A confused figment of my imagination writes, “Hey, Restaurant Reality Check, how am I supposed to tell fact from fiction in the age of The Onion, the Borowitz Report and KFC’s publicity department? Some of their made-up restaurant stories sound more believable than the real thing. How can a non-cynic know when he’s being fed a whopper?” (signed, Believing It—Or Not?)
Dear Believing,
I was discussing the very thing yesterday with Henry Kissinger and the Fonz. You just can’t tell these days who’s pulling your leg and who’s merely covering the Republican presidential candidates.
Fortunately for you and your confused peers, Restaurant Reality Check can recount how a few persistent myths were disproved, decidedly, by recent industry developments.
Wall Street firms have a hammerlock on executive compensation outrages. A Friendly source—note the capital “F”—blew that one away. In case you missed reports in mainstream media like The Wall Street Journal and The Huffington Post, the restaurant industry has its own instance of a CEO enjoying big-dollar privileges while the corporate rank-and-file burn their pink slips for warmth.
According to the reports, Friendly’s CEO Harsha Agadi billed the company for $234,000 in day-to-day expenses in the year preceding the restaurant franchisor’s recent bankruptcy filing. The charges didn’t include the $190,000 Agadi submitted for relocation.
The contrast with the plight of Friendly’s workers is what made the story a hot one. More than 600 lost their jobs when some 60 stores closed.
We can also refute at this time that the Fribble lobby has secured a federal bailout for the family chain.
E-mail is killing letter writing. Not in the restaurant business. Hundreds of stationers could pop for a second home this year because of the business they’re reaping from disgruntled shareholders and the chains they’ve targeted for takeover.
This morning, for instance, Cracker Barrel shareholders were sent a letter from CEO Sandy Cochran, spelling out why they should rebuff Sardar Biglari in his attempts to wrest control of the family chain from current management. She countered Biglari’s assertions by explaining the chain’s business-building strategies, point by point.
The communication was in response to an 11-page letter that Biglari sent last week to the same recipients. Taken together, the two missives might have made Cracker Barrel’s shareholders the most informed in the business.
But that’s not the only volley of letters helping the Postal Service. Cosi and Brad Blum, the Olive Garden alumnus who wants to run the fast-casual chain, have stamp dispensers churning as well.
Ditto for the CEO-turned-advisor of Wendy’s, Roland Smith. Recent SEC filings include Smith’s resignation letter, which in turn referenced other missives during the summer. The communications indicate that Smith stepped down because he didn’t want to leave Atlanta, where the chain is currently headquartered. It’s moving back to the suburb of Columbus, Ohio, where it was founded.
Smith has been succeeded as CEO by Emil Brolick, who’s collecting $1.1 million in salary, with the opportunity to earn another $1.6 as a bonus. Smith was in the same ballpark.
Survival has supplanted concept development. According to the conventional wisdom, restaurant companies are too preoccupied with survival to consider the development of new concepts.
Not any more.
The last two weeks brought announcements of new concepts from such celebrated operators as Starbucks (Evolution Fresh Juices), P.F. Chang’s (Pei Wei Asian Market, which of course has nothing to do with Chipotle’s launch of ShopHouse Southeast Asian Market), IHOP (IHOP Express) and Jamba Juice (JambaGo, the juice chain’s riff on an express format).
Okay, enough myth busting for now. In our next installment, we’ll take on Yeti and the promises of restaurant unions.
Showing posts with label Roland Smith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Roland Smith. Show all posts
Monday, November 21, 2011
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Ripple or the real thing?
Every trend starts with a single proponent and builds from there, adapter by adapter. Unfortunately, the process is no different for fads and flashes. The challenge for opportunity-spotters is distinguishing between the two. What, for instance, are we to make of these recent ripples in the market?
The Amway marketing approach: T.G.I. Friday’s broke a campaign in late July called BYOB, or Bring Your Own Buddy. Recruit a pal to join you at the granddaddy of casual dining and they’ll each get $5 off their meal. Apparently you can steal one of their fries, or just bask in the glow of having done something nice for a friend.
