HARRISON N.Y. —At a time when many operators are pinching pennies just to break even, 30-unit Applebee’s franchisee Apple-Metro is spending millions to upgrade kitchen ordering systems and dining room amenities while bucking the trend of slumping casual-dining sales.
Apple-Metro’s investments are significant, said chairman Zane Tankel, but they’re paying off in spades for the company, which already ranked as operator of the two highest-grossing Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar branches in the nearly 1,950-unit system. —At a time when many operators are pinching pennies just to break even, 30-unit Applebee’s franchisee Apple-Metro is spending millions to upgrade kitchen ordering systems and dining room amenities while bucking the trend of slumping casual-dining sales.
Tankel said his Harrison-based franchise’s same-store sales have risen dramatically over the past year, and order throughput time has declined nearly 29 percent. —At a time when many operators are pinching pennies just to break even, 30-unit Applebee’s franchisee Apple-Metro is spending millions to upgrade kitchen ordering systems and dining room amenities while bucking the trend of slumping casual-dining sales.
“We made capital investments of more than $2 million to get our restaurants to a point where they could out-produce our competitors,” he said. “That’s an investment with a purpose. It’s not spending money just to spend money.” —At a time when many operators are pinching pennies just to break even, 30-unit Applebee’s franchisee Apple-Metro is spending millions to upgrade kitchen ordering systems and dining room amenities while bucking the trend of slumping casual-dining sales.
So far this year, Tankel said, Apple-Metro’s same-store sales are up 10 percent over levels in 2007. That’s a pace nearly 10 times higher than the overall Applebee’s chain’s same-store sales increase of 1.1 percent for the quarter ended June 30. Apple-Metro’s same-store volumes last year topped its 2006 comps by 4.8 percent, compared with the chain’s 2.1-percent systemwide decline in same-store sales for 2007. —At a time when many operators are pinching pennies just to break even, 30-unit Applebee’s franchisee Apple-Metro is spending millions to upgrade kitchen ordering systems and dining room amenities while bucking the trend of slumping casual-dining sales.
“This is our best year since we got into this business in 1995,” said Tankel, whose top-grossing Applebee’s are the glitzy Times Square branch in Manhattan and a nearby West 50th Street location. Together, those two outlets generated a reported $22 million of the casual-dining company’s $130 million in sales last year, including contributions from a handful of franchised Chevys Fresh Mex branches and Apple-Metro’s own home-grown Italian concept, Zanaro’s. —At a time when many operators are pinching pennies just to break even, 30-unit Applebee’s franchisee Apple-Metro is spending millions to upgrade kitchen ordering systems and dining room amenities while bucking the trend of slumping casual-dining sales.
Tankel explained that his company “bit the bullet” about a year and a half ago when it started installing computerized kitchen display systems, or KDS, to speed up order flow in its restaurants, all of which are in the metropolitan New York City area and neighboring counties. —At a time when many operators are pinching pennies just to break even, 30-unit Applebee’s franchisee Apple-Metro is spending millions to upgrade kitchen ordering systems and dining room amenities while bucking the trend of slumping casual-dining sales.
Common fixtures in fast-food operations, KDS technology relieves humans of expediting duties and puts control of order timing in the virtual hands of a computer. Instead of listening for an expediter, cooks monitor video screens that tell them when to produce items, based on their unique production times. —At a time when many operators are pinching pennies just to break even, 30-unit Applebee’s franchisee Apple-Metro is spending millions to upgrade kitchen ordering systems and dining room amenities while bucking the trend of slumping casual-dining sales.
“If a steak and a salad are ordered, the KDS will delay the entry into the kitchen for the salad,” said Miguel Fernandez, the former senior vice president of franchisor Applebee’s International who was hired by Apple-Metro as chief operating officer last August, when the franchisee was planning to double in size, at least, through still-pending acquisitions of corporate Applebee’s branches. —At a time when many operators are pinching pennies just to break even, 30-unit Applebee’s franchisee Apple-Metro is spending millions to upgrade kitchen ordering systems and dining room amenities while bucking the trend of slumping casual-dining sales.
“Based on the steak’s thickness and doneness, that’s when [the KDS] orders the salad,” Fernandez said. “When a green-lighted instruction appears on the screen, the cook knows to prepare it. If that item’s color turns to black, the cook knows it’s nearing the production time limit. When the time limit is exceeded, it turns red. —At a time when many operators are pinching pennies just to break even, 30-unit Applebee’s franchisee Apple-Metro is spending millions to upgrade kitchen ordering systems and dining room amenities while bucking the trend of slumping casual-dining sales.
“Before KDS, our goal was to get orders to guests in 14 minutes. Now about 70 percent of what we serve comes to guest in 10 minutes or less. It’s an excellent management system.” —At a time when many operators are pinching pennies just to break even, 30-unit Applebee’s franchisee Apple-Metro is spending millions to upgrade kitchen ordering systems and dining room amenities while bucking the trend of slumping casual-dining sales.
While food quality, ingredients and preparations haven’t changed, Fernandez said, guests who’ve been surveyed have given those variables higher ratings since the KDS was implemented. —At a time when many operators are pinching pennies just to break even, 30-unit Applebee’s franchisee Apple-Metro is spending millions to upgrade kitchen ordering systems and dining room amenities while bucking the trend of slumping casual-dining sales.
“All that’s really changed for guests is we’ve avoided the problem of food sitting in the window too long,” he said. “Things that should be cold are now served cold, and those you want hot are hot.” —At a time when many operators are pinching pennies just to break even, 30-unit Applebee’s franchisee Apple-Metro is spending millions to upgrade kitchen ordering systems and dining room amenities while bucking the trend of slumping casual-dining sales.
