WILBRAHAM Mass. Friendly Ice Cream Corp. is looking to revitalize the fortunes of its 505-unit Friendly’s family-dining chain. —With a new fast-casual prototype and a new leader at the helm,
The company, which was acquired in 2007 by Sun Capital Inc. after years of sliding sales and internal conflict, said in December that it would begin testing Friendly’s Express, a fast-casual concept offering quicker service within a smaller, more versatile footprint, next year at three or four units in Boston, Springfield, Mass., and Providence, R.I. —With a new fast-casual prototype and a new leader at the helm,
Last month also saw the appointment of Ned R. Lidvall, most recently with Rock Bottom Restaurants Inc., as president and chief executive of Wilbraham-based Friendly. He succeeds George Condos, who announced his retirement several months ago. —With a new fast-casual prototype and a new leader at the helm,
The prototype units will offer a reduced menu focusing on the core items served at the brand’s full-service units, officials said. Customers will order their food while standing at the counter and it will then be delivered to them at their tables. Friendly’s Express will range in size from 2,200 to 2,400 square feet, compared with the 3,000 to 3,500 square feet required for a traditional Friendly’s, allowing the chain to seek out nontraditional sites, said Jim Sullivan, vice president of franchising and development. —With a new fast-casual prototype and a new leader at the helm,
“This is probably one of the more, if not most, exciting pieces of our business right now,” he said. “We’re still going to have the traditional 3,500-square-foot restaurant, but this will be an alternative concept for us. We’re also going to offer an ice-cream-only [model], à la Cold Stone [Creamery], for such captive markets as [business and industry], airports, and hospitals. This will allow us to enter into alternative venues where our traditional stores may not be viable for today’s consumer. —With a new fast-casual prototype and a new leader at the helm,
“The brand itself is still positioned with ice cream as the hero and it will still be geared toward the family. But each family is not what it was 30 years ago, what with the speed of lifestyle and that type of thing.” —With a new fast-casual prototype and a new leader at the helm,
Other full-service restaurants also have introduced fast-casual formats recently, including Boston-based Uno Chicago Grill, which last November unveiled two Uno Due Go fast-casual units at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. —With a new fast-casual prototype and a new leader at the helm,
Observers say the introduction of a fast-casual concept is a savvy move on Friendly’s part. —With a new fast-casual prototype and a new leader at the helm,
“It’s a smart thing because, remember, they have a strong position in ice cream, which means they are really viable,” said New York-based consultant Malcolm M. Knapp. “This gives them an opportunity because they can have much smaller stores with which to capitalize on the snack business. —With a new fast-casual prototype and a new leader at the helm,
“Ice cream was the original base of the company; they were at least 50 percent ice cream—that’s their original heritage,” he continued. “They used to do a really big takeout business in ice cream, so this really fits who they are and their core competency. So for them it makes a tremendous amount of sense.” —With a new fast-casual prototype and a new leader at the helm,
Knapp added that updating the Friendly’s brand could signal an attempt to reverse the company’s failing fortunes of the last few years. —With a new fast-casual prototype and a new leader at the helm,
“[The brand] had become stodgy, it didn’t sparkle,” he said. “Years ago it did—they were one of the lead players 25 years ago. So it’s a start, but to be a real player you need a little more change. It’s a promising start to being a real player; that’s a fair way to put it.” —With a new fast-casual prototype and a new leader at the helm,
He also said that by creating a smaller footprint, the brand would be able to compete more aggressively for better real-estate opportunities. —With a new fast-casual prototype and a new leader at the helm,
“There are going to be a lot of opportunities in this economy [for restaurants] to get into much better real estate than they otherwise would be able to do,” Knapp said. “Maybe 8 percent of retail outlets are going to fail in 2009, which means landlords are going to be desperate to rent. It’s an ideal time for someone who has an ability to expand to get better quality sites at cheaper prices. Because [the Express stores are going to be] smaller sites…they can go into shopping strip sites because they won’t need as much space as their regular restaurants.” —With a new fast-casual prototype and a new leader at the helm,
Sullivan of Friendly’s said the new restaurants would sport a state-of-the-art design that includes “LCD flat-screen televisions, a merchandised display with ice cream and toppings [up front] and an entirely new menu board system.” —With a new fast-casual prototype and a new leader at the helm,
Sullivan also indicated that the new concept would be more cost-effective to operate because it requires less labor. —With a new fast-casual prototype and a new leader at the helm,
“We have eliminated some back-of-house positions, but we’ll have dedicated fountain, cashiers, food runners and production,” he said. “Based on the overall footprint, it’s a simplification of the business.” —With a new fast-casual prototype and a new leader at the helm,
He added that the company plans “within a three-to-five-year window to open up about 50 Express units a year” that are both company and franchisee operated. —With a new fast-casual prototype and a new leader at the helm,
Friendly’s, which was acquired by private-equity firm Sun Capital Partners Inc. in 2007 for $337.2 million, has recently undergone other operational changes, including the appointment last month of Lidvall. Before being purchased by Sun, Friendly’s had been targeted by activist investor Sardar Biglari, who had blasted the board for the company’s negative cash flow, high debt and languishing stock price. The company also had endured years of infighting between the board and one of the chain’s founders. —With a new fast-casual prototype and a new leader at the helm,
According to Knapp, Lidvall, who served as president and chief executive of Rock Bottom Restaurants Inc. and was president and chief operating officer of On the Border Cafes, is an inspired choice to run Friendly’s. —With a new fast-casual prototype and a new leader at the helm,
“The new CEO is a very good guy, smart and good on strategy,” he said. “In fairness, some of this stuff was underway [before he started], but he gets it. He clearly understands what he has to do. He’s the new guy on the block, full of enthusiasm, and he has the full support of Sun. He did a really good job at Rock Bottom; they have a debt problem, but operationally and strategically, all of that worked really well. It’s a good pick in my judgment.” —With a new fast-casual prototype and a new leader at the helm,
