Ep 302 - From Hospitality to Household with Chelsea Ford: Bao Hoang on Building Roll’d from Melbourne to Millions

Speaker A: Foreign. Welcome to the Principle of Hospitality podcast brought to you by Principle Design, the strategic studio helping hospitality brands grow with purpose and creativity. In collaboration with Chelsea Ford, uh, CPG specialist and founder of foodpreneurs. This limited series from hospitality to Household shines a light on the founders who've taken their hospitality brands beyond the venue and onto retail shelves. Together we unpack the ambition, strategy and resilience behind scaling into FMCG and what it truly takes to grow into a household name. Enjoy.

Speaker B: B welcome to the show.

Speaker C: Thank you Chelsea. Thanks to for having me.

Speaker B: Your brand. You've created such a hot brand but you know, let's assume people don't know about Roald and they possibly don't know about the genius behind it. I know you've got co founder founders tell the audience about Roald, what it is and who you are happy to.

Speaker C: Yeah, we, the Roald was started by the three founders, myself, a primary school friend of mine, Ray, and a cousin of mine, Tin. We started in 2012, uh, Melbourne CBD. Now a lot of the recipes were made out of either my mum's recipes or my auntie's recipes. Just felt, you know what, there was an opportunity to compete with the sushi market. Back in 2012. There was no other Vietnamese rice paper roll concept in Australia effectively. And we were actually the first concept, uh, to put a Vietnamese concept into a shopping center uh, in Australia. And so we wanted to really just spread Vietnamese, Vietnamese food throughout Australia. We started in the Melbourne CBD and uh, over the journey of opening to a lot of shopping centers, as I said before and a lot of our consumers now obviously eat us quite regularly on a day to day basis In Australia.

Speaker B: Yeah, I mean I, I'm Sydney based and I do the Sid Mel thing because I've got family in Melbourne and I used to live in Melbourne, but Bondi Junction. I'm a fan of your store there opposite. Yeah. Oh, thank you. I mean it's so nice to have a QSR that's healthy and delicious. Um, yeah, like you really are a pioneer.

Speaker C: Thank you. That's uh, it's definitely has its challenges but definitely has been a great journey for sure.

Speaker B: Yeah. And in terms of the journey and the genesis of that journey, it was it, it's inspired by your heritage, your Vietnamese heritage and your mom's cooking. Etc. I'm kind of curious however, just as we warm up here, how you went from. I can make this en masse, so to speak.

Speaker C: Yeah, probably. Again I, by profession I'm a physiotherapist So I studied physio, uh, became a physiological, uh, always loved business, though. And so when we sort of started the first store, it was probably about two hours into opening the first store that we said, holly, we have something here that could actually grow quickly. And the story is we actually opened our first store at about 12:30pm on a Monday or whatever it was. We had a queue of about 30 people outside of our first store. And we go. We did no marketing, and all we did was put some menuser, and we sold out a food within 45 minutes. And so we started serving 800 to 900 customers in our CBD store within an hour and a half every single day. And we just felt from there we go, we have something special here because consumers were looking for something, like you said before, Chelsea, which is healthy, uh, healthy, reasonably affordable, and quick. Quick. And I think that's where we really sort of nailed it in the first early days. And now we serve, uh, um, a couple hundred thousand customers a week. We serve, um, 15 million rice paper rolls a year. So that's a lot of rolling that are all made fresh by our staff, uh, every single day. So there's a lot of quality assurance that we need to go through as well. That's been a. Yeah, that's been a challenge. Yeah. And I think being able to do that consistently over the last 13 or 14 years has been our challenge. But we're getting a lot better and better, uh, as we grow.

Speaker B: Do you have a commissary kitchen or, like a central kitchen in Melbourne and Sydney or what?

Speaker C: No, no. Everything is made fresh in store. Yeah, it's such an important part, uh, of our process. We have some, uh, people that help us cook some of our proteins to make sure there's consistency through that. But otherwise, everything you eat in our store is made fresh on the day. Wow.

Speaker B: Okay. So not that I'm a training expert or our conversation is really about training, but my mind immediately goes to the level of standard operating procedures and staff recruitment, engagement and training that you must have down to a fine art.

