Australian twist in language and sense of humour.
British-based design agency The Nest was chosen for the task for its experience in Britain’s cutting edge retail market. As Furphy was not the owner, the company wasn’t able to use the Richard Branson-style cult of the owner PR-based marketing. Instead, Trampoline opted for community-style marketing. Each shop’s distinctive appearance includes the use of a whacky rainbow of typography and graphics, chocolate fountains and a display case like a rocket.
Its product offers innovative and appealing flavours including Iced Vo-Vo, Lickrish, Open Sesame, Peanut Nutter, Spotty Dog and Choc Therapy. Now Trampoline is moving into the next stage of development by opening at least 40 franchises — with an ownership twist. Furphy, 37, emphasises that the most important elements of the brand are its personality and that of the people who work there, similar to Virgin: “The biggest challenge as I see it is keeping the personality of the brand and the human characteristics and to try to systemise those. It’s like you are trying to systemise spontaneity. That will be the biggest challenge.
“We position ourselves as individual and staff are allowed to express themselves. The larger you get, the more you have to create parameters for that. There are a few systems out there that are facing the challenge.”
Enter an innovative franchising structure developed with the PricewaterhouseCoopers retail team and legal advice from franchise specialist Mason Sier Turnbull.
Furphy says: “We are currently looking at a couple of alternative models that are more a joint venture arrangement. We don’t want to give up control and we want to share in the downside as well as the upside.”
In franchising, many system owners are tempted to take large cheques upfront from franchisees rather than share the risks with them. “We are much more about quality and quantity. We want to get each of these units to work well,” Furphy says.
The idea is to recruit entrepreneurs with a youthful attitude, probably in their late 20s or early 30s, into a 50-50 joint venture. They need to bring energy and up to about $150,000 to the deal.
While 3 per cent of profits is required for marketing and an administration fee is paid, profits are shared 50-50. Usually franchises charge a royalty while the franchisee takes all the business risk, often an investment of more than $350,000.
Furphy also says people can come into the system and work up to owning. But he adds: “It is very important that people come into it with money. If you’re keen there is always a way you can find finance.”