It would’ve been nothing more than a one-off for the industry is Arby’s hadn’t begun a campaign this month called Friends and Family Feast. If a group of five visits a unit together, they get five roast beef sandwiches for $5, and all sides for a mere $1 each. The more, the thriftier.
As Wendy’s/Arby’s CEO Roland Smith explained, the program is intended to bolster frequency, apparently through peer pressure. The chain has qualified 50% of its patrons as “medium users” who might be coaxed to add another trip here or there. Getting them to visit just one more time a year can boost a store’s comp sales by 3%, according to Smith.
So is this patron-as-guest-recruiter approach a trend or a fad? My projection: It’ll be another marketing tactic, another arrow in the quiver that’s put in play from time to time because of its novelty. So my final answer: Neither.
New product mania: Back in the spring, Quiznos CEO Rick Schaden sent a scooter to every headquarters staffer, explaining that they had to move faster in adapting to market trends. He cited product development as an area of focus, but left unaddressed the matter of how.
Yesterday, Schaden detailed the process for making that happen. Or so he attests. It’s called Flex Plan, and it aims to match new items to patrons’ financial situation. “The key is to provide the right food at the right time for the right price,” he said.
If times are tough, Schaden explained, the chain’s R&D department will churn out bargain items like the $3 Toasty Bullet or $4 Toasty Torpedo. And when better times return, he continued, the focus will shift to indulgence items, like double-meat sandwiches.
And regardless of what’s coming down the pipeline, he says, the set-up will streamline the process, yielding fast, more efficient introductions.
While that system is being adopted chainwide, Wendy’s is already reaping the benefits from an R&D overhaul, according to CEO Smith. The chain has “developed a very strong new product pipeline,” he assured investors. “By the end of the year we will have tested at least 14 new products, which is more than Wendy’s has tested in a single year in quite a long time.”
Then there’s the hyperactivity of chains like Mimi’s, Carl’s Jr./Hardee’s, Jack in the Box, McDonald’s and Burger King. New products are flying into the market like a pack of third-graders being released for recess. Is this heightened R&D activity a wave that’ll be with us for awhile? You betcha. Definitely a trend.
Commence the shopping spree: In what should have been a routine earnings release, The Steak n Shake Co. revealed yesterday that it’s restructured itself into a holding company with assets consisting of a lone restaurant chain, the Steak ‘n’ Shake retro brand. Why a holding company with one business?
“The company may pursue investments in the form of acquisitions, joint ventures, and partnerships either related or unrelated to its ongoing business activities,” explained a passage of the earnings release that was probably penned by securities lawyers.
That development followed a report in Saturday’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution about Roark Capital, the private-equity firm that owns McAlister’s Deli and a group of restaurant brands (Moe’s Southwest Grill, Schlotzsky’s, Carvel, Cinnabon) franchised by Focus Group. The story explained that Roark expects to complete as many deals in the current year as it consummated in the previous eight, with several set to close by November.
“We feel like we’re ready to start investing again,” Roark managing partner Neal Aronson told the AJC’s Joe Guy Collier.
Sandwiched between those two instances of check-book rattling was the announcement that Church’s fried-chicken chain had officially been sold, some three months after a deal was announced.
So is this the start of a buying trend? Are companies shopping for restaurant companies again?
After a virtual halt this year in restaurant deals, it certainly feels that way. But it’s all relative. For one thing, private-equity companies are usually the wheeler-dealers in such a spree. They buy, they sell.
This time around, many of them are stuck on the seller side of the table, trying to peddle the chains they amassed in better times. Foreign companies may be the new shoppers. But how active will they be?
My prediction: There’ll be a flurry of activity that feels like a cut-rate auction. But it’ll take awhile to see M&A come close to the level we saw before the Great Recession.
But what’s your assessment? I’d love to hear some discussion about which might be a fad and which might be the start of an actual trend.
The Amway marketing approach: T.G.I. Friday’s broke a campaign in late July called BYOB, or Bring Your Own Buddy. Recruit a pal to join you at the granddaddy of casual dining and they’ll each get $5 off their meal. Apparently you can steal one of their fries, or just bask in the glow of having done something nice for a friend.
