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Burgerism is an award-winning, Manchester-based burger delivery brand, founded in 2018 by Mark Murphy. Since its inception, Burgerism has grown to become a cult burger brand across the North West, with a mission to grow into the number one delivery burger brand across the UK. We chatted to Mark about building the Burgerism brand, how to achieve the ultimate smashed patty and being named as one of The Times’ Top 10 Burgers in Britain.

Can you share the story behind your career transition from an Equity Analyst in the banking sector to founding Burgerism? What motivated this significant change?

That feels like a long story! I’d developed an interesting career in banking, and it provided huge learnings when it came to running a business, but ultimately I always saw it as a stepping stone to going out on my own and starting a business.

The idea for Burgerism came from my knowledge of the delivery food space. I felt there was an opportunity to create a burger concept that cared about the customer who wanted to stay in, and get a great burger delivered. Delivery is a dynamic space, within hospitality, but when we started it felt like lots of restaurants treated delivery as an after-thought; we set out to change that and in many ways, Burgerism has become a fan favourite because of our focus on delivery.

Burgerism was recently named one of The Times Top 10 Burgers in Britain and the North West’s most ordered burger. What do you believe sets your burgers apart from others in the market?

We were one of the first smashed patty burger brands in the UK – when we started in 2018 you literally couldn’t order a smashed burger in Manchester. From day one, we focused on being the best-smashed burger around and put huge thought into every aspect of our offering. The care and obsession with quality is something which still drives us today and our teams go through incredibly high training standards as part of the Burgerism induction process. The training and standards have translated into a burger that our fans can depend upon – to be fresh, tasty and consistently good every single time. Ultimately, that is what helps Burgerism stand out – even as other brands have come into the market.

What inspired you to focus on bringing restaurant-quality smashed burgers directly to people’s homes?

Having spent time completing ‘bigger picture’ analysis, I could see delivery was big, but getting an awful lot bigger. Whilst there was a lot of growth in the space, there weren’t many brands who were specifically dedicated to delivery, certainly when it came to restaurant quality food. Just Eat was full of traditional takeaway-style operators and a lot of the high street restaurants were doing delivery as an afterthought. We felt there was an opportunity to do something remarkable, that was designed for delivery.

How has your experience in the banking sector influenced your approach to running Burgerism?

A key learning from my time in banking was the importance of creating a supportive and personable working atmosphere. There’s a challenge for all businesses, but in particularly the hospitality space, to create an environment that is progressive. I’m a big believer this is something the UK should be striving for. Also, progression is a huge consideration for Burgerism – if you don’t see a path forward, work can become dispiriting. I often consider ways to maintain motivation in the team, and believe it to be made up of three elements:

– Provide autonomy: don’t micro-manage or interfere.

– Enable mastery: provide training so employees become experts in their field with pride in what they do.

– Provide purpose: through telling staff, that thanks to their work, Burgerism is in the top 10 Burgers in Britain according to The Times, or the highest volume burger brand in Manchester. Or help with a personal purpose, such as coming to work to get extra income, or help a colleague build a career within the company. Everyone needs purpose in their life and their work and Burgerism loves to support that. In turn, creating motivated and highly trained team members helps with Burgerism’s expansion.

Having a ‘safe pair of hands’ which can help with a new store opening, ensures a consistent level of operational excellence and culture across sites. For example, a recently opened store is going to be run by an assistant manager who joined Burgerism as a team member and has progressed within the business.

Can you tell us about the journey of Burgerism from its inception to becoming a leading delivery burger brand in the UK?

After researching the market and seeing an opportunity for bringing restaurant-quality smashed burgers directly to people’s homes, in 2018 we moved from London to Manchester to take the leap into hospitality. The reason for choosing Manchester – having worked closely with Uber Eats and gaining access to some insightful data – I could see the London delivery market was becoming saturated, whereas in 2018, when Burgerism launched in Manchester, there were only a handful of restaurants to choose from on Uber Eats’ app.

Since the inception in 2018, Burgerism has now opened its sixth site in April, in Denton, Greater Manchester. We’re thrilled as our two openings this year – Denton and a site in Liverpool opened in the second quarter – reached profitability in month one and we’re on track to grow sales by over 20% compared with 2023.

What are some key factors that you attribute to Burgerism’s rapid success and popularity?

As you say, there are a combination of factors. Our Burgerism fans and their dedicated online support has helped spread word of mouth around the North West, which has been vital to our growth. The attention we put into our packaging to ensure we had a unique experience has also allowed us to stand out in the market, but mainly our team. The Burgerism team members – from our stores across the North West to the commercial and marketing team – show passion and love for what they do every day. I believe people have picked up on the brand’s authenticity from day one.

Burgerism places a strong emphasis on the quality of its burgers. What are some specific techniques or ingredients you use to ensure this high standard?

The key technique at Burgerism is our smash technique. Smashing a patty correctly is not easy, especially when you’ve got a grill full of burgers. Great smashed patties need to be perfectly caramelised on the outside – the caramelisation (it’s technically a Maillard reaction) gives a depth of flavour you don’t get with a regular hamburger.

We spent a lot of time figuring out the best way to smash patties, from testing the make-up of our meat to the tools we use. We have custom-designed smashing tools and Burgerism-specific systems to help us deliver perfect smashed patties for every burger. Nowadays, our teams go through a rigorous training process before they are allowed to get on the grill, and even then there is a period of supervision before anyone is allowed to smash solo – that’s how we serious we are about smashing!

Each year, at our annual awards ceremony, we nominate a smash master of the year; Adam from our Ardwick store is the current champ – his patties are truly world-class!

What is your vision for the future of Burgerism, and how do you plan to expand or innovate in the coming years?

It’s easy to scale a brand quickly, especially within the digital space, but it’s very difficult to scale an operation quickly. In reality, it’s almost impossible, especially within the hospitality space, where great teams and culture drive daily success. At Burgerism, we believe we’re on a pathway to becoming a national favourite – the consistent feedback and fan loyalty we see provide evidence of this. However, to scale to 100 restaurants, you need a 100 amazing GMs and store teams. It’s key to figure out the chemistry of an amazing team, and then bring people from one store to the next, as a way to keep the Burgerism sense of progression and culture strong – and we’ve certainly done a lot of the hard yards in finding out how to build great teams. We’re really blessed with some of the talent in our stores – and I think our fans know this too!

For more information on Burgerism, see here