Speaker C: It's a fine art, but we'd love it to become even a finer, uh, art. And I think that's the challenge that we have. And quite funnily, actually, like, our rolling of our rice paper rolls is absolutely an art form in our business. And we just recently had our rolling world championships where we had all of our staff, uh, from around the country compete to win for a trip to the Maldives. And so the winner, yeah, won a trip, but the winner would easily roll 180 an hour, consistently within 12 percentage points of size. Like, it is unbelievable what the team can do, but that's taken years and years and years of, uh, refining it to make it simpler for the team to be able to do. But, uh, it's one of the things we're most proud of because it is making sure that we can do as consistent a product as possible.

Speaker B: Back in. It was 2012, you said that you kicked off, right?

Speaker C: Correct.

Speaker B: Was there anybody else, to the best of your knowledge, doing in the QSR format that you. That we know, rolled to be today, around the world at that point in time?

Speaker C: No. And to my knowledge, to this day, there is still none. So, again, we, you know, in our format, the way we do it as a QSR quick, uh, rather than a cafe or restaurant, we are still very unique globally, um, which is very rare for a concept like ours that's been around for that long. And I think there's reasons for it. It can be hard, it can be challenging, and because there's so many hands, it's not automated. Air requires a lot of, uh, training, as you said before, Chelsea.

Speaker B: Well, again, my mind goes to, um, labor costs. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. You know, because also the. That price, that sweet spot between the sell price has got to be good. You got to pay all your bills. I mean, I know that that's stating the obvious. You know, we're in a food business conversation here, but still, in your case, that's. That's big. That's big. I imagine it is.

Speaker C: It is. And. And we are so all over the fact that we want to make sure we remunerate our staff really well and properly spend a lot of time making sure compliance is a big part of that conversation. It's something that, um. The one thing my mum said, I'll give you this story, is because a lot of m. My mom's recipes, and she. When she gave me her recipes, I said, mum, what do you want for your recipes? There's two things that she said. She goes, just make sure whenever on the front page of newspaper for a bad thing. That's one. And the other thing is to actually give back to children in Vietnam when we are, uh, successful. And we've been able to do that a fair bit as well through the journey.

Speaker B: M. Goodness, that's gorgeous. Is your mum involved in the business beyond the corporate affairs?

Speaker C: Um, no, my mom is. Now, what she probably does the most of is she hosts dinners for me, for our staff, for our team. So she would cook for 30 or 40 people at her home and host it. Yeah. So that's, that's what she loves to do.

Speaker B: And so with, you know, we went to, and you know, you and I shooting from the hip having this conversation and we've talked about costs, which I, I guess you would, you know, um, when you're thinking about from hospitality, but often. And I'm using this as a segue to going to consumer packaged goods and into grocery. Is this one of the reasons why you've also pivoted part of, you know, you've got this new revenue channel known as grocery?

Speaker C: Yeah, to be very frank, grocery was a Covid project for us. Um, so when, when we were going through Covid, our philosophy was to keep operations and business going as long as we can, to be able to keep all of our staff, uh, employed as long as we can. And so one of the areas we felt we could tap into which grocery, because obviously supermarkets were growing significantly. But uh, we felt at that point in time it was always part of one of the key sort of ideas that we've had for a long time. And just because Covid came along, we thought we'd give it a real crack. But uh, we wanted to. We felt that there was an opportunity to bring Vietnamese product into Australian homes. Because I liken it to sort of compare it to old El Paso or Mission. Yeah, like you see Mexicans, uh, shells full of uh, older Paso emission. I go, there's no reason why we couldn't have a brand that a consumer could go to a shelf and buy all the four or five different things that they needed to create a fur or a rice paper roll. And so that's where I was born from. And luckily at that point in time, Coles were looking for a significant partner to be able to partner with. And they supported us through innovation. NPD gave us a lot of ideas. And also lucky that my mother in law, uh, was a former Coles staff member who knew the buying space very well. And so she helped us innovate in that product as well.

