Name	Lenard Poulter
Position	Founding Director (Concepts)
Speaking Topics	Specialty Retailing including; Food, Retail, Franchise, Business, Branding and Marketing, Company History
Speaking Fee	N/A. But would like to have allocated budget donated to a charity of his choice.
Book Through	Katie Truscott Communications Coordinator Lenard’s (07) 3100 7818

“I don’t eat to live but live to eat. I love food with a passion. I love creating it, I love sharing it and I love consuming it.” – Lenard Poulter

One of the true pioneers of value added retailing in Australia, Lenard Poulter first discovered his passions for food and retailing half a century ago, amid the smells and sounds of the Victoria Markets in Melbourne. After pursuing an early career as a meat retailer in one of the world’s toughest retail centres, Len decided to travel and further his education in general food retail, culminating in time spent in London working on the meat displays in Harrods.

Having witnessed an extensive range of prepared foods and meals on his travels, Len expected the Australian market would have progressed in a similar fashion. Upon his return he was surprised to discover that the market had not changed and set about testing the waters by adding a range of sauces and marinades to products in his own store. Demand for readymade products like kebabs and stir-fry soon told him there was a potential niche in the Australian market for convenient pre prepared foods. It wasn’t long before the enterprising Len was boiling lobsters in the backyard and cooking the Sunday roast for his increasing customer base.

After a short period of logistical research, Len determined poultry to be the ideal product, Queensland the ideal location and franchising the ideal system to expand his value added concept. He subsequently opened his first poultry store in Sunnybank Hills, in Brisbane in 1987.

As a successful franchise system requires much more than just retailing skills, Len had to quickly become an expert in leasing, shopping centers, traffic flow and people development. He was also faced with the challenge of building a franchising system that would work for all Lenard’s stores, no matter how unique the location.

Lenard’s celebrates its 20th birthday this year and with 184 stores throughout Australia, Len now focuses his time on public speaking and consulting along with the ongoing development of the company. He still strongly endorses the company’s vision of putting “more Lenard’s chicken on more tables, every day” and is constantly looking for avenues to do just that.

With Lenard’s now extensively positioning itself inside supermarkets and expanding at a rapid rate through New Zealand, his next major challenge is to introduce the franchise into other lucrative overseas markets and to constantly find avenues that may better distribute the Lenard’s product and brand to a wider audience of consumers.

Through public speaking, Len enjoys sharing the philosophies of successful business practices to any interested parties. After twenty years at the helm of Lenard’s, and over 40 years as a retailer, Len has taken up a mentoring role for specialty retailing, with extensive knowledge and understanding of value-adding, marketing and branding, food, franchising and business. 

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Lenard’s has sold more than 170 million chickens, served more than 209 million customers and injected more than $1 billion into the Australian poultry market since the first store opened in Queensland,

The revenue for the last financial year exceeded $140 million and has been growing at an average annual rate of 5% over the last three years.

Lenard’s remains one of the great success stories of Australian retailing.