Expanding Your Restaurant to More Locations in Australia

Australia's restaurant industry is bold, creative, and resilient, even after several challenging years. On the whole, restaurants remain optimistic. Toast's Voice of the Australian Restaurant Industry 2025 found that 42% of Australian restaurateurs plan to expand in the year ahead, and 80% expect sales to rise.

If your first location is thriving and you're ready to grow, now can be a smart time to expand, as long as your systems, finances, and team are ready. Below, we walk through seven practical, data-backed steps to expand your restaurant to more locations in Australia.

Step 1: Confirm You're Ready to Expand

Before taking on a new lease or fit-out, pressure-test whether your current venue is truly expansion-ready. Multi-location success comes from strong operational foundations, not intuition alone.

Ask yourself these questions. Are you consistently profitable? A 2025 Australian small-business report by Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) and Commonwealth Bank of Australia found 64% of small-business owners reported lower profits than the previous year. If your margins are thin at your first venue, they may become even thinner across multiple sites. Is demand stable and predictable? Look for patterns such as consistent table turns, strong booking demand, repeat customers, and positive word-of-mouth. These indicate that your brand has traction and room to grow.

Do you have replicable systems? Expansion requires documented recipes, standardised prep routines, consistent front-of-house and back-of-house systems, clear rostering, inventory and ordering processes, and a reliable training structure. If these systems still live in your head, expansion will feel chaotic. Do you have strong leaders? According to Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA), Australia will need an additional 21,400 hospitality workers (including waiters, baristas and bar attendants) from May 2023 to May 2028. This means your internal leadership pipeline matters more than ever. Managers should be capable of running the venue without your constant oversight.

Step 2: Build a Repeatable, Scalable Business Model

Your second location should feel consistent with the first, not like starting from scratch. This requires building a repeatable operating model that can be rolled out to any site.

Create standard operating procedures. Document your opening and closing routines, prep lists, cleaning and hygiene standards, inventory procedures, service sequences, cash handling, and guest recovery guidelines. SOPs ensure every venue delivers the same guest experience.

Systemise your kitchen and menu by creating a playbook for menu item specifications, portion guidelines, station organisation, and equipment standards. This reduces training time and protects food quality. Train for consistency by implementing video walkthroughs, step-by-step training modules, a buddy or mentor system for new staff, and regular manager coaching. Your new venue shouldn't depend on one superstar; it should run well because the systems are strong.

Step 3: Choose the Right Location and Understand Local Regulations

A great location can elevate your brand, whilst a poor one can drain your profits. For multi-location operators, site selection becomes an engine of long-term success.

Use data to guide location scouting. Consider foot traffic during daytime versus night-time, demographics including income, age, and dining habits, competition and complementary venues, nearby workplaces, schools, and community hubs, delivery and takeaway demand, and public transport and parking access.

Australian diners value price. According to the Toast Consumer Preferences Survey 2025, most diners say price is influential in deciding where to eat, and 86.5% notice price increases often or sometimes. Suburbs where diners are more price-sensitive may favour casual, value-driven options, whilst CBD or destination venues can command higher price points. 

Make sure you’re across the rules before you sign anything.

Opening a new venue in Australia means navigating a few important regulations — nothing scary, just the essentials that keep your guests safe and your doors open.

Start with food safety. You’ll need to follow the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) Code, register your business with your state or territory food authority, and make sure your kitchen layout and equipment meet local health requirements. It’s all part of creating a smooth, safe operation from day one.

Planning and zoning requires local council development approvals, change of use permits, and outdoor dining approval. Liquor licensing involves Responsible Service of Alcohol (RSA) requirements, appropriate licence category such as on-premises licence, and trading hour rules. 

If you need a bit of extra help navigating all these requirements, Restaurant & Catering Australia (R&CA) is a great place to start. They represent more than 57,000 restaurants, cafés, and catering businesses across the country, and offer practical guidance on compliance, workplace questions, and broader industry advocacy — all designed to help operators run smoother, safer businesses.