Speaker B: So that's obviously handy that your mother in law had an idea of the structure because most people, um, and I say this respectfully, coming from hospitality, think that it'll be a piece of cake, but because they know food. But it is so different, isn't it?

Speaker C: Very, very different. Yeah, very different. Very different margins, very different processes. It's a different business. And I think that's what we've learned very quickly. We've been lucky because we've had some really experienced people within that space. But I think one of the things we are also lucky is because we've got such loyal fans around the country. And so when they see our brand and they see it in the supermarket, they absolutely try it. And so that was always our philosophy with our groceries division, which was we'd only bring things into Coles or Woolies or supermarkets if we actually served it in our stores. So it's actually the same product that we use in our stores that we sell on the shelves. Uh, that was a really important sort of distinction for us.

Speaker B: Okay, so do you mind me asking then other, um, is the, say that the Mayo for instance, that's manufactured by a third party? I would imagine.

Speaker C: Yes. Yeah, correct. Yeah.

Speaker B: Okay, so what, besides the fact being slightly in the know because your mother in law understood grocery or had some experience, what would you say was the biggest smack across the face when you went?

Speaker C: Oh, I think. Yeah, like end of the day, I think the supermarkets always ask for a, a large marketing spend as part of any sort of product. And it does erode margins very quickly. And I think for us we need to be serious about it. So the opportunity for us to really market it more and advertise it more and share recipes more is something that we look to do right now. And that's an exciting journey to be able to teach Australians how to make things at, huh, home using our product. And we've got very specific recipes on how to you use our rice paper versus others. And so because we've tested a thousand different combinations of rice paper and vermicelli noodles. So being able to teach consumers will help. Um, but we know that the margins are challenged. You've got to really partner with the supermarkets to really get an understanding of how to ah, traverse their landscape and their reviews and those sort of things as well. Uh, but we've been very lucky with having some great uh, I guess buyers on their side to deal with and, and they've been very supportive because I think we've got a strong brand that they really want us to, to be partnering with them.

Speaker B: Yes, it would be incredibly attractive knowing that you have this great consumer recognition in the market. Um, like your brand equity I think would be massive. And so for them to bring in a rolled product, you know, half the, half the battle's done really in terms of brand awareness.

Speaker C: Correct? Yeah. Like again there's probably a supermarket that probably values it more than others. But um, yeah, there's definitely a recognition there. Uh, and I guess our challenge is how can we use it and utilize it more and more. And then just make sure we deliver through with the product itself. Making sure the quality is there, teaching people how to use it into their homes. But we would love to see one day a full shelf of rolled products. Would love consumers to go. You know, I want. Would love to make a fur at home and take them 15 minutes to do how they can feed their family for a certain price. You know, I think that's the vision.

Speaker B: So how many stockkeeping units within the CPG range do you currently have?

Speaker C: Um, all up. Maybe some are on the shelf, some are not on the shelf. But we've got about 12 products all up. I think Coles at the moment has seven or eight products. But we've got a pipeline of about 30 products to come. Um, and that's the exciting part. Yeah. For us to really develop into that so that we can become a known brand in that grocery space. Rather than, uh. Um. A little sort of a, uh, side project for us. Yeah. It is something that we're just putting some more time and effort into.

Speaker B: Are they all ambient?

Speaker C: The 30 range that I'm talking about is ambient or frozen. So they're the. Probably the two categories at the moment that we are much more familiar with. We are looking and testing a few things that may go into fridges. Um. And fresh a, uh, little bit more. But we know the challenges with that space as well.

Speaker B: Yeah, chilled is challenging.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.

Speaker C: For sure.

Speaker B: Yeah. It often catches people unaware. And I think just, uh, given you. You have frozen. They talked about the frozen category. It's good to see the freezer become so sexy and attractive, actually. Right. It's no longer just frozen pieces of corn and peas. It's actually very attractive.

Speaker C: Well, it is. And you know, like, end of the day, that's how we all live. You know, I think that's the reality of life, you know, in Australia or where anywhere in the world is. But the product is super fresh. And I think that's what people gotta understand. It is frozen, but it doesn't mean that the quality is any worse off. Ah. And I think that's something that we're very acutely aware of. And the flexibility of it is so important for a family. Feed your children within 30 minutes or 20 minutes rather than having to spend an arm and a leg. I think that's so, uh, important moving forward as well.

