Using your noodle

David Milne and Josh James have built a thriving franchise out of the simple idea of serving freshly prepared Asian food in a cardboard box. By Andrea O’Driscoll.

BACK IN 1996, when David Milne and Josh James opened their first Noodle Box store, the concept of watching your food being cooked to order right in front of your eyes – then served up in a convenient cardboard carton – was certainly novel. Milne had put the idea together while travelling overseas and while it was familiar to some people over here, courtesy of imported American television programs that frequently showed characters eating Asian food directly from a box, no-one had opened up a store.

Inspired by culinary practices in Denmark and Singapore,
Dave Milne (left) and Josh James (right) launched Noodle
Box which is now flourishing as a franchise across Australia. “The idea came about originally when I was in Copenhagen,” explains Milne. “The place where we were staying backed on to Tivoli Gardens where they had market stalls that sold food. Being on a fairly tight budget, we would eat there quite a bit. They served all kinds of different food – Indian, Asian, salads – but they were all presented in these cardboard boxes. Then, when I was on my way home to Melbourne, I passed through the Singapore markets and saw all the open cooking in woks. I basically sat there for two days watching it all happen. It was amazing.”

Milne pitched the idea to James, whom he had met through a mutual friend. “I showed Josh my idea and then we put our heads together and refined the concept before deciding to go into business together,” explains Milne. “Josh’s background is very similar to mine. He’d delved into marketing and had a lot of hospitality experience, having worked in various cafes and restaurants around Melbourne. I did a year of marketing study after year 12, but then decided to head off travelling.”

Milne and James found an ideal location for their first Noodle Box store in the middle of Melbourne’s Chapel Street. “It was a small sandwich bar at the time,” explains Milne, “but we really liked the site. We finally convinced the people in there to sell their business to us so we could get the right location. I think we paid them about $35,000.”

The store is positioned on a corner and is just 29 square metres in size. The kitchen takes up most of the floor space, leaving just enough room for five bar stools in the front window. “The whole thing is a kitchen basically,” says Milne. “I’d seen a few takeaway stores with open kitchens when I was overseas, but nothing Asian. I just thought it was a great concept to show people what was being cooked and how it was being done. Everything from the preparation right through to the cooking process is on display.”

Instant hit

The store was an instant success. “On the first day that we opened, we sold out of food by about three o’clock,” recalls Milne. “Word had spread that you could get Asian food in these boxes and everyone wanted to try it. There was a mad scramble to try and buy more food, and we were struggling to keep up with the Asian chefs. Because we didn’t have a lot of storage facilities we had to take deliveries every day until we were eventually able to extend upstairs and put in a cool room and prep area.”

Twelve months after the opening of the Chapel Street outlet, Noodle Box opened a second store in Melbourne’s cosmopolitan St Kilda. “Our idea was always to have two stores,” explains Milne. “I then looked after St Kilda and Josh stayed in Chapel Street. Things stayed like that for about two years, then we opened a third store in Hawthorn and a fourth out in Doncaster East. After that we started opening a new store every 12 months or so.”

As the business continued to grow Milne and James were approached by a number of franchise companies keen to help them adopt the model. “We got up to about 12 stores before we realised that we couldn’t be everywhere at once,” says Milne. “A lot of people had said to us that it was a good idea for a franchise because it was a fairly simple set up and we had a lot of interest from franchise companies wanting to help us set up. We ended up going with Franchise Developments in 2000.”

Existing outlets sold

The first Noodle Box franchise was sold at the start of 2002. “Because we had 12 stores, the initial thought was to sell off some of our existing stores to relieve some of the pressures on staffing levels and our time,” explains Milne. “Our first franchisee was in Port Melbourne, which was the last store that we had built ourselves. We sold down to eight stores before we started offering green-field sites.”

In 2004 the company moved interstate, opening its first South Australian store in Adelaide. “We experienced fairly rapid growth in Adelaide,” says Milne. “Over a three year period we opened 11 stores. Our strategy was always to open a number of stores there. We needed enough to warrant opening an office. But, as has been the case in every state we’ve moved into, as soon as we open one store the enquiry level shoots up. We moved into Queensland next and our growth there was just phenomenal. At one point we were opening two stores a month over there. We’ve now built over 30 stores in Queensland alone.”

Noodle Box is in every state except the Northern Territory and has 73 stores nationally. It currently has five company stores but there are plans to increase that number over the next 12 to 18 months. In terms of its franchisees, Milne explains that the company looks for drive and commitment.

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