Toowoomba franchise kings and queens revealed

Go behind the scenes of Toowoomba’s franchisees and see how they managed to build their empires. Here are our homegrown success stories:

They’re the cornerstone of the small business community, but who are the people behind Toowoomba’s most popular franchises?

From homegrown chicken rivalry, love out of a pizza box and a uni dropout becoming the Garden City’s Big Mac king, meet the people behind our franchises.

Darren and Deb Ramm – Domino’s Pizza

Pizza has been an integral part of Darren and Deb Ramm’s life in more ways than one.

The couple first met when they were working at the same Domino’s store in Wyalla in 1998, with Deb starting as store manager one week after finishing high school, while Darren began his Domino’s journey in Brisbane, before the prospect of helping to run the Domino’s Wyalla store lured him to the Darling Downs.

Six years later the pair were married, and they embarked on building their business empire by purchasing the store that brought them together in the first place in 2009.

“A few years later we decided the time was right to expand, taking on our second store, Domino’s Westridge, in 2015. While we were inspired to become franchisees after watching others at Domino’s take a similar journey, our biggest factor was, and still is, our love for Domino’s, pizza, and of course, the local Toowoomba and the greater Darling Downs community, who we are able to give back to in our role as local small business owners,” Mrs Ramm said.

Darren and Deb Ramm are married and the owners of Domino's stores in Toowoomba. Photo Rachael Murray / The Chronicle

“Our journey would not have been such a wonderful experience, or success, without the many days and nights of hard work spent making pizzas ourselves in our two stores! But most importantly, our success is in large part due to the fantastic team we have built over the years. We really couldn’t do it without them.”

In 2011 the Ramms helped support the Toowoomba community during one of its darkest hours, when they kept their store open day and night to provide free pizzas to families in need and to emergency service volunteers during the disastrous flooding that hit the city.

In 2019 the husband-and-wife team took out Domino’s Big Red Award, which recognises the franchisee with the highest average weekly unit sales for the year, for their stores at East Toowoomba, Westridge and Wyalla.

(Centre) Deborah and Darren Ramm receiving the Big Red Award.

Mark Ward – McDonald’s

When Toowoomba businessman Mark Ward bought his first McDonald’s store in 1999, he “never set out to be the McDonald’s king”.

Now, some 22 years later, he has become exactly that.

Mr Ward began his association with the golden arches in 1990 when he was employed as a trainee manager, dropping out of his business studies at University of Southern Queensland in the process.

In just two years he became store manager of an Ipswich restaurant and then went on to be a supervisor of the area.

In 1999, Mr Ward bought the McDonald’s on Margaret St, adding another store one year later before the portfolio expanded dramatically in 2016 when he bought three restaurants from previous Maccas king Keith Beer.

Mr Ward’s McDonald’s portfolio now includes eight stores in the Garden City, including Wilsonton, Clifford Gardens, Westbrook and Bridge Street.

“This has been a result not a goal, I never set out to be the McDonald’s king – I wanted to own them all but not for the ego,” he said in 2016.

Kym and Hamish Munro – McDonald’s

While Mark Ward’s footprint on the Toowoomba McDonald’s landscape is about as big as their mascot’s shoes, in recent years another fast food franchise empire has arisen.

After buying their first franchise in Chinchilla in 2012, Kym and Hamish Munro have since expanded to buy a store in Dalby and in 2021 snapped up the Harristown store, the last owned by previous Maccas king Keith Beer.

“Keith was really good to deal with, we first spoke in December and the deal was done in March,” Mrs Munro said in 2021.

“Being in Toowoomba has really opened us up — now we’ve got a big market and a cracking store.”

Mark and Hazel Johnstone – Subway

The mother and son duo own nine Subway franchises across Toowoomba and the Darling Downs, employing more than 100 locals.

They opened their first store on Margaret Street in August 1994 and now operate several across the region.

Their passion for the Subway brand has led them to be among the first stores in the world to debut new menu items and new branding.

Subway franchisees Hazel and Mark Johnstone were proud Toowoomba was the site of a new-look Subway at The Intersection, on the corner of Alderley and Ruthven Sts, complete with a drive through service, Tuesday, June 19, 2018.