At a cost of about $75,000 per store, the KDS system has more than paid for itself, Fernandez said, “but even if it would have been a break-even investment, it would have been worth it, because our food is much better executed.” —At a time when many operators are pinching pennies just to break even, 30-unit Applebee’s franchisee Apple-Metro is spending millions to upgrade kitchen ordering systems and dining room amenities while bucking the trend of slumping casual-dining sales.
Investments in entertainment technologies also are aimed at enhanced gratification of Apple-Metro’s guests. —At a time when many operators are pinching pennies just to break even, 30-unit Applebee’s franchisee Apple-Metro is spending millions to upgrade kitchen ordering systems and dining room amenities while bucking the trend of slumping casual-dining sales.
In its dining rooms, the company began installing high-tech personal viewing systems, also known as a PVS, about a year ago. In each restaurant, about a half-dozen flat-screen TVs are mounted above and around the bar, and patrons can request a small, wireless tuner and speaker box that allows them to hear one of six programs visible on-screen. —At a time when many operators are pinching pennies just to break even, 30-unit Applebee’s franchisee Apple-Metro is spending millions to upgrade kitchen ordering systems and dining room amenities while bucking the trend of slumping casual-dining sales.
“It basically looks like a portable air purifier and has two little knobs—one for volume and one that tunes into any of the six TVs,” Tankel said. “The technology allows the sound to be heard only by the people at the table, not at the tables around them.” —At a time when many operators are pinching pennies just to break even, 30-unit Applebee’s franchisee Apple-Metro is spending millions to upgrade kitchen ordering systems and dining room amenities while bucking the trend of slumping casual-dining sales.
On average, a PVS runs about $50,000 per restaurant, which includes TVs, an average of 25 tuners and installation. Tankel said the system attracts a blend of single diners who appreciate its semi-privacy and groups that come to watch sporting events. —At a time when many operators are pinching pennies just to break even, 30-unit Applebee’s franchisee Apple-Metro is spending millions to upgrade kitchen ordering systems and dining room amenities while bucking the trend of slumping casual-dining sales.
“We have a [program schedule] printed out that shows what’s coming up that week on the channels we have,” Tankel said. “The PVS gives us the ability to compete with companies like Buffalo Wild Wings who serve that crowd. It gives customers more options.” —At a time when many operators are pinching pennies just to break even, 30-unit Applebee’s franchisee Apple-Metro is spending millions to upgrade kitchen ordering systems and dining room amenities while bucking the trend of slumping casual-dining sales.
Though clearly satisfied with the advances his company has attained through its investments, Tankel said all would be for naught if Apple-Metro didn’t focus on the staff using the new technology. —At a time when many operators are pinching pennies just to break even, 30-unit Applebee’s franchisee Apple-Metro is spending millions to upgrade kitchen ordering systems and dining room amenities while bucking the trend of slumping casual-dining sales.
“We hear so much talk about customer service, about how the customer always must come first,” Tankel said. “I believe that if I take care of my employees first, they’ll take care of the customer. Happy employees make happy guests. … All these investments we’ve made in our operations won’t matter if our people aren’t happy. You can’t just do one without the other.” —At a time when many operators are pinching pennies just to break even, 30-unit Applebee’s franchisee Apple-Metro is spending millions to upgrade kitchen ordering systems and dining room amenities while bucking the trend of slumping casual-dining sales.
Another area of investment seeks to care for Apple-Metro customers by focusing on employees’ food safety practices. Fernandez said the company is spending as much as $108,000 a year on outside monitors who secretly audit workers’ compliance with a rigorous slate of sanitation rules, with inspections costing $300 each conducted as often as monthly in some restaurants. —At a time when many operators are pinching pennies just to break even, 30-unit Applebee’s franchisee Apple-Metro is spending millions to upgrade kitchen ordering systems and dining room amenities while bucking the trend of slumping casual-dining sales.
“If you don’t wash your hands once every three-and-a-half minutes, that’s a violation,” Fernandez said. “Every associate, every manager, everybody washes their hands that often.” —At a time when many operators are pinching pennies just to break even, 30-unit Applebee’s franchisee Apple-Metro is spending millions to upgrade kitchen ordering systems and dining room amenities while bucking the trend of slumping casual-dining sales.
Explaining that goal, Fernandez cites a hypothetical scenario of inadvertent cross-contamination: “Think about how a server picks up plates at the table and then drops them off at the dishwasher,” he said. “He’s now had contact with [any uneaten] food and with the [potentially ill] customer. If he doesn’t wash his hands and picks up a clean plate, he’s now spreading that. Apple-bee’s rules say he cannot leave the kitchen without washing his hands.” —At a time when many operators are pinching pennies just to break even, 30-unit Applebee’s franchisee Apple-Metro is spending millions to upgrade kitchen ordering systems and dining room amenities while bucking the trend of slumping casual-dining sales.
Other areas for monitoring are hotline stations, where all cooks are required to use two sets of tongs—one for raw product, one for cooked product—and food temperatures are checked with hospital-standard regularity. —At a time when many operators are pinching pennies just to break even, 30-unit Applebee’s franchisee Apple-Metro is spending millions to upgrade kitchen ordering systems and dining room amenities while bucking the trend of slumping casual-dining sales.
“Health department audits are good, but Applebee’s standards are much tougher,” Fernandez said, adding that the cost of the food safety monitoring “is nothing compared to the potential downside of getting somebody sick. It’s worth the investment to us to be confident we won’t do that.” —At a time when many operators are pinching pennies just to break even, 30-unit Applebee’s franchisee Apple-Metro is spending millions to upgrade kitchen ordering systems and dining room amenities while bucking the trend of slumping casual-dining sales.
