Tom from GYG Gold Coast

I’m Tom Graham. I’m a franchisee of Guzman and Gomez with 7 restaurants on the Gold Coast and I’ve been working with the business since 2011.
What was it like to work with DCB Developments?
To sum it up, I would say very easy. I’m not a builder, and I never had experience in the building industry – one of the main reasons I use the DCB team is because of my confidence in them in their own experience. And it gives me a lot of comfort as we go into new projects and new developments having them on my side – my lack of experience and knowledge in that path of the development in the business is in good hands with that team.
What is it about the DCB Developments process that stands out from other competitors?
I certainly think that working with the team there, I get a lot of visibility in what they’re doing and how they go about their process. I don’t feel there’s anything being hidden or kept secret or any grey area. It’s very much an open book process which gives me a lot of comfort.
What is it about your partnership with them that you value the most?
You sum it up in a very simple way, that it’s a partnership. Quite often I think there are very easy opportunities for development owners, operators or business owners to then rely on the builder and the project managers to come to it as a partnership, but in many cases that’s not necessarily the case. I think this is absolutely a partnership. And I take a lot of value out of that and I think that flows then through to transparency and honesty, there’s nothing hidden – you know? Everything the DCB says they will do is what you get.
If there’s any advice you could give a potential client of DCB, what would it be?
Christian might not like me saying this, but quite often you can – when you go into the process of building a new restaurant in my instance and you approach a number of different builders – it’s a race to the bottom in terms of pricing. And many operators and owners go down that path of forcing people for the rest of the bottom and that’s not necessarily the process I take. And if it means paying a slightly higher price for a better outcome, that’s the approach we take and with my lack of knowledge in building and development, I’m more willing to take that approach because I know the quality of the work that’s done, the timeliness of it, the fixtures that we’re using – all those things there aren’t corners being cut, to try and race to the bottom line in terms of price. So if I would recommend anyone to DCB, my comment would be that they’re not necessarily going to be the cheapest, but I think if you want a cheap outcome, go and find the cheapest. If you want a great outcome on time, I would say that’s why I use DCB.
If DCB were an item on your menu, what would be?
It would probably have to be a healthy option knowing the management team now and the focus they have on having a healthy mind, in terms of having a healthy body, you need a healthy mind. I’d have to say the gluten free range chicken bowl with brown rice and guacamole. Maybe a bit of spice cause they do like to spice things up every now and then.