Ryle has succesfully Wrapped Up!
by Alex Tilbury
RYLE and Colleen O'Brien are the brains behind Torts Famous, the popular wrap-style takeaway outlets in the Brisbane CBD and now Melbourne.
Mr O'Brien has a long history in management, initally in construction and development but later he reached the executive ranks at Collins Foods, which owns KFC.
However, he says he grew to love the adrenalin rush of the food business and vacated the corporate office for the mop and, after training, became director of operations at Sizzler Australia (still part of Collins Foods).
He then founded Toucano Char whcih had five Brisbane outlets until it collapsed under the weitght of 20 per cent interest rates in the late 1980s.
"I am often asked where the concept of Torts Famous came from. I think people expect me to say that I foind it somewhere. But is was just from thinking" he says.
"I saw a lot of concepts and read about many more. I read whatever publications and books that I could get my hands on about food businesses. I understood the economies and uniformity from food processing but I had zero interest in that path.
"Colleen mu wife, and I have a personal dislike for fatty, sugary food. We wanted food that was tasty and good for you - old fashioned food, really - aas natural as we could make it.
"When Torts Famous was born, it was at the one time simple and complex. Simple because it was primarily hot bread and freshly cooked grill. Complex because we had to make the bread, slice the fresh beef and chicken and make the marinades and sauces from scratch. Processed bread was not good enough. It was too dry and contained additives and preservatives.
"So we evolved a process to make soft bread that we cooked fresh in front of customers alongside the likes of fruit juice, marinated chicken which was wrapped with the breadm and warm spicy peanut dressing, sun-dried tomatoes, salad and cucmber/yoghurt sauce. The bread has no additives, preservatives, sugar, yeast or dairy."
His Torts are famous. He says Broadway on the Mall rated them top operator every month since March 2003 except for four months when McDonalds regained top spot.
"No other food operator has beaten McDonalds in any one month. Their ratings are based on slaes per square metre," he says.
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