Chris Henderson: Mammoth Brands co-founder on the return of Burger Burger

Now less than three months after the chain Burger Burger went into liquidation, it is back. The chain has been saved by a group of local food suppliers and the company Mammoth Brands. Those guys run Peter Pitt, uh, Bowl'd, New York Bagels, and so on. And Chris Henderson is the co-founder of Mammoth Brands and the guy bringing back Burger Burger. Hi, Chris.

Hi, Heather. How are you?

I'm very well, thank you. So why did you decide to save Burger Burger?

Oh, look, I tell you what, it was quite simple. Um, and when you see the amount of love for this brand, Heather, it's a no-brainer. I'm up here now with my family, um, trying to get a table [laughs] for dinner at Torbay, but probably having beach, uh, burgers on the beach right now. Just seeing the love from the community and the connection, and it, it's just beautiful, and brands in New Zealand really need more of that.

Is it chock at the moment, is it?

It's chock, mate, and I'm probably gonna be getting takeaway burgers for sure.

Oh, that must just fill your heart though, to see that the thing that you've put your money into is actually doing well.

Heather, it d- it totally does, especially when you know how tough hospitality is at the moment. You know, there's a lot of sad news stories, but it's just so ... People need this type of brand in the country, and it just ... It fills my soul. After 20 years in business running 120 hospitality businesses with my partner Duane and our team for 20 years, it's so nice to be seeing this.

Yeah. Good. Hey, so what went wrong with it last time?

Oh, look, Heather, I think it's, it's ... Like the main thing really is there's some locations that were chosen. You know, there were seven at its peak. We took the three that were good performing locations that really lined up with the Burger Pu- Burger Burger values, um, which is connection with the customers and community, and four of them didn't have that, and they were losing money. And so these three that we kept, which is Torbay, Commercial Bay, and Bayfair, which we have our first franchisee, are all the top performing stores.

Mm.

So our, our ... I guess that we're resetting the system again, Heather.

And how is it working? You putting some, some cash in, the suppliers putting some cash in too?

Yeah. Hey, that's ... Thanks for asking. So um, it's a real paddock to plate type story now with our, with the ownership structure. So you know we've got a bunch of farmers, you know, fishermen, brewers, and bakers, and so it's a real full circle of our supply chain. And so ... And you know, obviously we run restaurants ourselves, so we know how to operationally run them, but it's a really good connection. We're so close to our customers that now we've got the ownership group that are connected to, you know, the, you know, the farmers and all those people, so it's a real tight knit now.

Mm.

And we get a real voice through from, you know, real good quality beef right through to the, to the service in the restaurants.

Yeah, I mean, uh, w- uh, this ... So the good quality beef, is that, uh, uh ... The quality of the burger, is that the game changer? Because i- in a cost of li-

That, that is the game changer.

Yeah, in a cost of living