CJ’s QSR Group managing director Andrew Firn also revealed plans to trial the chain’s global “restaurant of the future” concept in the country. Since the start of the year, restaurant executives have emphasized maintaining good relationships with suppliers to alleviate cost pressures affecting the QSR and fast casual restaurant industry. The master franchisee of Carl’s Jr. in Australia is no stranger to supply chain management being its biggest challenge for the year, citing the rising costs of lettuce, beef, chicken and buns as some of their biggest issues. Expecting supply chain to be a lingering issue in the next 12 months, CJ’s QSR Group managing director Andrew Firn believes they have another ingredient to assist in mitigating these factors that they can work on and maintain reasonable profitability: menu architecture. The executive said this included changing the size of the products on the menu boards to “better reflect” their actual size and placing items they want to sell in “more predominant” places. Items that have higher cost of goods or ones facing shortage of supply, he added, are made “smaller” on the menu, putting them in places where consumers that want them can still find it. “When you first look at the menu board, you're attracted to the three or four items that we want to sell,” he explained to QSR Media. “Unlike our competitors, many of our guests are new so they don't know the items on the menu. So it's important that we still have a wide range, but try and direct them towards items that we know we can make quickly provid[ing] good, hot, fresh products at a reasonable price.” The group is also applying the same philosophy in their drive-thru channel, responsible for 60% of their sales. For the lunch daypart, items being sold are quick to make and smaller. Dinner, on the other hand, has more premium options such as items featuring their signature Angus beef patties. Growth still on track despite COVID slowdown Currently, the franchisee has 35 restaurants throughout Australia, 17 of which opened since the pandemic started. Last year, CJ’s QSR signed a deal with CKE Restaurants Holdings, which will see the former oversee the development of 130 restaurants, almost two-thirds of the restaurant brand’s updated mission to open up to 200 restaurants over the next ten years. Despite a COVID-forced slowdown, CJ’s QSR signed a new franchisee that is opening a restaurant in Geelong as part of a multi-unit development plan for the region. Five additional restaurants have also been built, with Firn revealing they now expect to reach the 60-store mark by the end of 2023. “We're on track,” he said. “We've got several more [franchisees] going through due diligence. So rather than having us and our existing three franchisees developing…we'll have more people opening up at the same time.” Currently, they are in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, with Firn adding they will enter Tasmania and the Northern Territory next year. “We're not franchising for the sake of franchising. We're looking for skilled operators, people that can invest in either multi-units or do a joint venture with the right operator,” he stressed.