How to customise your exports
CASE STUDY: Jamaica Blue
Known nationwide for its tasty fare and fine coffee, cafe franchise Jamaica Blue now has footprints in New Zealand and China. Sarah Bolton-Hall is the international project manager at owner Foodco Group. She says as a franchise, Jamaica Blue wanted the same look and feel for China as the Australian and New Zealand cafes, however admits some differences between the Asian and Antipodean versions.
Firstly, though the coffee is the same and most of the menu matches, the Chinese offering contains more Australian tastes than the domestic menu. “Things like lamingtons and meat pies aren’t things you’ll find in our Australian stores, but for our Chinese customers who are looking for a modern western cafe-style food offering, those items are still very much part of their menu,” explains Bolton-Hall.
And while most Jamaica Blue cafes in Australia are nestled in shopping centres, Foodco had to customise its market pitch to suit the appropriate demographic there, including aiming its pricing at the higher end of the market. Hence, China has more restaurant-style cafes in residential areas and corporate buildings where they are destinations, rather than walk-by eateries. For these locations they’ve extended the food menu and added evening meals to suit the restaurant style, and have some licenced premises.
Other menu changes came down to supply issues: “Particular ingredients, even pre-prepared ingredients like Tandoori paste, aren’t available, or we can’t get a good quality product in China, so we end up making those from scratch,” says Bolton-Hall.
This includes its cake range, which in Australia comes from a specialist cake supplier but in China comes from a central Jamaica Blue kitchen. “In China we haven’t been able to find a suitable supply that’s unique and still really good quality, so we’ve gone back to scratch recipes.”
The central kitchen model changes the relationship between the cafes, and distribution lines. “In Australia everything is made within the individual store but in Beijing and Shanghai we’ve set up central kitchens so the cakes and the large savoury items come out of that central kitchen fresh every day,” she describes.
Additionally, Jamaica Blue doesn’t work on a franchise model in China because it was easier to license the concept and have it run under a company structure. Its licensees provided a lot of context about the Chinese coffee culture, including competition and customer expectations, which helped its entry strategy.
Says Bolton-Hall: “Research, and being able to look at what products and supply was available was really important prior to going into the market.”
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