DALLAS —Industry executives gathered here to share best practices during the 50th Annual Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators conference made it clear they are relying on innovation to fuel their own economic recovery.
Throughout educational sessions and during roundtables, panels and private conversations, the industry’s entrepreneurial spirit was evident as operators discussed the many creative ways they are working to drive traffic, rein in costs and improve operations even as the recession’s impact lingers. —Industry executives gathered here to share best practices during the 50th Annual Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators conference made it clear they are relying on innovation to fuel their own economic recovery.
“The industry has shown extraordinary innovation in responding to the times,” Nation’s Restaurant News publisher Tom Larranaga said while welcoming approximately 400 foodservice operators and 200 exhibitor representatives to the NRN-produced MUFSO event at the Hilton Anatole hotel from Oct. 4-6. —Industry executives gathered here to share best practices during the 50th Annual Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators conference made it clear they are relying on innovation to fuel their own economic recovery.
In addition to numerous education sessions and keynote speeches by William C. Taylor of Fast Company magazine, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of “The Black Swan,” and Frances X. Frei from Harvard Business School, this year’s MUFSO was marked by a tribute to the late Norman Brinker, who was co-chairman of the event prior to his death in June at age 78. Also part of the event were recognition of the pioneering efforts in the casual-dining segment by Richard Melman of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises Inc. of Chicago; the celebration of 2009 Operator of the Year Jim Greco of 290-unit Bruegger’s Bagels of Burlington, Vt., along with other Golden Chain award honorees; and the “Taste of What’s Hot: Hot Concepts! Celebration” and “MUFSO Golden Anniversary Celebration.” —Industry executives gathered here to share best practices during the 50th Annual Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators conference made it clear they are relying on innovation to fuel their own economic recovery.
Highlighting some recent industry innovations, NRN’s Larranaga noted that “people are coming to restaurants less often, so many chains have pursued licensing deals with grocery sellers, enabling them to capture a share of the dine-at-home market, with branded, packaged goods.” Other operators, he said, “literally put their restaurants on wheels or resorted to a new, temporary unit known as a pop-up restaurant” because “if their customers aren’t going to come into the restaurant, they are going to go where their customers work, live and play.” —Industry executives gathered here to share best practices during the 50th Annual Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators conference made it clear they are relying on innovation to fuel their own economic recovery.
“People are dining out less often, so we’re always asking what can we create that is fun and exciting that people can’t make at home or can’t make at home easily,” said Mark Chmiel, executive vice president and chief marketing and innovation officer for Denny’s Corp. of Spartanburg, S.C. Chmiel, who was part of a MUFSO panel titled “Promotions that Add Value and Grow Customer Traffic and Brand Loyalty,” cited as an example the 1,544-unit chain’s new Pancake Puppies, or bite-size fried pancake balls. —Industry executives gathered here to share best practices during the 50th Annual Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators conference made it clear they are relying on innovation to fuel their own economic recovery.
Kevin Reddy, president, chairman and chief executive of 210-unit, Broomfield, Colo.-based Noodles & Company, sat on the “Find New Opportunities in Tough Times” panel. Noodles & Company, he said, has done just that by developing a line of take-and-bake pastas designed to attract new convenience-foods seekers and give regulars a reason to spend more money with the fast-casual chain. —Industry executives gathered here to share best practices during the 50th Annual Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators conference made it clear they are relying on innovation to fuel their own economic recovery.
Innovation in personnel practices was a common theme. —Industry executives gathered here to share best practices during the 50th Annual Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators conference made it clear they are relying on innovation to fuel their own economic recovery.
Daniel J. Kim, chief executive of Dallas-based Hot Concepts! award winner Red Mango Inc., said the “certified swirler” training program used by the chain’s 60 locations is “kind of like the ‘Genius Bar’ concept at the Apple Store, which is really about making each staff member a product expert.” —Industry executives gathered here to share best practices during the 50th Annual Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators conference made it clear they are relying on innovation to fuel their own economic recovery.
Harry Bond, chairman of Monical’s Pizza Corp. of Bradley, Ill., said the 63-unit namesake chain overseen by his company maintained positive same-store sales through 15 of the past 20 months and is enjoying higher profits, in part, by trying to deliver extraordinary service. The latest manifestation of that effort involves rewarding employees who receive “tomato” certificates from satisfied guests who are asked to hand them out as warranted by Monical’s officials who pull the patrons’ names from the chain’s marketing database. —Industry executives gathered here to share best practices during the 50th Annual Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators conference made it clear they are relying on innovation to fuel their own economic recovery.
Bond said guest satisfaction is up, employee turnover is down and franchisees are more engaged because the traffic-building effort does not rely on discounting. —Industry executives gathered here to share best practices during the 50th Annual Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators conference made it clear they are relying on innovation to fuel their own economic recovery.
Several MUFSO speakers attested to the power of social-networking websites and Internet blogs. Among them were Carl Howard, chief executive of 260-unit, Lexington, Ky.-based Fazoli’s, and Tom Ryan, founder of Smashburger Master LLC of Denver, a 2009 Hot Concepts! award winner and franchisor of the growing Smashburger chain of more than two dozen restaurants. —Industry executives gathered here to share best practices during the 50th Annual Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators conference made it clear they are relying on innovation to fuel their own economic recovery.
