“You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy gelato and that’s kind of the same thing”. Gelatissimo took a secret traditional Calabrian family recipe and used it to build Australia’s leading gelato franchise. Since opening its doors on King Street in the heart of Sydney in 2002, this retail franchise has been making artisan gelato by hand every day across their stores. 

While Gelatissimo specialises in artificial flavour and colour free frozen confectionary, they also cater to sweet the tooth who enjoys eating cakes and crepes, paired with a great cup of coffee. This family run business turned global franchise, has stores across Australia the Philippines, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

How does store design affect a customer’s experience?
Gelatissimo offers franchisees three styles of gelatarias (outlets): shopfront, kiosk and cafe. “Consumers in Australia follow their eyes”, says Gelatissimo CEO, Filipe Barbosa. “We wanted to make sure the presentation of product was prominent so, for any of our store designs the product is the hero. We mound the gelato high, we garnish it, and we make it look beautiful and pristine”. Another core element of store design is displaying the store’s churn which is used to make the gelato.

“There’s nothing like seeing someone’s face when they see 10 litres of gelato pouring out of the machine”, shares Filipe.

Has your store design changed over time?
The franchise brand’s store design has evolved over three stages. When Gelatissimo first opened 14 years ago, it was minimalistic and slightly clinical. To overcome this, the design took on more traditional roots with dark, wooden tones, creating a more ornamental look. Today, the design focus is on how to make the stores inviting for people to be in: “Getting the right lighting, the right combination of wall finishes – the lights and darks – and comfortable seating if we can provide it”, shares Filipe.

What requirements do new store locations need to meet?
While there are many different types of stores across the Gelatissimo network, the franchise brand does have some general requirements that each new store location must meet.

“We want stores that can operate day and night so we wouldn’t typically be going into an internal shopping centre location”, explains Filipe. Instead, stores are often located in entertaining and dining precincts due to the naturally occurring high foot traffic. “We believe in building community value and you do that well by having an established premise so local people know you’re there, they know what the offering is, and become regulars”, says Filipe.

“We only serve one food concept at a time!”

Australian-based franchise Big Papas Food Truck was born out of the desire to serve up more than kebabs in Sydney’s west.

Since serving its first mouth-watering burger in 2016, the brand has grown a cult-like following with queues circling the block at the pop-up food truck. Serving up to 250 people some nights, Big Papas Food Truck’s menu is based on typical American Dinner grub, however, the team only feeds its customers with the best quality produce. All ingredients are brought fresh at the markets each morning and all meat used is chemical free bacon and hormone free chicken. The travelling burger joint, regularly does the rounds across Western Sydney and is looking for more foodies to join its ranks across Australia.

What does your truck setup look like?
Each truck has the equivalent of a small commercial kitchen and can support up to five team members. “It’s designed to create a flow and get the food out there”, says Big Papas Food Truck Founder, Bernie Ponti.

“The three-tonne truck is 3.5 metres high, by 4.5 metres long and 2.4 metres wide, and has a three-door pizza fridge, a four door under fridge, a 1200ml flat top, a 450ml grill and a 20-litre fryer”.

How do you create a positive customer experience?
“It’s really getting the food out quick”, says Bernie. “I started off too big, the menu was too big and diverse and it slowed everything down”.

To overcome this, Big Papas Food Truck now does four or five items a night but, the menu is rotated every week, “which adds excitement”. The design of the truck was also taken into consideration explains Bernie: “There is a storyboard on the truck so when people are lining up they are like, ‘oh look
at that’.

And we aren’t as high up as some trucks where you need to get a step ladder to hand over the money and food. We’re almost down to our customer’s level”.

How flexible is your location?
“I was looking for a business model that can adapt to different work environments and the food truck was the most attractive”, says Bernie. Due to such high demand, the food trucks can’t possibly service every viable market. Instead, the brand has decided to maintain a regular route.

“People like to know you will be at the same spot every Friday so you make sure you’re there”, says Bernie. The brand has also carefully chosen populated pockets where there are no fast food outlets. “People don’t want to travel 20 minutes to get something but they will travel five minutes”, says Bernie.