Speaker B: M. You know, it's really nice. I can see in my mind's eye this old El Paso and Mission, you know, that. Let's call it Mexican you know, it's been in the mainstream aisle for a really long time and there's challenges like mingle that are giving them a run for their money.

Speaker C: Yep.

Speaker B: Yeah. So it's easier, isn't it, when you have a, uh, vision and perhaps some, someone, so to speak, ahead of you, for want of a better term to go. Okay, we can be that too. Because you're right. Like I think about my own cook. I'm a cook, just amateur, but I'm really into it and I do, I absolutely love Vietnamese food, but I wouldn't cook. Actually I'm having Vietnamese salad for dinner. That's actually not a joke. I've just realized that. But generally I don't.

Speaker C: Amazing.

Speaker B: I wouldn't cook a fur, uh, because I wouldn't know how.

Speaker C: Yeah, it's challenging. Yeah. And it can take time. So there are products out there and we're innovating on a refined product as we speak. And we can always get better. You know, I think that's the point. We, we know what consumers are looking for because of what's happening within our stores. And so yes, it's a slight difference when we talk about grocery, but there's definitely ways for us to be a little bit more appealing to the grocery shopper.

Speaker B: Do you think ultimately it will work the other way as well? And maybe it already does. Where the grocery shop discovers rolled and then discovers your stores 100%.

Speaker C: Yeah, that's one of the things that we were actually quite cautious of when we launched into the grocery range and we had. Obviously our uh, business is mixed between corporate stores and franchise stores. And a lot of our franchise partners in some of these shopping uh, centers would say, you can't launch a grocery range into our local uh, supermarket store because it's going to take away from our consumer. But all we found was our ah, brand awareness across the board increased dramatically. Um, it increased like 10 percentage points, which was amazing over when we launched it. And it just meant that people were finding us more often. And I think that's such a powerful message and I'm pretty balanced when I look at the grocery space. But that was definitely a positive.

Speaker B: Yeah, definitely. I mean, in such a great sales point to the franchise

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Speaker B: Yeah. Franchise. Yeah. Ah, yeah, exactly. So how do you manage your npd? You reference in grocery like you reference that you look at what's in demand in this, in the store, and you talk about, say right now you've got seven or eight maybe in Coles and 12 in active SKUs, but maybe another 15 to 17 that are, uh, in development. Is it purely what's going on in store or do you look, I imagine, look at global trends, even though you're clearly setting the global pace here? How do you go about it with the enrolled and is it strict?

Speaker C: It hasn't been strict in the past. We do have an executive chef in our business that, uh, runs with a lot of NPD within the business. She also leads the grocery NPD as well. We obviously use a lot of our own internal insights and experiences, but also global data. But generally speaking, we found that products that are familiar to our consumers in our stores sell a lot better when it goes into groceries. So we're sticking sort of solid with that strategy for a while. But, uh, we also take advice from the buyers. Yeah. And then if the buyer comes and says we want a bow bunker, which is what they did. And we sell bowels in our stores. Yes. But we obviously don't sell them frozen. So it's a slight shift for us as well. But, um, that's been, you know, it's been a positive for sure.

Speaker B: Food people often don't think about insight and research. They just go with what's delicious and what they want. But when you go from hospitality to grocery, insight is really the way category buyers and buyers, they live and breathe that kind of data, don't they? Has that been the baptism of fire for you?

Speaker C: Luckily no. Uh, and this probably comes back to my history of being a physio, where research is a big cornerstone of a lot of physio. And I'M a data guy, and so I love data and I'll always look at data to be able to make decisions moving forward. But I don't get hamstrung by data either. I think instinct is really important and we sort of have an indication of sort of consumer trends because of what's happening in our stores. And to give you one example of one NPD that we're working on at the moment for our stores, which is a no sugar source range. Um, and so the beauty for us is if we can have that range coming to our stores, that allows the consumers to. The funny thing is the data doesn't necessarily support it. All the way across the board people go, oh, sugar free is so important. But consumers still would gravitate more in testing to the sugar range. But I think in the future that'll slowly shift further as well. So it's just a fair balance as well.

Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, there's that example of. For 20, 30 years, consumers have been saying that they want organic fruit, but they will not buy it. It is still the smallest section within, within any grocery store except, you know,

Speaker C: and someone very, uh, experienced in the grocery space said to me one day is like, people want to go away from sugar free, but the confectionery aisle is actually the largest growing aisle in the super supermarket. So you're like, okay, that sort of proves the point.

Speaker B: Absolutely. You know, Jim Bod Protein ice Cream, who are friends of mine and, uh, I've interviewed a number of times. You know, they make. They're both gym people, but they're into ice cream. But they wanted to really lean into the macros that gym people lean into. Don't ask me. That's not me. I'm chocolate and sugar and full fat all the way.

Speaker C: But anyway.

Speaker B: But they found that to this point that you're speaking of, that they want better option desserts, but that doesn't mean that they want no sugar, super perfect protein, whatever. Because it's not delicious. You still want.

Speaker C: I think taste is still the key.

Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker C: Needs to taste good. And if, if it can be healthier and it can be sugar free and can be high in protein, whatever it is, then it's a massive positive. Yeah. And I think, um, I guess that's where we've been able to be really lucky with Vietnamese food. Like, if you've ever, uh, traveled to Vietnam or eating Vietnamese restaurants, Vietnamese food is just naturally great tasting and naturally healthy. And that's been one of our biggest advantages. We haven't had to make it fake it or create it, it's always been there.

Speaker B: So relationships with grocers. You're in Coles today, you're not in Woolworths.

Speaker C: Um, not at the moment. Yeah, that's a, that's probably the next evolution. We've just come out of Cola Woolworths but definitely looking at increasing our skus to one day come back into Woolworths. But we are actually talking to some independent grocers. Okay. Some of the larger supermarket independent uh, grocers in Melbourne who are super keen for us to explore full shelving of our range. And that's sort of the next steps for us potentially over the next 12 months or so.

Speaker B: It would be a perfect fit for the independents. I mean the gross. The shopper that you speak about I imagine is absolutely shopping in those places. You know, I mean, uh, I'm your shopper, I'm buying that. That's where I shop. And there's some very significant multi site operators. Right. Like through the Rich group for instance, etc.

Speaker C: Yeah. So we're talking to a few and um, that's definitely a way for us to also test it because you know getting a full shelf and putting a full range through Woolworths and coals is a big challenge to get them across the line. Whereas we wanted to test it with an independent. There's more appetite for that as well.

Speaker B: Mhm. So talk to me about your logistics. If you're delivering, you know, into over 100, what, 130 plus retail stores as in your old brand and now you're going, how did you manage that and has it been vastly different going into Coles and you know, imminently into the Indies in terms of maybe pallet quantities or that process?

Speaker C: Yeah, I'm probably not as close to it as ah, some others in the business, Chelsea. But um, yeah, we've I think like anything we just got to plan it and plan it well in advance. And that's one of the things that we've been able to do with the grocery which is our suppliers have already a direct relationship with the supermarkets. So being able to get into them makes it a bit easier because all of our manufacturing is done locally and it's. And it's shipped directly from manufacturing to those supermarkets.

Speaker B: So what about brand, I mean we've spoken about at the beginning this rolled brand is the awareness is there in terms of you and your management team. How much airtime do you give investing into the Roald brand? And really what does that look like week in, week out? And I ask this because I know the audience thinks a lot about food and drinking, but they don't necessarily think about brand.

Speaker C: The brand is an interesting one. Uh, our brand guardian is my wife. So she's the creator of our brand. And it's, uh, her. She's, uh, not Vietnamese, she's Filipino, but she grew up with me. We've been together for a long time. She understands the essence of it. But we spend pretty much every waking minute talking about our brand, uh, together. And so it's a constant evolution. And, you know, being such a protector of our brand is so important because I think over the journey, there would have been people in our business would have said, let's go in this direction of the brand. But we've held it really tight to control what it's about. And I think that's one of the most important things we've done with the brand over the last 12 years. Not do anything that would dilute it too much. Because we've had many people come to us and go, we want to partner here. Uh, we want to launch your product into this place. We want to do this, that. And we just go, you know what? It might be lots of money, but we know what our long term end game is. And it's not necessarily to dilute the brand. The short term. We've got a long term game plan.

