David Sangar, when he was Managing Director of Rollover, fell into hotdogs. He had totally other plans for the business. Yet strangely, thanks to hotdogs, he ended up being far more successful and becoming a multi millionaire.
David started the business by setting up sandwich shops. Then a pub coerced him into supplying them with one of the hotdog machine that he used in his shops- that used top quality, tasty sausages and french bread. Word spread and, before he knew it, Rollover was supplying far more hotdog machines than sandwiches. Funny how life turns out.
In time Rollover ended up supplying many of the football stadia, entertainments parks….even organisations as well-known as Legoland. When David came to sell the business it had reached £10m revenue pa and he received more money from the sale than he had thought possible! Quite a success story.
How on earth were hotdogs so successful?
Like all the other fast growth companies I have tracked to date Rollover did several things very differently to most companies:
Top quality
When you think of hotdogs you think of cheap, plastic food. Rollover went the other way. They sourced Germany’s top quality bockwurst sausages- with at least 87% pork content and no GM ingredients- and they used French bread. As a result, they stood out like a lighthouse from all the competition. Customers must have been surprised to discover the hotdogs tasted really nice! As a result they added value to the venues that were Rollover’s customers.
Superb Customer Service
Rollover was also clearly different in the way they treated their customers. They bent over backwards to make them happy and to help them be successful. For instance, when a football stadium phoned up in a panic on the day of a match because they had forgotten to book them, David paid one of his staff double money to get everything there on time. They charged the customer nothing extra! Rollover spent lots of time with customers, discussing what worked and how else they might help them. As a result, contracts were extended and revenues increased.
The Family
In the early days of running the sandwich shops staff turnover was a major problem. The type of people they attracted tended to travel and left often without notice. It was a pain and got David thinking. So he went out of his way to build staff loyalty. As people were hired they add their own hand paint print to a wall. David sent each member of staff a birthday card each year with a personal message. What is more, when they hit targets he treated them really well. As well as regular meals out to celebrate new sales wins, when the company achieved its annual targets, David would take them all to Paris or Barcelona! With that, and being paid slightly above the industry norm, he had learnt how to win amazing levels of staff loyalty and to create a team that felt like a family.
Another superb story of fast growth- and how to achieve it. Thank you Rollover.
Does your business do anything similar? I would love to hear from you below.
