The Pie King seeks Peking luck: Harry Cafe de Wheels is rolling into China
GREAT READ: Sydney’s iconic Harry’s Cafe de Wheels is expanding into China, with a deal signed to build up to 300 of the famous pie carts across the country over the next 15 years.
SYDNEY’S iconic Harry’s Cafe de Wheels is expanding into China, with a deal signed to build up to 300 of the famous pie carts across the country over the next 15 years.
Harry’s owner Michael Hannah said he was approached six months ago by two Chinese businessmen who went to school in Sydney and fell in love with the pie-and-peas stand, which has been part of Sydney’s landscape since 1938.
Plans are already under way to build a bakery and open the first shop in Hong Kong or Shenzhen within the next six months.
“Stevi Xu and Sam Mei went to St Andrew’s School in the early 2000s and remembered visiting Harry’s at Woolloomooloo,’’ Mr Hannah said yesterday when announcing the deal.
Hanging the first Harry’s sign in China will be a big moment for the 67-year-old who has turned a single pie cart at Woolloomooloo into a global enterprise.
“There have been a few good-natured quips about how the locals will cope with the Rs in Harry’s but they believe the pies and hot dogs will be a big hit,’’ he said.
Mr Hannah said he was working with his partners to make sure the sites and the food are as authentically Australian as possible.
“It’s important to me that we make sure the brand of Harry’s is protected and the quality of the product we serve over there is equal to that which we provide here”
The beef used will be from Australian cattle farmed in China and is the same meat used in the pies sold in Sydney. The project is fully supported by Austrade.
“It’s important to me that we make sure the brand of Harry’s is protected and the quality of the product we serve over there is equal to that which we provide here,” Mr Hannah said.
“The flour and a lot of other ingredients that are in our pies and can’t be sourced locally will be shipped in containers monthly from Australia.”
The trademark Harry’s shopfronts will be part of the look and feel of the new retail outlets.
“It’s exciting to take a little bit of Australia overseas and I am determined to make it successful, for that reason the contract is performance based. It will work as a partnership,’’ he said.
Mr Hannah won’t reveal what was paid for the franchise but said it could yield millions to Australia in trade over the next decade.
He said he thought Harry’s chicken pies would be particularly popular with the Chinese.
“While the beef pies will be a large part of the franchise ... I think we will be looking at developing pork pies as it is a large part of the Asian diet.’’
There are now 10 Harry’s locations throughout Sydney and Newcastle, with plans for another four to open this year.
HOW HARRY’S BECAME AN ICON
A drunken, late-night pie stop led to the investment of a lifetime for a cashed-up Vietnam veteran, writes Mark Morri
SYDNEY businessman Michael Hannah was a cashed-up young man looking for an investment when he had the idea of buying Harry's Cafe de Wheels.
The Vietnam veteran had made “a bit of money” managing comedian Rodney Rude in the 1980s and had always had a soft spot for the old pie cart.
“I walked past the old pie cart with my mates on the way to the pub and I knew I was home’
“I’d always loved Harry’s, ever since my dad took me in his taxi for a pie when I was a kid more than 50 years ago,” Hannah says.
“Then on March 10, 1970, we landed back in Sydney Harbour from Vietnam and docked at Garden Island. I walked past the old pie cart with my mates on the way to the pub and I knew I was home.’’
The returning soldiers went out on the town and Hannah remembers ending up at Harry’s, drunk and eating a pie with peas and tomato sauce dripping down his shirt.
It would be 18 years before he would return to make an offer to buy the “old cart’’ from then-owner Alex Kuronya, after he stopped off for a pie late one night.
“Alex said let’s chat tomorrow,” Hannah says. “So I went around to his house in Strathfield and we talked about it with his wife, who had just broken her leg and they were looking to slow down a bit.
“He’d had a few offers of around $60,000 and was getting ready to sell. I took a punt and made an offer of $200,000, with me having to pay him off. We shook on it and I rang Rodney.’’
Rude was considered Australia’s funniest man at the time but was perhaps not the most astute businessman — he told his partner he would pass on the deal.
But Hannah was determined to get his hands on Harry's and had big plans for the humble pie stand at Garden Island.
He rang up his ex-fiancee Diana Bliss, who was dating high-flying businessman Alan Bond. Bond helped finance the deal.
“He was a tough bastard to do business with,” says Hannah.
“He saw it as a cash cow. I worked 16 hours a day and all he wanted was the money but I wanted to change it and improve it.’’
Disaster struck a year into the venture when pie suppliers McKay and Boys decided to close down after one of the brothers in the family business got cancer.
“I couldn't find a decent supplier, so I thought, ‘Bugger it, I’ll make them myself,’ even though I had no idea about pastry.’’
Hannah tracked down a woman who had worked for Sargents Pies who gave him a recipe and helped him out.
“I leased a small little cafe in Liverpool St and started making pies,” Hannah says. “There were people getting around the Cross bagging my pies but I stuck at it, found a great pastry cook and things took off. People started talking about Hannah's Pies. Pubs were buying them and selling them around the city.’’
The hot dogs, introduced in the ’70s for visiting American soldiers, came from a supplier in Auburn.
“They were crap, to be honest, so we looked into it and then started making them ourselves.’’
The iconic Harry's was doing good business but the newcomer Hannah's Pies was going gangbusters. Hannah paid Bond off and then took a huge gamble to buy a rundown warehouse in Ultimo.
“It was a dump used as a panel beater’s carpark,” he says.
“But over the years, with a lot of help from some of the guys who I served with in the 5th Battalion Royal Australian Regiment in Vietnam, we turned it into a decent pi-making factory and headquarters for Harry’s.”
Now Hannah's Pies are sold all across Sydney.
Hannah had gone from learning to make his own pies and producing 200 to 400 a day to now churning out 8000 pies and pastries daily.
Originally published as The Pie King seeks Peking luck: Harry Cafe de Wheels is rolling into China
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