Speaker B: If we just talk about your logo and maybe some icons that you have with rolled today. From my perspective, there's a real refinement and I imagine that, I mean, you know, kudos to your wife. Um, she's obviously got a fantastic eye. Well, clearly. But, um, uh, but besides that, like, I think often with QSR, it's punch in your face, old school McDonald's, Hungry Jacks or Burger King, KFC, Etc. Roald is not that.

Speaker C: Thank you. No, I think she would be. She'll be very glad to hear that. And yeah, we're not, uh, I don't think we need to necessarily put it. Put it right there in your face all the time. And yeah, like I said, we want to play homage to where it all has come from. Again, this is. It's Vietnamese food. We don't pretend to be authentic, authentic Vietnamese food. We pretend to. We say, uh, we take inspiration from Vietnamese food. And that's where you see all of our product has some sort of connection to Vietnam or our story. And I think that's a really important one. And, you know, we like to. We actually like to say, let the food do the talking. Um, in our brand. Yeah. In our business. And I think that's something. And. But we uh, are. The more and more we grow and the more and more consumers eat us, uh, our brand obviously becomes a really big stalking point with a lot of them as well.

Speaker B: Over the last 14 years that you've been in this business and you've probably, you know, you pivoted through Covid and you've probably expanded and contracted as all businesses have over periods of time. What would you say? Knowing that the people listening want to develop a product probably out of hospitality. What would you say is your biggest aha. Or even, you know, your biggest moment where you went, I should have done that. I should have chased that.

Speaker C: I'm probably saying it right now actually, Chelsea. Which is, uh, we should be chasing it uh, harder. Yeah. And uh, I think just gotta be really smart with where the investment goes and find the right partners. So we've taken on a fair bit of external consulting advice because those that have done it before will save you a lot of money as well in that whole process. But also leading into if you've got a strong brand in the QSL world and you want to shift into it, lean into the supermarket side, get their advice. Because you know what, they might be skewed and biased sometimes, but uh, you know what, they're the buyers in the end. Yeah. As well. So I think that's a realization, uh, for us is we talk to them quite regularly to get their advice on what to do rather than hiding away. We are very honest and open. Go. This is not working. And they obviously would know it as well. So having that uh, open and honest conversation earlier is important. It's probably what we didn't do for the first couple of years coming out

Speaker B: of COVID You mean you didn't lean into that relationship as much as. Right. Okay. I mean I think that the buyers as a. My experience is a double edged sword to your point that they've got their finger on the pulse. They have the data which most brand owners can't afford to buy. You can really only see your own data, not necessarily category data or industry trends etc. So they have that, which is fantastic. But equally I find too that they haven't run business, so they haven't got and they're not paying for it with the money that's coming out of their back pocket. There's also um, I think that bias towards buying their own media, which is super expensive. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker C: No, I think that all those points are very valid, Chelsea. You know, and I think we've gone through all those evolutions with them and had those debates and arguments with all the uh, with all the buyers and the media people within supermarkets. But I think uh, anyone that's wanting to make that transition needs to be aware that it's an expensive exercise and it needs a lot of focus because it's not the same as obviously running a restaurant.

Speaker B: No, that's right. So is your team. Now you talked about your exec chef who looks at mpd, particularly in grocery. How do you have your hierarchy or not your hierarchy, your org chart. Yep. Set up. Uh, maybe if you could go into a bit of detail around the roles that you have in your business that for sure.

Speaker C: So we have a um, national marketing manager who oversees all of our marketing across the board, including grocery. And then we have digital, like a national digital head of digital. We have our uh, head of comms and we have head of pr. They all have bits and pieces to play within the grocery space. But I think that's an evolution of what we're trying to look for now. So as we grow the grocery division, we feel like we need a dedicated marketing resource to drive content, to drive innovation and branding within the grocery space. So that's definitely the next step that we're looking at at the moment.

