Monday 11th May, 2009
Burgerfuel Going From Arabian Nights To Mission Bay Bites
In addition to the recent announcement of selling the master franchise rights for Saudi Arabia - New Zealand gourmet
burger chain BurgerFuel is still continuing its growth locally. It looks like BurgerFuel will be opening stores this
year in both the desert sands of Dubai and Saudi Arabia as well as the local Auckland beachfront in Mission Bay.
BurgerFuel’s latest franchisee, Linda Garibovic, is excited about opening the local chain’s 27th New Zealand store in
Mission Bay. Linda says she’s come a long way since leaving her childhood home in New Plymouth at the age of 15, working
through the challenges of being a solo mum at 22 to where she is now. Today, Linda is happily married to Elvis who as,
we know, is a big cheeseburger fan, so the store is expected to be a success based on the King’s eating habits alone.
Even Linda’s 16 year old son Logan, who has done everything from acting on Shortland St to being a Farmer’s underwear
model is gearing up to get behind the grill as he trains to become a chef. He’ll have to learn quick if he wants to feed
Elvis and Mission Bay’s cheeseburger needs.
Marketing Manager, Alexis Lam says “We’re hoping we can make this store our most eco friendly store yet and construct it
completely out of sand, basically a giant BurgerFuel sand castle”.
Lam waxes lyrically on how exactly BurgerFuel intends to do this and the exciting challenges the project presents.
“Our new contacts in the Middle East have been very helpful, our Store Construction Manager, Murdoch Ball, is just
trying to get a big enough bucket with our own special BurgerFuel store mould sent down here. The store will host
completely customisable seating, a moat with a fully operational drawbridge, a swim up cabana bar and Auckland’s largest
natural bathroom with tidal powered autoflush features.”
On a more serious note, Lam discusses how the new Mission Bay site will be the first store to incorporate many of the
new design-led features BurgerFuel intends to introduce in new national and international sites.
“The last year has been spent going over every last detail of our store design. We’ve worked with experiential design
analysts to bring about the next ‘evolution’ as the brand exports itself as a Kiwi idea to the rest of the world. We’re
engineering the ultimate burger experience.”
The new store is scheduled to open in mid July 2009 on Mission Bay’s main strip.