Setting the bar

Rotorua caterer Ryan Gregorash is walking to the beat of a different drum with his award-winning Stolen Bike Catering. He has a bold vision for the city and a paradigm-shifting attitude to business.

From the age of nine Ryan Gregorash wanted to be a chef. He remembers one particular night asking to be excused from the dinner table and cheekily instructing his mum to “add a cup of flavour next time”. Needless to say she offered him the opportunity to cook the family meal every night from then on!

Ryan hasn’t always been a chef but he always wanted to own a restaurant. “I deliberately diversified my career to make sure I was fully prepared for when I did find my business, and I wouldn’t fail,” he recalls. He says it’s ironic that many big-name TV chefs have owned failed restaurants, “because they didn’t know how to run a business”.

So Ryan went out and earned himself a pedigree in business and cooking. He completed a Master’s degree in business at Massey University, plus a degree in professional cookery and culinary arts. He helped Starbucks set up in New Zealand, was business manager for McDonalds New Zealand operating company when McCafé was still in its infancy, and Z Energy where he was employed as a BDM and helped Z’s retailers develop their Z Espress brand.

Rotorua has been Ryan’s base for the past 14 years and he loves the relaxed “humbling” lifestyle, which includes plenty of mountain-biking.

Stolen Bike Catering (the name was sparked by the theft of his $7500 mountain bike) has officially been operating for two years. However Ryan, now 47, spent almost three years trialling and testing the concept while still working as a chef.

He’d spotted a gap in the Bay of Plenty market for a high-end caterer that specialises in “outstanding bespoke menus, handmade in-season flavours and innovative culinary techniques”.

He noted that there was a certain sameness about restaurants and, thanks to the proliferation of food programmes on TV, more people were wanting to host in-house dinner parties. 

“Nobody wants to clean up,” explains Ryan. “People want to relax in their own home and have an outstanding meal – whatever they want, however they want it.”

That’s his primary target market: people with disposable income, who don’t need to ask the price, and the fast-developing luxury tourism sector. 

One recent dinner party he conducted for 40 people was hosted by a Singapore billionaire who owns five-star hotels. But no pressure for Ryan and his team – “they got to taste some pretty unique flavours,” he says (remembering back to the advice he gave his mother!).

Stolen Bike Catering’s competitive advantage in the market is its willingness to move away from the traditional way of doing things and experiment, he says. It comes down to flexibility.

Ryan also has an employee-first strategy, which he admits to borrowing from Richard Branson, and a culture creation focus, attributed to All Blacks coach Steve Hansen.

“I have a small team of seven, including a patisserie chef, sous chef and front-of-house manager. By removing all the obstacles to them doing their job better and being flexible enough so their whole life isn’t interrupted by work, the business functions as it should.

“We don’t put any stress on them outside work hours. We measure success by how smoothly things are going and how much laughter there is in the kitchen.”

Ryan says there are a lot of ‘negative’ kitchen workplaces within the restaurant industry, even though they have the potential to be great ‘positive’ environments.

He says Stolen Bike is in a good place, with year-on-year growth and four equally-balanced and distinct revenue streams – each with their own drivers and style: in-house catering for Crown research institute SCION; an in-house café for the same organisation; corporate catering; and high-end out-catering.

Ryan’s plans include a restaurant (he already has the name and backing but is waiting on a suitable site and opportunity) and a fish ‘n chip shop. The latter excites him because it appeals to all demographics and the local market is crying out for a shop that prefers traditional ‘fresh-made’ over ‘pre-made’. 

“The key is to stick purely to fish and chips and do it really, really well.”

Improvement-driven

Stolen Bike has won four culinary awards (most recently its second NZ Beef and Lamb award) and recently won Best Small Business at the 2018 Westpac Rotorua Business Awards. The judges recognised the company’s strong vision, employee-first strategy and continual drive to improve. 

The whole team was on a high that night, recalls Ryan. “It gave them emotional ownership of the business.” 

Catering enquiries subsequently sky-rocketed. It validated all his efforts in building his business from absolute scratch; a business that will be his legacy.

Ryan’s hot on motivation and what drives people. His favourite question, often to himself, is: ‘would you have performed better at something if you’d been given a million dollars?’

“Of course the answer’s ‘yes’. However with that incentive, while the skill set may not change, the motivation certainly does.” 

Find what motivates people, he says, and apply it to everyday tasks. He gets great pleasure out of watching his team grow, all the while maintaining high standards. 

“Now they don’t have to come to me and ask ‘is this good enough?’. They know!”

Ryan’s advice for other aspiring business owners in the food industry is to be patient, be positive and well-prepared. Diversify and develop business acumen, he says. 

“Learn everything there is to know about the trade; perhaps run someone else’s restaurant for a while. “Or go and do something completely different that challenges your skill set on a new level.

“There’s no point owning a restaurant just to work 120 hours per week and then fail after two years.”

If you don’t have the answers – know where to get them, Ryan says – adding that his next personal goal is to engage a mentor and develop governance skills that will take his business to the next level. 

Looking ahead, the aim is to keep developing Stolen Bike’s high-end catering experience with its bespoke menus. “Challenging ourselves on a unique level.”

He says a good example of this was a recent BBQ lunch in the forest featuring wild pulled pork, venison, crayfish and lamb strap.

Ryan will continue to promote a paradigm shift in people’s thinking on catering. It’s not just about how much you want to spend; it’s about what style and level of restaurant you want to dine out at.

And, of course, he’ll continue on his quest to make Rotorua a destination for culinary excellence.