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Fuelling up will mean more to Gisborne Shell service station customers than just petrol when
Shell and Burger King open the first of their planned chain of gas and burger stops.
The gas station restaurant is the first tangible result of the 50% shareholding in TPF Restaurants, the holding company of Burger King in New Zealand, taken by Shell New Zealand last year. Burger King's director of marketing, Graeme Plum, said the joint facility was the reasonhalf the company had been sold to Shell. "They have the experience, the resources and the sites," he said. Gisborne will be the 26th Burger King site in New Zealand. Most of the restaurants are in the northern half of the North Island and all are company owned as opposed to its main rival, McDonald's, which mainly franchises. Mr Plum said the company had plans to run up to 60 restaurants by the end of 1998. Burger King had no presence in the South Island but would develop there once the distribution logistics, training and management programmes had been sorted out in the North Island. He said Gisborne was the first of many provincial centres to see a Burger King this year. Some would be stand-alone restaurants. Others, depending on site availability, would be developed on Shell service station sites. In cases where the restaurant was adjacent to a Shell station, the restaurant would have a landlord/tenant relationship with Shell. |