Flying Turtle Cafe: Working smarter to give the customers what they want
It’s a tough, competitive world out there in Rarotonga’s hospitality sector, with every outlet cooking up a storm of delicious favourites for the tourism market-fresh seafood and loads of tropical fruit and vegetables – and burgers and chips to treat local tastes.
Pre-covid, vegan owner of Flying Turtle Café Julie Tamaariki had an idea, based on her own experience of not being able to find good healthy plant-based food options on the Island. Her idea was to develop a new business model for the cafe, introducing a plant-based menu and a wellness retreat to complement Ariki’s adventure tourism and accommodation business.
The rollout of the new plant-based menu in the summer of 2020 was making real traction but had to be modified when border closures effectively cut revenue by 80%. Committed to offering healthy food to locals as well as tourists, Flying Turtle got by “with a lot of sushi”, expertly made by their new Fijian chef – even providing sushi to the local school one day a week as a healthy lunchtime alternative.
The café has evolved from an opportunity Julie identified to open a coffee cart next to the tour booking office; that cart has grown, morphed and morphed again into a sizeable café. With the recent border closure in 2021, the café is now their only viable business. There are no customers booking tours or accommodation, and the café has reverted to supplying the local market.
Julie’s experience is not in the hospitality sector, however, and when she found out about BLP’s subsidy through the local Chamber of Commerce, she quickly applied. The 2020 lockdown brought to light many business skills which were lacking at the café. The objective was to save money, minimise wastage, and identify what customers want, and when they want it.
Tim Tierney, local food guru, was appointed as advisor to Flying Turtle Café and immediately brought about significant change. In hindsight, Julie can see they were “throwing money out the door by not understanding costings, purchasing, and offering an inefficient menu”.
Acknowledging that their trained café staff were only qualified to work in the café, Julie was determined to keep the business running and to keep her staff on board for that future time when tourists return in droves. Surviving on government wage subsidies, many of their foreign staff headed for greener pastures in New Zealand where they traded a tropical climate for higher wages in fruit picking or meatpacking.
BLP’s subsidy has meant Julie’s café has had advice and mentoring from a true industry leader. Tim Tierney has introduced menu planning, costings spreadsheets, and careful purchasing planning. They buy smarter, utilising the same ingredient in several dishes; Julie now makes her vegan aioli for all purposes rather than making a non-vegan alternative. It’s delicious, and it’s cost-effective!
Tim also identified other aspects of the business to open up a wider market for the café. For example, adjusting café opening hours. Originally open from 7 am to noon, but Tim pointed out that tourists generally breakfast at their resort, then might want something else in the early afternoon, so they changed; and now, with no tourists, they are mixing up the menu and again changing opening hours to target the local dinner market for people on their way home from work.
In the future, Julie and Tim will work together on the planned wellness retreat and the different issues of catering for full-day or weekend retreats. In the meantime, Julie couldn’t be happier with what BLP’s subsidy has achieved, “without a doubt, this service has exceeded our expectations”. “We all feel good about the sustainability of the business. We have better control of our spending and income and know we can survive on this status quo until the tourists come back.”
BLP supports an extensive network of advisory partners across the pacific islands, who offer services in 15 different areas, including accounting, marketing, human resources, diversity and inclusion and business strategy.
To get in contact with a BLP business advisor, businesses that employ 5 to 50 employees can use the free self-assessment online tools, such as the Business Health Check and the Continuity planner. Also, companies can book a free face-to-face consultation in the countries where BLP operates to go through the business diagnostic, a comprehensive assessment of business needs and opportunities. Based on the assessment results, businesses are provided with a list of Business Advisory Service Providers that can help address relevant business needs.
Visit Business Link Pacific Portal to use our free self-assessment online tools or book a local consultation in your country. Country contacts.