The store, at The Intersection precinct, was billed as a Fresh Forward Subway, and was also the Garden City’s first to feature a drive-through option.

In 2009 Mark and Hazel Johnstone were recognised as being six out of more than 15,000 franchisees to be named Franchisees of the Year at Subway’s international awards.

Kris Klarich – Super Rooster

When Ray and Elena Klarich started a little take away chicken shop in the Southtown Shopping Centre in 1983, they had no idea it would go on to become a Toowoomba icon.

Now expanding to three stores across the city, Super Rooster built its success on a unique seasoning recipe drawing upon the Klarich’s European background.

“My wife’s background is Italian and my background is Croatian and between us we came up with a recipe that was well advanced for the time, because 30-odd years ago Mediterranean food wasn’t that popular,” Mr Klarich said in 2017.

“There wasn’t any magic marketing, just a delicious, good, old-fashioned product, cleanliness and good service.”

Super Rooster owner Kris Klarich. Photo: Bev Lacey / The Chronicle

Taking over the family business was son Kris, who now owns and operates the Super Rooster stores in South Toowoomba, North Toowoomba and Wilsonton employing almost 100 people.

Last year travel company Wotif named Super Rooster as a finalist in Wotif’s ‘Uniquely Aussie Awards’, and was the only Queensland business on the hot chip list.

Penny Dowling – Crackerjack Chicken

In the world of business, there’s always rivalry. In the tech world, it’s Microsoft v Apple, Coke and Pepsi have duked it out for more than a century and in Toowoomba, the ultimate chicken rivalry is that of Super Rooster, and Crackerjack.

Forget the blood feud between the Montagues and Capulets, ask any Garden City local where they stand on the issue of who roasts the best chook and you could have a friend or an enemy for life.

Penny Dowling with her kids Hunter and Bridie who have been featured in promotional material for the popular chain Crackerjack Chicken. Picture: Kevin Farmer

For the past seven years Penny Dowling has owned and operated the chain’s four stores at East Toowoomba, Wyalla Plaza, Westridge Plaza and Highfields Shopping Centre.

The decision to dive headfirst into the famous chicken store, which has been operating in Toowoomba for 22 years, came after her husband met the previous owner at the cricket.

“He said he was thinking about selling so my husband told me and I immediately said lets do it,” she said.

“I had been a nurse for 12 years prior to that but after my son had some health difficulties as a child I didn’t want to do something that took up all my time.”

After initially working 18 hour days for two years straight, Ms Dowling said she now has the work-life balance she wanted when first buying into the business.

While Covid disrupted plans in 2020 to expand the business, Ms Dowling won’t rule out future franchises opening in south east Queensland and beyond.

“We have a very extensive menu and everything is fresh, we don’t do frozen products,” Ms Dowling said

“The chickens arrive at 8am every morning and they’re hand stuffed and hand cooked individually, they’re filleted and crumbed fresh and cooked to order.

“We support local producers all the way, and it’s real honest food.”

No stranger to charity endeavours, the stores held a special fundraising initiative to support the NSW Rural Fire Brigade during the devastating 2019-2020 bushfires.

Reddy Goguri – Oporto

A relative newcomer to the list, Mr Goguri first moved to Australia from India nine years ago but despite having an MBA found he had difficulty with the language barrier, and began his career at Oporto as a crew member.

In 2013 he and his wife moved from Sydney to Toowoomba, and four years later he opened the first Oporto store in the Garden City.

Excited to open Oporto Toowoomba was franchisee Reddy Goguri.

“I used to work at Oporto as a crew member and always hoped to open my own store,” he said on the store’s opening day.

”We really want to introduce spicy food through our chicken and burgers.”

In late 2021 it was revealed Oporto would open its second store in Toowoomba on the corner of Anzac Ave and Devine Street in Harristown.

It’s understood Mr Goguri will also manage the second store, with developer Campbell Knox hoping to open the drive-through restaurant by April this year.

Originally published as Toowoomba franchise kings and queens revealed