New name for chicken boosts sales

By ELLEN READ

What could have spelled disaster for Auckland business owner Andrew Cosgrave has turned into a success story.

Five years ago, Mr Cosgrave and his wife moved to New Zealand from Australia to open the first local Lenard's shop, extending an Australian franchise which sells fresh, ready to cook chicken products.

It was a case of learning on the job as Mr Cosgrave had no previous business experience - he had been a flight navigator in the Australian Air Force for 10 years.

"We were pretty green when we got into it but within two weeks we knew more than the New Zealand [master] franchisee," he said.

Their shop in Newmarket was soon one of six Lenard's outlets in New Zealand.

All was well until last December when the master franchisee, who owned the rights to New Zealand locations, pulled out.

The Cosgraves were told to stop using the Lenard's trademark and intellectual property, meaning they had to either rebrand or shut up shop.

"It was a bit of a blow, but we had too much at stake to give in," Mr Cosgrave said.

He elected to rebrand the shop - a process which took most of this year - and took the opportunity to adapt the business to cater more to NZ tastes.

The Wishbone shop was the result.

Mr Cosgrave said he aimed to put some theatre into retail by having more colourful premises and staff uniforms.

The room behind the counter is left open so customers can see the food being prepared.

Mr Cosgrave said the change meant he could take more account of customer feedback.

New Zealanders want more chicken apricot products than Australians.

Organic chicken and a turkey range for Christmas have been added to the offerings.

Turnover had increased and because the business could now obtain product locally and did not have to pay pay franchise fees, costs had been reduced.

The most difficult aspect of the rebranding was designing the new Wishbone logo.

After speaking to a lot of people and sampling many ideas, Mr Cosgrave came up with the logo himself.

Aiming to make it as easy as possible for customers, Wishbone provides a cooking guide with its chicken products.

The tasty offers range from kebabs, filo and patties to strudel, sausages and roasts.

One sign that the rebranding and relaunch have worked is that international airline cabin crews have been stocking up during Auckland stopovers and taking the food home with them.

"It's really positive. What started as bad news last December has turned into something good."