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Bringing on-premise sparkle to off-premise salesIn the past, takeout business was often a nice-to-have option for restaurants – not necessarily the centerpiece of service. But that is changing – and restaurants are finding ways to translate the success of a brand with a solid on-premise history into one that doesn’t offer much of an on-premise experience. One example: Inspire Brands’s Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant. As CNBC reported recently, the sports-bar chicken wing brand launched a quick-service, delivery-and-takeout-only offshoot called BWW Go four years ago – and they have opened 100 locations since then, with another 50 planned for the remainder of the year. Takeout and delivery sales for Buffalo Wild Wings are now around 33 percent of all sales, up from 15 percent pre-pandemic, according to the business. The restaurant’s off-premise play seems to have worked because their customer base enjoys staying home to watch the big game, their product is not only popular and easy to customize but also travels well, and many customers know and trust the brand from their on-premise experience there. If, like many restaurants, you’re experiencing a surge in off-premise sales in recent years, how comfortable are you with how your brand translates outside of your dining room? Could you offer menu items that travel better? Are you finding ways to bring the personality of your brand into people’s homes with every takeout order? Are your delivery partners preserving your commitment to service – or could you incentivize customers to collect their food from you so you can strengthen face-to-face engagement? Or is your brand ripe for a Buffalo Wild Wings-style reinvention, with an off-premise offshoot that reliably provides the experience customers expect from the parent brand?
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