Mark Wahlberg’s burger restaurant franchise will soon open in Sydney.
Founded in 2011 in Massachusetts, Wahlburgers soon found a cult following and even spawned a successful reality TV show of the same name, which followed the brand’s namesake brothers in their adventures in running the organization.
Now, the burger franchise brand is set to expand to the Australian market, after a $50m agreement between Mark Wahlberg and the owners of Aussie-based United Cinemas will see 15 Wahlburgers restaurants open in or next to the chain’s cinema locations.
Some of these new locations are to open in Sydney’s Warriewood and Narellan, Melbourne’s Craigieburn, Brisbane’s Indooroopilly, and Perth’s Rockingham. To date, Wahlburgers has 49 stores open across the U.S., two in Canada, and one in Germany.
While choosing to launch a franchise in an entirely new country through a cinema partnership may seem like a novel idea, this could be a sign of Wahlburgers looking to diversify its portfolio and explore new development strategies.
In 2020, for example, the brand was forced to close its debut European store in Covent Garden, London, just over a year after it first opened, due to the ongoing struggles presented by the coronavirus pandemic.