Speaker B: Bao, is there anything that I haven't, I haven't asked you today that you want to mention or you think people need to know?

Speaker C: No, I think m. Ultimately I think people have a lot of different perceptions on the roll business, but we are a Melbourne born business. Uh, we've grown out of Australia. It's a lot of family recipes. Uh, one of the recipes is like my mum's recipe which is the pho recipe and it's actually passed down through three generations. And so up um, until a couple of years ago, Mum actually used to make every single packet that went to all of our stores around the country. And so sometimes it's not consistent, but that's absolutely something that we're absolutely driving towards improving all the time and that's always safe. We're, you know, we're a locally made Australian business which is great.

Speaker B: Well, I mean you're born in Australia, right?

Speaker C: I was born here, but uh, yeah, beautiful family. And that's where the focus is for sure.

Speaker B: And plans um, for export.

Speaker C: Uh, not at the moment. Yeah, we haven't sort of spoken about that just yet. We have, we have open stores in New Zealand now. Um, and we're looking to open stores in other countries. But um, it's probably about a three or four year horizon away for US to really export this product, and we see it following on expansion of our stores as well.

Speaker B: Yeah. Well, congratulations. I mean, I just think your product is delicious, and I. It gives me choice, because I'm not getting a butter chicken and rice in the, um, you know, maybe once every blue moon. Don't get me wrong. I love butter chicken.

Speaker C: I love butter chicken and rice.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But if I was eating that, you know, for work lunches, for instance, I'd be fatty boomba. And I don't need that.

Speaker C: No, it's always balances of what I say, Chelsea. I. I like to eat the worst of it like anyone else, but I love to eat as. As healthy as I can when I need to, as well. And I think that's what we are. Uh, we're a choice. We're an alternative choice and an option, and we know that people aren't gonna eat it every single day. That's fine. But one of the benefits of our menu in our stores, but. But also even in our groceries, that you can have four or five different products, you can have a rice paper all one day, you can have a pho. Another day, you can have a banh mi. Another day, you can have a bao or another day. And so that's the flexibility around the cuisine as well. And they're all pretty healthy with herbs and veggies and stuff that a lot of other options don't have.

Speaker B: Yeah. I imagine there's not too many calories in rice noodles.

Speaker C: No, it's actually like, if you think about the comparisons, and we've done this in the past, we've compared it to sushi and those sort of things, it's significantly healthier.

Speaker B: A m. Lot of sugar in sushi. Don't know about.

Speaker C: You said it, Chelsea. I didn't say it, but I get into trouble if I say it too much.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, yeah, I love it, but I know that, too. Yeah, I said it for you. And that wasn't even just about me.

Speaker C: I'll apologize to my friends that own sushi, uh, chains, but they know that as well.

Speaker B: Hey, Val, where can people find out more about Roald support you and maybe connect with you?

Speaker C: You can jump on our website, roald.com or, uh, hit me up on LinkedIn. I'm happy to respond in due course. I'm not, uh, the greatest in responding, but I will respond to all messages on LinkedIn. But, yeah, you can find me and communicate with us that way. That'd be great.

Speaker B: Excellent. Thank you so much for your time today. And you know what? What an amazing pioneer. You know, I'm not just giving you platitudes. It's for sure. I mean to have the vision that you have. And I wish you and your team m just such longevity, an amazing product and brand. And um, I'm not sure whether or not I'll start cooking with your products in home because I do it is a bit more to go to the store, but I'll try.

Speaker C: Thank you very much for having me, Chelsea. I really appreciate your time and uh, thanks for the conversation. I really enjoyed it.

Speaker B: Take care, Val. Bye.

Speaker C: Cheers. Bye.

Speaker B: Uh,

Speaker A: Thanks again for tuning in to another episode of Principle of Hospitality. I hope you enjoyed it. And as always, this is a business to business podcast podcast. So please like, comment, share and subscribe. But most importantly, share with your friends in the industry. We're making this content with the industry in mind and the reason why we can keep doing what we do is if you share along until next time.