It would’ve been nothing more than a one-off for the industry is Arby’s hadn’t begun a campaign this month called Friends and Family Feast. If a group of five visits a unit together, they get five roast beef sandwiches for $5, and all sides for a mere $1 each. The more, the thriftier.
As Wendy’s/Arby’s CEO Roland Smith explained, the program is intended to bolster frequency, apparently through peer pressure. The chain has qualified 50% of its patrons as “medium users” who might be coaxed to add another trip here or there. Getting them to visit just one more time a year can boost a store’s comp sales by 3%, according to Smith.
So is this patron-as-guest-recruiter approach a trend or a fad? My projection: It’ll be another marketing tactic, another arrow in the quiver that’s put in play from time to time because of its novelty. So my final answer: Neither.
New product mania: Back in the spring, Quiznos CEO Rick Schaden sent a scooter to every headquarters staffer, explaining that they had to move faster in adapting to market trends. He cited product development as an area of focus, but left unaddressed the matter of how.
Yesterday, Schaden detailed the process for making that happen. Or so he attests. It’s called Flex Plan, and it aims to match new items to patrons’ financial situation. “The key is to provide the right food at the right time for the right price,” he said.
If times are tough, Schaden explained, the chain’s R&D department will churn out bargain items like the $3 Toasty Bullet or $4 Toasty Torpedo. And when better times return, he continued, the focus will shift to indulgence items, like double-meat sandwiches.
And regardless of what’s coming down the pipeline, he says, the set-up will streamline the process, yielding fast, more efficient introductions.
While that system is being adopted chainwide, Wendy’s is already reaping the benefits from an R&D overhaul, according to CEO Smith. The chain has “developed a very strong new product pipeline,” he assured investors. “By the end of the year we will have tested at least 14 new products, which is more than Wendy’s has tested in a single year in quite a long time.”
Then there’s the hyperactivity of chains like Mimi’s, Carl’s Jr./Hardee’s, Jack in the Box, McDonald’s and Burger King. New products are flying into the market like a pack of third-graders being released for recess. Is this heightened R&D activity a wave that’ll be with us for awhile? You betcha. Definitely a trend.
Commence the shopping spree: In what should have been a routine earnings release, The Steak n Shake Co. revealed yesterday that it’s restructured itself into a holding company with assets consisting of a lone restaurant chain, the Steak ‘n’ Shake retro brand. Why a holding company with one business?
“The company may pursue investments in the form of acquisitions, joint ventures, and partnerships either related or unrelated to its ongoing business activities,” explained a passage of the earnings release that was probably penned by securities lawyers.
That development followed a report in Saturday’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution about Roark Capital, the private-equity firm that owns McAlister’s Deli and a group of restaurant brands (Moe’s Southwest Grill, Schlotzsky’s, Carvel, Cinnabon) franchised by Focus Group. The story explained that Roark expects to complete as many deals in the current year as it consummated in the previous eight, with several set to close by November.
“We feel like we’re ready to start investing again,” Roark managing partner Neal Aronson told the AJC’s Joe Guy Collier.
Sandwiched between those two instances of check-book rattling was the announcement that Church’s fried-chicken chain had officially been sold, some three months after a deal was announced.
So is this the start of a buying trend? Are companies shopping for restaurant companies again?
After a virtual halt this year in restaurant deals, it certainly feels that way. But it’s all relative. For one thing, private-equity companies are usually the wheeler-dealers in such a spree. They buy, they sell.
This time around, many of them are stuck on the seller side of the table, trying to peddle the chains they amassed in better times. Foreign companies may be the new shoppers. But how active will they be?
My prediction: There’ll be a flurry of activity that feels like a cut-rate auction. But it’ll take awhile to see M&A come close to the level we saw before the Great Recession.
But what’s your assessment? I’d love to hear some discussion about which might be a fad and which might be the start of an actual trend.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Is Wendy's/Arby's shopping for another chain?
Last October I had lunch at a midtown Wendy’s with Roland Smith, the newly named CEO of the chain and its adoptive parent of a few weeks, Wendy’s/Arby’s Group. Smith and his team were blitzing the media to discuss how the company formerly known as Triarc was going to generate more value for shareholders as a two-concept fast-food franchisor.