Apart from monitoring social-networking sites for indications of dissatisfaction among individual customers or groups, Ryan and Howard said their organizations also court online bloggers with receptions, free meals or other trial inducements when entering a market or launching a promotion. —Industry executives gathered here to share best practices during the 50th Annual Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators conference made it clear they are relying on innovation to fuel their own economic recovery.
Another 2009 Hot Concepts! award winner, Joe Fugere of Seattle-based Tutta Bella Neapolitan Pizzeria, considers the “green” movement a form of innovation. —Industry executives gathered here to share best practices during the 50th Annual Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators conference made it clear they are relying on innovation to fuel their own economic recovery.
“In-house ‘green’ initiatives and the commitment to using 100-percent compostable takeout packaging has allowed restaurant companies like ours the opportunity to take a leading role [in] carbon reduction and being recognized and supported by loyal customers who care about this issue as much as we do,” he said. —Industry executives gathered here to share best practices during the 50th Annual Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators conference made it clear they are relying on innovation to fuel their own economic recovery.
With traditional bank lending still nearly frozen, many MUFSO participants confirmed that operators are pursuing other sources of capital to fund growth, including private-equity investors, landlords, the sale of real estate or angel investors. Some are pursuing nonconventional “phantom financing,” said “How to Get Financing You Can Afford: Tips for Insiders” panelist Allan Hickok. —Industry executives gathered here to share best practices during the 50th Annual Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators conference made it clear they are relying on innovation to fuel their own economic recovery.
Hickok, co-chief executive of Wayzata, Minn.-based Redstone American Grill, operator of five casual-dining restaurants, said he has connected Redstone with investors who have the cash flow to open restaurants but lack foodservice-management expertise, which his company would provide to outside owners for a fee. —Industry executives gathered here to share best practices during the 50th Annual Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators conference made it clear they are relying on innovation to fuel their own economic recovery.
At Petrus Brands Inc. of Atlanta, franchisor of the 74-unit Shane’s Rib Shack and 125-unit Planet Smoothie chains, a new “owner-operator model,” is being tested. Petrus chief executive Chris Morocco said the “experiment” at Shane’s enables a seasoned operator to invest as little as $10,000 and sweat equity to buy an interest in a restaurant that is majority-owned by Petrus and, in exchange, receive a salary and share in profits. —Industry executives gathered here to share best practices during the 50th Annual Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators conference made it clear they are relying on innovation to fuel their own economic recovery.
Alfred “Fred” L. Thimm Jr., chief executive of the 24-unit restaurant division of Al Copeland Investments Inc. of Metairie, La., said he was “struck” by how 75 percent of the people in the audience of the “Find New Opportunities in Tough Times” panel were interested in nutrition issues. —Industry executives gathered here to share best practices during the 50th Annual Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators conference made it clear they are relying on innovation to fuel their own economic recovery.
“I think that being innovative and on the forefront of giving the guest what they want in that area is really genuinely more than just a topic of the moment,” Thimm said. “I think it is a fundamental trend going on in our industry.” —Industry executives gathered here to share best practices during the 50th Annual Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators conference made it clear they are relying on innovation to fuel their own economic recovery.
Some MUFSO attendees indicated that “innovation” is a relative term. —Industry executives gathered here to share best practices during the 50th Annual Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators conference made it clear they are relying on innovation to fuel their own economic recovery.
Bob Hoffmeister, president of Margaritas Management Group, of Portsmouth, N.H., operator and franchisor of the 19-unit Tio Juan’s Margaritas casual-dining chain, said his company recently added display screens for better order management in the kitchen and is upgrading its point-of-sale system, among other improvements. “We’ve never done these things before and they have generated a big return for us,” he said. —Industry executives gathered here to share best practices during the 50th Annual Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators conference made it clear they are relying on innovation to fuel their own economic recovery.
“We hold more training sessions via webinar,” said Nation’s Restaurant News’ Golden Chain award winner Randy Kibler of 449-unit Bojangles’ Famous Chicken ’n Biscuits of Charlotte, N.C. A webinar “gives us the ability to do a better job of communicating [and] to make changes quickly,” he added. —Industry executives gathered here to share best practices during the 50th Annual Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators conference made it clear they are relying on innovation to fuel their own economic recovery.
Chuck Fallon, president of Miami-based Burger King Corp., with 11,900 restaurants worldwide, was another Golden Chain honoree. As an example of Burger King’s efforts to innovate, he cited its ongoing retrofit into restaurants of flexible batch broilers that use less energy and support a wider array of products, including ribs, which are now in test. —Industry executives gathered here to share best practices during the 50th Annual Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators conference made it clear they are relying on innovation to fuel their own economic recovery.
But “innovation doesn’t happen overnight,” Fallon said. “It’s a continuous process.” —Industry executives gathered here to share best practices during the 50th Annual Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators conference made it clear they are relying on innovation to fuel their own economic recovery.
Sponsoring the golden anniversary edition of MUFSO were, in alphabetical order, American Express, Australian Lamb, the Beef Checkoff, Coca-Cola Foodservice, Dunkin’ Donuts, Einstein Bros. Bagels, The Elliot Group, eRestaurant from Altametrics, Flav-R-Pac Fruit Topping, Marco’s Pizza, Royal Cup Coffee and Sweet Street Desserts.— [email protected] —Industry executives gathered here to share best practices during the 50th Annual Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators conference made it clear they are relying on innovation to fuel their own economic recovery.
