When this year’s stay-at-home order was announced, Ali Chebbani, owner of popular burger truck Chebbo’s Burgers, didn’t panic. Instead of immediately switching to takeaway, he relished the opportunity to develop a new arm of his business that he dreamed up during the lockdown of 2020 but never got a chance to launch. The result is Chebbo’s Burger Kits, a complete package of ingredients to make his popular ‘smash’ burgers at home, that his team delivers all over Sydney. Within a few weeks, the kits were bringing in 70 per cent of the profits he was making with the food truck, with plans to expand in the very near future.
After spending the first few weeks of this year’s lockdown ironing out the process, he launched the burger kits at the end of July, with orders opening on Tuesdays. For the first month, he capped the number of orders at 130, producing 600-650 individual burgers per week.
“Due to a lack of overheads and utilities and more accurate produce orders, I’ve been able to keep a very close eye on profit margins and we’ve been doing really well,” Chebbani says. “Overall, we’re making more per burger [compared to the burger truck] due to the lack of overheads.”
Now that he’s ironed out the kinks in the process, he’s ready to expand. “We’re aiming to fulfil around 300 to 400 orders per week. That’s a sustainable amount that will allow us to put care into each kit, while still topping our weekly burger truck sales.”
The success of the kits is partly due to the groundwork Chebbani did in last year’s lockdown. He started posting burger tutorials on TikTok for his classic smash burger and other creative editions – his social following skyrocketed; he now has 643,000 followers with fans all over the world. The smash burger, a cheeseburger style that originated in the US, consists of pressing the patty onto the hot grill to maximise the caramelisation from the Maillard reaction and create a flavourful crust. “People didn’t have much to do in lockdown, so it was the perfect recipe for success.” Fans would attempt to make his recipes and he’d repost them, with the best winning a prize.
That’s when Chebbani got the idea for the kits. “My DMs were full of people asking where to get certain ingredients,” he says. “It makes a big difference when you can get the right kind of buns, and the special sauces – I wanted to help people take their burgers to the next level.”
Since the start of this lockdown, he’s picked up 50,000 new followers. “Growth on Instagram has been the most interesting,” says Chebbani. “It’s only been a few hundred new followers but I know that they’re all organic – as they [found me] through story posts of customers making the kits.”
Along with opening orders on Saturdays as well as Tuesdays, Chebbani has added a fried onion burger to the menu and wants to offer novelty flavours once a week or fortnight. “I want people to be able to cook the burgers I make on TikTok, that are too logistically hard to present,” he says. A recent example is the Polynesian burger, with a beef patty, cheese, corned beef, mustard, mayo, sweet potato, red onion and lettuce.
The burger kits have allowed him to reach a wider audience, too. Chebbani delivers within a 25km radius from his Punchbowl headquarters, and will go as far as 40km to the west. “We’ve delivered a fair few to Penrith, and to the north as well. It’s nice to see that people who may not have had access to the food truck [which is based in Roselands] are now ordering the kits.” It’s also meant that Chebbani has been able to hire mates who have lost work. “A lot of my friends are tradies, or are in industries that have been shut down. It’s been a great way to help them out and give them a sense of security.”
Chebbani has no plans to stop the burger kits when lockdown lifts. “I want to be able to offer them every day, for birthdays and events.” And the truck? “I’m confident the truck will be as good as ever. People have missed out for so long.” As fun as it is to recreate it at home, there’s nothing quite as good as eating your favourite burger without the washing up.
chebbos.com
Instagram: instagram.com/chebbosburgers
Facebook: facebook.com/chebbosburgers
TikTok: tiktok.com/@chebbo
YouTube: youtube.com/chebbo
The NSW Government via Destination NSW is sharing a series of NSW Success Stories – businesses of all types that have adapted their offerings to face the current environment and continue serving their community with a fresh approach and shining success. These innovative initiatives are nothing short of inspiring.
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