Among the more surprising routes mentioned by Smith was the acquisition of more brands. The company had just spent $2.3 billion to buy Wendy’s after more than a year of contentious pursuit. Was it really open to other deals?
Fast forward to yesterday morning, when Wendy’s/Arby’s announced plans to raise $550 million in debt. About $125 million will be used to pay off outstanding loans—the equivalent of paying off a big credit-card bill. The other $425 million, the company said, would be used for “general corporate purposes.” It listed seven specific possibilities, including “acquisitions of other restaurant companies.”
Most of the other options are moves that would likely appease shareholders—things like new unit development, paying a dividend, or buying back stock. Yet the company’s share price dipped. “There’s clearly some hesitation on the part of investors,” Bob O’Brien wrote on a Barron’s blog. “The likeliest source of concern: that Wendy’s would make another big-ticket acquisition.”
Back in October, Smith wouldn't discuss possible acquisition candidates, nor even what kind of companies might have been on his shopping wish list. The only clue he provided was a comment that any target would have to be a high-quality rather than a low-cost provider.
It’s a safe presumption that it would also have to be a potential or current franchisor, since that’s Wendy’s/Arby’s business. Smith didn’t say anything about menus, but presumably the company would want something that wouldn’t compete with its burger or sandwich chains. That means it’d have to specialize in something like chicken, pizza or beverages.
The criteria are smoky at best. But there are plenty of candidates that would fit.
Jamba Juice, for one. It’s the hands-down leader in the smoothie segment, with a healthy average ticket.
Church’s has traditionally been a value provider, but it might be an affordable play in the chicken market, and is widely reported to be for sale.
The chain's sister concept, Caribou Coffee, would also meet Smith's vague criteria.
There are also any number of upstart, high-quality pizza concepts currently competing on a regional basis.
Since co-branding figures large in Wendy’s/Arby’s growth strategy, a dessert add-on might also make sense. A regional soft-serve specialist, maybe?
This, of course, is all speculation. But a $425-million down payment makes a lot more sense than “general corporate purposes.” That’s a lot of new carpet and paper clips.
Among the more surprising routes mentioned by Smith was the acquisition of more brands. The company had just spent $2.3 billion to buy Wendy’s after more than a year of contentious pursuit. Was it really open to other deals?
Fast forward to yesterday morning, when Wendy’s/Arby’s announced plans to raise $550 million in debt. About $125 million will be used to pay off outstanding loans—the equivalent of paying off a big credit-card bill. The other $425 million, the company said, would be used for “general corporate purposes.” It listed seven specific possibilities, including “acquisitions of other restaurant companies.”
Most of the other options are moves that would likely appease shareholders—things like new unit development, paying a dividend, or buying back stock. Yet the company’s share price dipped. “There’s clearly some hesitation on the part of investors,” Bob O’Brien wrote on a Barron’s blog. “The likeliest source of concern: that Wendy’s would make another big-ticket acquisition.”
Back in October, Smith wouldn't discuss possible acquisition candidates, nor even what kind of companies might have been on his shopping wish list. The only clue he provided was a comment that any target would have to be a high-quality rather than a low-cost provider.
It’s a safe presumption that it would also have to be a potential or current franchisor, since that’s Wendy’s/Arby’s business. Smith didn’t say anything about menus, but presumably the company would want something that wouldn’t compete with its burger or sandwich chains. That means it’d have to specialize in something like chicken, pizza or beverages.
The criteria are smoky at best. But there are plenty of candidates that would fit.
Jamba Juice, for one. It’s the hands-down leader in the smoothie segment, with a healthy average ticket.
Church’s has traditionally been a value provider, but it might be an affordable play in the chicken market, and is widely reported to be for sale.
The chain's sister concept, Caribou Coffee, would also meet Smith's vague criteria.
There are also any number of upstart, high-quality pizza concepts currently competing on a regional basis.
Since co-branding figures large in Wendy’s/Arby’s growth strategy, a dessert add-on might also make sense. A regional soft-serve specialist, maybe?
This, of course, is all speculation. But a $425-million down payment makes a lot more sense than “general corporate purposes.” That’s a lot of new carpet and paper clips.
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