Multi-site facilities like QSR chains or department stores have unique needs when it comes to asset and facility management. Without the ability to track assets across all locations, details can get missed, assets can get misplaced, and whole-of-life costs become an unknown ––leading to expensive maintenance and increased risk of downtime.
Internal standard operating procedures can fall through the cracks and ad-hoc service requests such as electrical and plumbing work become challenging to coordinate across sites. Staff working across multi-site stores also need easy access to centralised information on assets and services, so that technicians aren’t inadvertently called out and small fixable issues can be self-corrected.
With so many moving parts, it becomes near impossible to run a multi-site efficiently without a good asset and facility management system in place.
This is how two multi-sites––Grill’d and David Jones––use mendrhub as a key platform to reduce downtime, save money, and make life easier for their staff.
Grill’d
Popular Australian-owned food chain Grill’d Healthy Burgers was founded in Melbourne in 2004. Today it has 150 restaurants nationwide, comprising a mix of company-owned outlets and franchise partners. Delivering on its promise of fresh, healthy burgers, Grill’d prides itself on 100% natural and locally sourced ingredients, and is distinguished from its competitors by its community outreach programs and 4,000+ friendly staff.
“We didn’t want to pull something off the shelf and then be told we need to make it fit. We wanted something that we could partner with and develop together that had the potential to grow.” – Chris Woodward, National Facilities Manager, Grill’d Healthy Burgers
The challenge
Grill’d recognised it had outgrown its small business approach to facilities management. In order to sustain its growth, the company needed a flexible asset and facility management solution that could accommodate planned growth globally, capture detailed equipment data, and provided a user-friendly mobile experience for staff.
Our solution
Mendrhub specialises in the areas that Grill’d required, comprehensively supporting digital service calls, equipment maintenance, supplier management, in-app triaging and workflow automation. With the mendrhub system in place, Grill’d now has access to:
- Complete asset and facility management, including whole-of-life activity tracking and cost measurement, centralised work order control, inventory control and real-time analytics
- The mendrhub Restaurant App with a simple user interface that makes it easy to identify equipment, request jobs, triage problems and track service history
- Contractor management and risk mitigation, giving Grill’d greater visibility over external contractors and ensuring all work carried out is thoroughly documented
“What I like about this platform is that contractors must sign in and out using the tech app, so we’ve got greater visibility of when they’re actually on-site, what they’re doing and the repair notes. Which is huge.” – Chris Woodward, National Facilities Manager, Grill’d Healthy Burgers
The results have spoken for themselves. Staff across all stores are able to log tasks quickly with the new user-friendly platform, administrative work has been reduced with automation, a self-triage process has saved costs, and Grill’d has been able to forge stronger partnerships with its most valued contractors. The system is set up to scale as the company continues to expand. Integrating mendrhub has made for happier staff, happier customers, and a happier bottom line.
David Jones
David Jones is Australia’s leading premium retailer, renowned for its exclusive products and sophisticated style, offering the finest local and international brands. In late 2023, David Jones launched Amplify, its in-house retail media business.
Amplify offers brand partners and advertisers access to more than 63 window activations, 166 digital screens, and 267 in-store placements. Amplify has become one of Australia’s largest retail media ecosystems, attracting over 65 million annual store visitors and generating 100 million digital views.
The challenge
While the introduction of digital screens presented an innovative and scalable revenue-generating opportunity, David Jones recognised that effective asset management was critical to long-term success.
The business relied heavily on manual recordkeeping and lacked an accurate asset register. Service issues were raised through a busy support centre, which often struggled to coordinate timely communication with service providers.
“We’re protecting our brand. We’re protecting our assets. We can’t risk investing a significant amount of money into a project and then putting all that in the hands of someone else. We want to own all of our information. We want to protect our assets.” – Samantha Dick, Operations Lead, Visual Merchandising & Store Environment Projects, David Jones
Our solution
After launching mendrhub across all 42 David Jones stores in November 2024, the benefits were instantly apparent. Mendrhub gave the company access to:
- A centralised asset register that held records of every digital asset, ensuring continuity even if a service provider exits
- Service booking via a user-friendly David Jones branded mobile app for store staff to log service jobs
- Branded asset data that makes identifying and reporting faults simple and automatic
- Streamlined service provider and logistics management
- Predictive maintenance
- Simpler invoicing, as quotes no longer needed to be submitted across multiple departments
“We can oversee and log in at any time and see what the issues are, but we don’t need to be the ones navigating all of these issues because everything is automated. It’s so seamless. It was an absolute game-changer, particularly last Christmas. It was quite evident that this was working for us.” – Samantha Dick, Operations Lead, Visual Merchandising & Store Environment Projects, David Jones
By partnering with mendrhub, David Jones was able to establish a robust multi-site asset management solution, improve logistics, warehouse management and maintenance, and find substantial time and cost savings through workflow automation. Not only that, but the mendrhub system gives the company extra peace of mind, knowing their assets are accounted for and monitored closely.
To Wrap Up
Australian multi-site giants like Grill’d and David Jones use mendrhub every day to improve their work processes and ultimately, their bottom line. From complete asset and facility management and comprehensive service and cost tracking to easy-to-use branded mobile apps for service requests, the mendrhub system is an innovative solution for any multi-site company looking for greater visibility and control.
Wondering what mendrhub might look like for your multi-site? Book a short chat today – our team is always happy to answer any questions.