Simon Crowe

Simon Crowe, Managing Director and Company Founder of Grill'd, decided to do something about the lack of a decent, healthy hamburger in the Australian market.  He positioned Grill'd as the friendly, local specialist burger bar with a healthy bent. Simon firmly believes that the people have been instrumental to the success of Grill'd which is built on passion, a great culture, hard work and a fantastic team.

The business model has commercial viability and strong consumer appeal, capitalising on increasing demand for healthy, great tasting and convenient meal solutions. The success of the concept has led to the decision to franchise the business, an exciting move that will allow Grill'd to reach the next stage in its development and establish itself as Australia's Number 1 premium, healthy burger chain.

Simon always wanted to have his own business, he witnessed the rise of the premium burger phenomenon while living overseas and he has taken what he believes to be the positive attributes of many operations and given it "more than a splash of our own".

Simon was previously International Brand Manager at Foster's Group based in the US where he worked at the company for five years across numerous countries. He was classically trained in sales and marketing at Procter and Gamble, a world-renowned multinational consumer goods company.

The first Grill'd store opened in the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn in March 2004, with many of the burgers incorporating non-traditional quality toppings such as cranberry sauce, roasted capsicum, Brie cheese, avocado, and so forth.  Customers can choose to dine-in or take-away and part of the Grill'd experience is watching the delicious, made-to-order burgers being cooked on the flame grill. The stores are run by three operational virtues; friendliness, cleanliness and urgency.

The overwhelming response to the first store led to the quick succession of multipule stores opening in VIC as well as additional stores in NSW, QLD and WA. Simon is looking forward to taking the concept to new markets!