Step 4: Plan Your Expansion Budget and Funding Options

Opening a second or third venue requires careful budgeting. Core costs include lease and bond, fit-out and design, kitchen equipment, technology stack including POS, KDS, and handhelds, licences and permits, opening staff hiring and onboarding, opening inventory, and working capital buffer.

Many multi-location operators rely on bank business loans, private investors, merchant cash advances, lease-to-own equipment financing, or crowdfunding. Choose funding that won't compromise cash flow, especially since food costs and wages are still rising. 

Step 5: Use Technology to Scale Operations Efficiently

Technology is a major driver of multi-location success, and Australian restaurants know it. According to Toast's research, 67% of restaurants expect to increase tech spending this year, over 67% of casual dining venues use QR or app-based ordering, and 36% are using tech to offset labour costs.

Essential multi-location tools include an all-in-one POS that controls menus, pricing, and reporting across every location, Kitchen Display Systems (KDS) to streamline front-of-house to back-of-house communication, inventory systems to reduce waste and track cost of goods sold, handheld POS devices for faster table turn, scheduling and labour forecasting tools, and centralised loyalty and marketing programmes.

Industry case studies demonstrate the value of integrated technology. Australian healthy fast-food chain Fishbowl, which grew to over 40 locations across the country, credits technology with maintaining consistency across sites. Their founders note that centralised systems allow them to monitor performance, track what's selling, and maintain quality standards from their phones, enabling them to scale with the same attention to detail they had with one store.

Step 6: Tailor Your Menu, Pricing and Experience Using Consumer Insights

Australian diners are selective and value-driven, and your second location should respond to how they choose where to eat.

House favourites help decision-making, with 44.5% of diners saying house favourites tags influence what they order. Design drives social sharing, with 71% of Australians saying visually appealing interiors make them likely or very likely to post online. 

One of the clearest insights from the Toast Consumer Preferences Survey 2025 is that small details really do influence behaviour. 44.5% of diners say that “House Favourites” tags influence what they decide to order, helping them navigate the menu with confidence.

Design plays a major role, too. 56.5% of Australians say the design and layout of a place influences their decision to return.

Ambience is another big driver. 76% of diners say the look and feel of a venue influences their decision to dine there, from lighting to music to the overall vibe.

Drinks matter just as much. Alcohol-free choices are growing quickly, especially among Gen Z, who expect zero-proof cocktails with the same theatre and presentation as traditional serves.

And of course, price remains central during cost-of-living pressures. The majority of Australian diners say price strongly influences their venue choice, so value needs to be communicated clearly through pricing, portioning, and experience design.

These insights should shape your menu engineering, portion sizes, drink offerings, interior design, pricing, value stacks, and promotions, as well as your photography and content strategy. 

Multi-venue restaurant groups are experiencing significant growth across Australia's major cities. Operators like Merivale, which operates over 80 venues across Sydney, demonstrate how successful groups maintain quality whilst scaling. Industry observers note that successful multi-location operators balance brand consistency with local flavour, ensuring each venue feels considered whilst benefiting from group resources and expertise.

Step 7: Launch, Market, and Optimise Your New Locations

A great opening can set your second or tenth location up for long-term success.

Build pre-launch buzz by teasing the new location on Instagram and TikTok, sharing renovation updates, collaborating with local influencers, offering a soft opening for friends, family, and neighbouring businesses, and engaging local media with a short press release. Use a strong opening offer such as an opening week prix-fixe menu, free coffee with breakfast, loyalty sign-up incentives, or giveaways and partnerships with local suppliers.

Keep improving based on real data by tracking sales and table turn, labour percentage, inventory variance, guest sentiment, menu performance, and delivery versus dine-in mix. Toast's real-time reporting lets you compare performance across locations and catch underperformance early.

Grow Boldly, With Structure and Intent

Opening more locations in Australia is a bold move, but one that many restaurateurs are making with confidence. 

By ensuring your core venue is strong, choosing the right site, building scalable systems, using data wisely, and investing in the right technology, you can create guest experiences that stay consistent whilst allowing each location to feel local and unique.

When you're ready to expand, Toast is here to help, with tools that lighten the load and keep every venue running smoothly.