Rotisserie Australia - About Us

MEET THE RADIANT EXECUTIVE TEAM

ROBERT (BOB) BLACK

- Executive Director

With a solid background in many facets of engineering including Industrial processes, furnaces, gas control, plastics, aircraft and air conditioning Bob Black's career spans over 48 years and includes long periods with the RAAF and Comalco. His background knowledge gained from a vast array of engineering processes had more than prepared him to overcome many of the challenges Jeff Sher presented him with over the years in the development of the Radiant range.

PETER BLACK

- Managing Director

Peter joined Radiant in 1995 and is the man responsible for the refinement of many of the challenging features and functions of the Radiant range. His boundless enthusiasm, the drive to produce the worlds best rotisserie and commitment to detail has resulted in a huge investment in specialist equipment to ensure the Radiant continues to be produced in-house.

SHANE JONES

- Sales & Marketing Manager

With a background in Route, F.M.C.G. and Food Service, Shane's experience in these fields over the past thirty years compliments Radiant's plan to build on the success that has been seen in the market growth of rotisserie sales in Australia and overseas. Having held senior positions with some of Australia's largest companies, Shane's focus has been and always will be customer service and backup. Achieving this as a team, Radiant will continue to be the market driver in it's field and a team which potential and existing customers can depend on.

MEET THE INVENTOR OF THE RADIANT

After a decade of running restaurants in South Africa, Jeff and Ivan Sher arrived in Sydney in 1989 looking for a business opportunity. Within a year they were encouraged to look into the charcoal chicken industry because of the future potential of the "then growth" of that industry.

Jeff and Ivan were never ones to do anything by halves, and once they opened their new venture, they set about getting their product as good as any human being could make it. In very short time frame, they discovered that the more they worked at improving the taste, the more time they needed to spend in preparing and nursing the coal bed in order to cook a superior chicken. In fact, they produced such a great tasting chicken their customer base grew both in numbers and distance.

JEFF SHER

Before long they were attracting clients an hours drive from their shop. And as the client numbers increased, so did their daily working hours, staff numbers, overheads and related expenses.

In the next few years both Jeff and Ivan began to suffer from physical and respiratory illnesses as a result of the constant exposure to the constant heat and acrid smoke from the charcoal emissions and toxins. Ivan was the first to have his work restricted putting extra pressure on Jeff to work harder. In turn, it forced both to look for alternative methods of roasting chickens, in a safer, healthier environment.

Unable to find anything suitable in Australia, Jeff travelled to the USA, Italy, France, Germany and England looking for an appropriate alternative. Not only did he not find any, but to his dismay, he could not even find anything that came close to what he wanted. So he decided to create his own.

For the next two years he pursued his goal during every spare minute he could find. But really didn't make the headway he wanted until he met the current manufacturer of the Radiant, Bob Black, and from that point onwards Jeff became so consumed with the project, he spent most waking hours in Bob's factory, tinkering, fine-tuning, evaluating and rebuilding his dream until he was satisfied with the result. Within 12 months the first of Jeff's prototypes came off the production line and ended up in one of his stores.

A few months later a Raymond Terrace charcoal chicken seller tracked him down and insisted he sell him the next prototype as he was about to be closed down by the local council due to excessive smoke and odour emissions. The machine was installed and the council problems solved overnight. Then to everyone's surprise, the sales at the Raymond Terrace store increased markedly due to the more succulent flavour.

As Jeff's shops began to multiply because of the quality of his consumer product, so did the numbers of machines in his premises. Jeff then set about creating levels of store presentation very few in the industry came close to - further escalating his unique style of market dominance.

With his innovative designs featuring rotisserie cooking in clear view of the public, Jeff's shops have not only become a local show piece but have also attracted more clients because of the clean, wholesome, fat-free and better tasting product.

Jeff also takes pride in the way his display style has pioneered a multiple three-tiered salad bar concept. Signs explaining the virtues of the Radiant product are displayed promoting a fat-free, healthier product.

Jeff is now working on other projects that are consuming his extraordinary energy and talents, while Bob and Peter Black are able to put the necessary time, effort and energy into the development and distribution of the Radiant range.