Fast Food Restaurants, Quick
Service Restaurants, Fast Casual Restaurants your customers are melting away
with companies the ilk of Jimmy John’s Gourmet
Sandwiches
which increased its annual sales 17.9% to $1.73 billion last year. Then there
is Firehouse Subs and Jersey Mike’s which grew their annual sales 14.7% and
30.2%, respectively.
With
55,100 7-Eleven convenience stores in 16 countries during 2013, 7-Eleven c-stores
generated total worldwide sales close to $84.5 billion, and the 10,500 7-Eleven’s in North America took notice of those
sales numbers and said we want more of that grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat
fresh prepared sandwich market.
Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru™ Steven Johnson stated: “the battle
for share of stomach continues
to intensify as more and more non-traditional fresh food retailers target fast
casual sandwich customers, fast food customers, and quick service restaurants
with customer perceived restaurant quality fresh prepared food.”
Wawa
says that it is a Fast Casual
Restaurant To-Go, Sheetz
Made-to-order (MTO)
fresh
prepared food help win them a Nation’s Restaurant News Golden Plate award. Now
7-Eleven’s rolled out two 7-Eleven Melt artisan sandwiches called the Italian
Melt and Chicken Bacon Ranch Melt. Sounds like a restaurant positioning to me.
7-Eleven
“evaluated 20 different bread options, measured 1,000 different buns, created
75 prospective sauces, tested multiple cheese varieties for “meltability,”
built 50 variations and performed many taste tests to find what it considered
to be the perfect recipe” according to Kelly Buckley, 7-Eleven's vice president
of fresh food innovation. The Grocerant Guru® reminds us that 50%+ of new
7-Eleven’s do not sell gasoline they are food focused.
The new sandwiches are made fresh daily in local kitchens, delivered
daily to stores, toasted to go in the stores for each purchaser. A Melt
sandwich typically takes less than a minute to toast and is served warm according
to Buckley.
“Hot
foods are really hot at 7-Eleven, both figuratively and literally,” said
Buckley. “Hot pizza, chicken wings and tenders and mini-tacos are all extremely
popular with our customers. We wanted to round out our menu to offer a
toasted-on-order alternative to our fresh-made cold sandwiches that customers
can grab for lunch without taking too much time from their lunch hour. Our
parameters were simple--toasted, fast and delicious.”
He
continued, “At 7-Eleven, a customer looking for a quick lunch can easily build
a fresh meal in just a few minutes that's more than a bag of chips and a soft
drink … although we certainly can fill that need. Our stores offer many more
options for beverages and sides, like fresh-cut fruit, a salad, hummus and cut
veggies and a decadent brownie for dessert.”
Consumer
migration from legacy restaurants lacking ample Mix and Match meal bundling
options, new day-part meal component alternatives, will continue to experience
customer migration. Success does leave clues and non-traditional fresh food
retailers are picking them up? Is your
restaurant chain prepared to compete with consumer relevant options? Do you need Outside Eye’s for inside results?
www.FoodserviceSolutions.us specializes in outsourced business
development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food
retail segment opportunities or a brand leveraging marketing integration
strategy. Foodservice Solutions of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche and
has been since 1991 Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us
No comments:
Post a Comment