It’s a shame when huge corporations tap into the ideas of small entrepreneurs and then deny it completely. Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened in New Zealand when Burger King appears to have copied the idea of an Auckland food truck owner. A do it yourself buger box designed for catering.

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND – An Auckland food truck operator is calling out Burger King over a promotion which closely resembles his own new business venture.

Small business, The Roaming Dive, debuted its DIY burger box in November last year.

The box was designed to be dropped off at a party with all the finished ingredients, sauces and utensils ready to go, and was a smash hit with customers.

But on January 25, Roaming Dive’s owner, Peter Stewart, woke up to several messages from friends, alerting him to a new campaign from global giant, Burger King.

The chain’s Backyard BK campaign involved delivering similar DIY boxes with all the ingredients to assemble Whopper burgers.

But Burger King denied they used his idea and said they were following international trends.

“I was quite shocked in the very first instance. I immediately saw it held quite a large resemblance to mine,” said Stewart.

His box idea had been inspired by requests to cater for events which were too small to justify bringing along his converted 5.6 metre Ford truck.

“I scoured the internet quite a bit and found nothing similar,” he said.

“I built a prototype just out of glue and plywood, created the different compartments and made it to size.”

The test run was successful, and Stewart invested the truck’s summer profits in getting a carpenter mate to build five units.

Find the entire article at stuff.co.nz