Kikki.K, which fell into administration in March, has been bought by US rival Erin Condren Design.
Thirty stores and 250 jobs will be retained under the newly restructured business, with 35 stores set to shut and around 200 jobs to be lost. The majority of stores will be Australian-based, with two in New Zealand, one in Singapore, and two in Hong Kong.
Co-founders Kristina Karlsson, who started the business in 2001, and Paul Lacy will continue to run the business and will remain shareholders, with kikki.K operating as an Australian sister company to Erin Condren.
Seems woolworths metros are biting the bullet and relaying their stores, giving up on the premade salad and sandwich section. My local metro used to have almost a whole aisle of it, now its just one shelf.
Its been my hack the last few months, there has been a lot of lunch meals on clearance, $9 down to $1.50, that i eat same day, still good. Way cheaper and easier than buying the ingredients to make it myself.
These businesses fail to realise that these sections work in other countries because the prices are very reasonable and are focused on volume of sales rather than margin. Without fail Australian supermarkets seem to expect they can charge $7 for a sandwich in a small format and see them fly off the shelves.
Until they adjust pricing, UK style grab and go pre-prepared supermarket food isnāt going to work in Australia.
The target market is 9-5 city office workers. they seemed to sell out prior to covid but when everyone is working from home there is clearly no market for it and woolworths realises we are going to be working from home for months to come.
Fear of pricing them too low and not getting the required volume of sales.
It is absolutely outrageous that basic sandwiches are at a minimum $6, if not more in convenience stores and supermarkets here. If they were half that price they would easily shift double, if not more of the volume at least in key locations.
I compare them to what they do in the UK (at Tesco for example) and they seemed a rip-off in Australia. Tesco does a Ā£3 Sandwich Meal Deal where you can have a sandwich, snack and drink for about $6 Australian.
Not bad when youāre travelling and just want a light lunch. It costs at least that much for the sandwich here. A packet of chips and a drink will push you to more than double what youād pay in the UK.
And another thing. The cost of cold Bottled Water in Australia is absolute extortion. Throughout Europe, you find it selling for next to nothing in the fridge at supermarkets, kiosks or take away shops. Here they cost as much as fizzy soft drinks. Itās criminal.
I really like the extra hot food options that Coles Express added - thereās a really nice Mexican bean roll that they occasionally have in stock. Really tasty and cheap.
Yeah Iām aware of how convenience sandwiches are made. I was a customer of Breadwinner who were the biggest provider in Melbourne about 15 years ago. The owners (who subsequently sold up, business is still going under a new name) were ecstatic when they purchased blast chillers and developed recipes which suited frozen sandwiches at it opened up the service station market to them. Small volumes make it hard to provide fresh, but a weekly order of frozen bread products make life easy for retailers. Of course there is still a big market for fresh, but the wastage is much harder to control.