Photo: Supplied by Toastie Lords
The humble toastie is flying out the door of Picton business Toastie Lords.
Founded in 2021, the business is so successful they now have their eyes set on national expansion.
Emma Faith and her husband Brendan Faith, along with their business partner Taylor Hamilton, started the shop with a hunch that nostalgia for the tasty, toasted treat would bring punters through the door.
"There's something so iconic and Kiwi in the toastie, there's definitely that element of nostalgia we all have of coming home from school and mum putting a toastie on the grill for us.
"So, we knew from the get-go it was probably going to be quite a well-received idea," Taylor Hamilton told RNZ's Nine to Noon.
Their hunch proved right, they sold 75,000 toasties in 2023 and this year is set to top that.
Keeping the menu streamlined is the key to turning toasties into profit, Hamilton said.
"We were going to stick to one thing, toasted sandwiches, and we were going to do it really well, and that meant we didn't have to have a huge number of offerings on the menu.
"And through doing that, not only are we able to minimise our wastage, but we're also able to ensure the product is super consistent."
Good cheese, great bread and lashings of butter makes for a great toastie, she said.
"You've got to have a great mixture of cheeses, and you've got to have a really good bread that gives great crunch and texture."
Now they want to take the concept nationwide, having tested the idea with pop-ups in Christchurch, Wellington and Hamilton, she said.
"We did just under a week at each of those locations and we sold out every single day at all three pop ups."
The next step is getting franchisees on board, she said.
"We've spent the last year really solidifying our business model and our procedures, and now we're at the stage where we are advertising and interviewing and meeting with potential candidates.
"So, it's moving pretty quickly. It's very exciting."
