{"id":640750,"date":"2026-04-30T14:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T14:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/640750\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T14:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T14:52:10","slug":"kickin-inn-australia-business-focus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/640750\/","title":{"rendered":"Kickin\u2019 Inn Australia – Business Focus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kickin\u2019 Inn started as a conversation about the Australian dining market between two friends, Sami Karras<\/a> and Ravi Singh<\/a>. They believed it was becoming blas\u00e9. Australia had an exciting seafood scene, but it was one that was out of reach of the budgets of most diners. Having travelled and worked all over the world, they were both familiar with the kind of cuisines that were out there. One that particularly appealed to both Singh and Karras was Cajun \u2013 a cuisine that was virtually unknown in the Australian market at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought, \u2018Why not combine Cajun with Australian seafood and make something new? Seafood was popular, but a delicacy most people saved for special occasions,\u201d says Singh, who is the CEO, the Co-Founder and the architect of Australian Cajun seafood chain<\/a>, Kickin\u2019 Inn Australia. \u201cWe decided to combine it with something new that people will love.\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea arrived at a fortuitous time. Australia was receiving more immigration from Southeast Asia and Europe, and the market was opening up to new ideas. Most importantly, Australians wanted something new.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Secret Sauce<\/p>\n

It was a fantastic opportunity, but before Karras and Singh could seize that opportunity, they had an obstacle to contend with.<\/p>\n

\"Kickin'<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took three years to make the recipe for the Cajun sauce,\u201d Singh tells us. \u201cInitially, I called around looking for any suppliers in the world who would give me a pre-made sauce, but after a lot of research, I found nobody would come to the party. So, we spent three years making our own. We were eating Cajun for breakfast, lunch, and dinner to make what we now call the golden 65 herbs and spices.\u201d<\/p>\n

The end result is a restaurant that was a break from the norm for the Australian restaurant scene.<\/p>\n

\u201cGenerally, you go to a restaurant all dressed up. You look nice and clean and sit in an environment with knives and forks all laid out,\u201d says Singh. \u201cWe wanted to bring Australian values into that model. Having a beer, having fun, you\u2019re not being judged on how you look. You don\u2019t eat seafood with a knife and fork! You want to be licking your fingers in public and not feel ashamed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diners at Kickin\u2019 Inn Australia do not have knives and forks, they have bibs and gloves. The atmosphere is loud music and high energy, with people using their bare hands to eat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe encourage people to play with their food,\u201d Singh says. \u201cIt gives mums, dads and kids a chance to come together and nobody\u2019s touching their mobile because their hands are in their food, covered with finger licking sauces.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Out of the Danger Zone<\/p>\n

But while Kickin\u2019 Inn arrived in the market with an exciting proposition, starting a new business in the 21st century would always mean navigating perilous terrain.<\/p>\n

\u201cManaging volatility and growing a brand is not an easy thing,\u201d Singh reflects. \u201cWe started the brand in 2018, and by 2019, we were just coming out of the danger zone. Then I had to start something called storytelling, to manage customer perception continue growing the brand, and then the pandemic happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decade since Kickin\u2019 Inn began operating has seen uncertainty in the digital world, high inflation, skyrocketing interest rates and a cost of living crisis, among other challenges. And the future is looking no more certain.<\/p>\n

\u201cAI is putting huge pressure on businesses like ours because it\u2019s moving web searches away from SEO,\u201d Singh points out. \u201cThese sorts of challenges are where I come in as an entrepreneur. I\u2019m not just locked behind closed doors. I have to think globally. I have a team of 600 people, and I need to bring them that global perspective, stay on my toes, and understand what\u2019s happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of that perspective is a long view, making plans that will allow Kickin\u2019 Inn to move with the generational shift, serving its current customers\u2019 children and even grandchildren.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m working towards Generation Beta, born in 2025 and beyond,\u201d Singh tells us. \u201cWe are making sure all of the strategies we are bedding together will be continued into the future. We serve kids under eight years of age for free today, because those kids will be married in 20 to 25 years, and they will have children and bring them to Kickin\u2019 Inn. I am thinking generations down the track so that we can grow strategically with our people. That is my job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Into the Community<\/p>\n

\"Kickin'<\/p>\n

That is Singh\u2019s core purpose, but he is enough of a businessman to know that his job relies on the quality of the rest of his team.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing I have learned in 40 years of hospitality is that it\u2019s a people game,\u201d Singh says. \u201cWe have based our business on four fundamentals. If you invest in the right people, they make the sales. The sales make the money. Then you put that money back into the community. That community will find you good people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the last seven years, Singh has developed a company culture based on the fundamentals of trust, respect, transparency and camaraderie<\/a>. It is a model Singh personally has invested a great deal of time into.<\/p>\n

\u201c85% of my time is spend on people, talking about development and culture and ways to make my people\u2019s jobs easier,\u201d Singh says.<\/p>\n

It has made Kickin\u2019 Inn a sought-after employer.<\/p>\n

As Singh points out, \u201cWe receive 2,500 applications a month, and we are selective in who we hire. Recruitment is not a major challenge given the market dynamics. Finding good people is hard, but people are coming through the doors with the passion that we need.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that passion behind them, Kickin\u2019 Inn Australia is in a strong position for the future. It is a limited company with no liabilities, and a brand that they have built from the ground up.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the moment, the first milestone we are aiming for is to have opened 50 restaurants by 2030. Then we want 100 by 2035,\u201d Singh says. \u201cBut the bigger goal now is going international. We have settled the fundamentals. We have a lean business, and my wonderful wife Veena<\/a> supports me, running innovation and finance for the business, while Dan Bardon is ready to take us abroad with Sami, holding on the property portfolio.\u201d<\/p>\n

However much the company grows, Singh is adamant that it will stay true to the values it started with.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are a human company, an Australian-born company with Australian values. We are right in the heart of the community,\u201d Singh says. \u201cMy vision for the organisation is to bring in employees who believe in family values. Everyone we hire has an attachment to community work, and a proportion of our funds go back into that community. This creates our brand, and I\u2019m appreciative of everyone who took that brand from an idea to national identity with over 5 million followers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kickin\u2019 Inn started as a conversation about the Australian dining market between two friends, Sami Karras and Ravi…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,310265,44],"class_list":["post-640750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-hospitality-leisure","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}