Burger King and Popeyes both begin Installing EV Charging Stations

 

That’s right, looking a customer ahead, Restaurant Brands Iberia (RB Iberia) is going to install 400 charging points for electric cars at almost 200 Burger King and Popeyes shops in Spain. Later, the cooperation could be extended to Portugal. Now that’s some new electricity.

According to a press release and news reports, “The Spanish energy supplier Iberdrola has reached an agreement with the company.  Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®, “Restaurant companies need to think like Amazon, everyday is ‘Day One’ Electric Vehicles are here.  It’s time to invite them and the owners into your restaurants.  There is no better welcome than having a EV charging unit available for them.”

Burger King and Popeyes will get a mix of DC chargers with 50 and 150 kW and AC chargers with 22 kW capacity is planned, according to the company. The new agreement is part of Iberdrola’s plan to build a total of 150,000 charging points by 2025, mainly in Spain. The exact distribution of DC and AC chargers is not clear from the announcement. However, with 400 charging points at 200 branches, it is likely that there will only be one charging point per car park with two charging points each – i.e. either AC or DC, probably not both.

Since this agreement that has now been concluded; it is exclusive for the next ten years, meaning that no charging points from other operators may be built at RB Iberia. Iberdrola will take over the installation and operation of the charging points. Customers will be able to use the chargers via the Iberdrola Public Charging App, which will also be used for billing.

According to the Iberdrola announcement, RB Iberia also plans to install up to 100 charging points per year at newly built restaurants. However, the possible expansion to Portugal in a second step is only mentioned in the communication and not backed up with exact targets.

Alfonso Calderón, commercial director of Iberdrola Spain, described RB Iberia as an “excellent ally to move forward in implementing solutions for the electrification of transport”. Are you looking a customer ahead?

How is your brand building new electricity? According to Johnson, “Brand relevance is in part driven with innovation in new menu related products in combination with new avenues of distribution all of which are the platform for the new electricity.”

Johnson stated “that in my minds-eye the new electricity must be very efficient for the supply and includes such things as fresh foods, music, developing brands, unique urban hemp clothing, grocerant positioning, EV Charging Stations fresh food messaging, autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, plates, glasses, cash-less payments, digital hand-held marketing.

All retailers to survive the next generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution while simultaneously embracing fresh food that is portable.

Don’t over reach. Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how Foodservice Solutions® can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit us on our social media sites by clicking the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter

Are you Growing 

Share of Stomach

Looking Forward Domino's Pizza Build, Measure, Learn, Repeat = Success is still True

 

Once again delivering success is the foundation of what Domino’s has done since its inception.  There is no company today that is better at Ready-2-Eat fresh prepared food delivery than Domino’s Pizza according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

If success does leave clues and it does Domino’s ability to take time testing systems, food, and service to understand the benefits, complications, and outcomes that will drive continue unit level success is one of the foundations of their success.  Foodservice Solutions® team calls this system Build, Measure, Learn, and Repeat and very few are better than it in the fast-food sector than Domino’s. 

Domino's Pizza was conducting a second round of self-driving delivery vehicle testing, with a focus in round two on the customer experience. This new two-month test in Miami, in partnership with Ford, will leverage the learnings of the first round of testing, but will add the element of delivery in a larger, urban setting. We are still looking for an update.  How about you?   This is going to happen and Domino’s will be there.

Back then Kevin Vasconi, executive vice president and chief information officer of Domino’s stated “Our first round of testing the customer experience in Ann Arbor provided some great learnings and insights, including the fact that there are customers who are interested in this as a delivery option.” 

Vasconi continued “Our testing is focused on the last 50 feet of the customer experience, between the front door and the car. While we work to refine that interaction, we also need to understand how operating this type of delivery in a more densely populated city will impact the customer experience and the specific delivery challenges it might present.”

In round two, a Ford Fusion Hybrid vehicle manually driven but outfitted to look like a self-driving vehicle will take deliveries from a Miami Domino’s store to customers who have ordered online and chosen to participate in the test. Participating customers will be able to track the vehicle via GPS and will receive text messages as the self-driving vehicle approaches. The texts will also provide them with simple instructions on how to unlock the Domino's Heatwave Compartment inside the vehicle using a PIN code.

“We’re a brand that believes in innovation, continuous improvement and rigorous testing to benefit our customers,” according to Vasconi. “As the automotive world evolves towards self-driving vehicles, we hope to put ourselves in a leading position by bringing our customers the delivery option that best meets their needs, now and in the future.” Are you getting your customers involved and then building, measuring, learning, and repeating? 

Interested in learning how Foodservice Solutions 5P’s of Food Marketing can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization? Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information

Domino’s Dominates Delivery

Leaders lead there is no doubt in the minds-eye of anyone at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® that when it comes to technology, delivery, and customer relevance that Domino’s leadership is undeniable in fact our own Grocerant Guru®, Steven Johnson who believes that Domino’s branded delivery has taken a dominate position in the minds-eye of the consumer.

Most regular readers of this blog have seen, experienced, Domino’s fist chain wide delivery vehicle. That car has become a point of qualitative differentiation for Domino’s according to Johnson that simultaneously drove a marketing message that Domino’s was ‘Looking A Customer Ahead’.

Now that Ford motors and Domino’s Pizza are teaming up to test self-driving pizza delivery cars in Michigan, as part of an effort to better understand how customers respond to and interact with autonomous vehicles we can envision another spike up in customer relevance for Domino’s.

Soon randomly selected Domino’s customers in Ann Arbor, Michigan will have the option to accept pizza deliveries from a Ford Fusion Hybrid autonomous research vehicle. But the car won’t be driving itself. Each car will be driven by a Ford safety engineer, with other researchers onboard, who will zero in on the last 50 feet of the customer experience.

Sherif Marakby, Vice President of Ford Autonomous Vehicles and Electrification, described the project as ethnographic research stating that “We don’t want to wait until we get everything done on the tech and remove the driver. We’re trying to start doing the research. We still are working on the technology, because it’s not ready to be put on public streets,” he said. “It’s simulating that the vehicle is in autonomous mode.”

Russell Weiner, president of Domino’s USA, said in a statement. “The majority of our questions are about the last 50 feet of the delivery experience.”… “We’re interested to learn what people think about this type of delivery.  Areas of focus include how willing are people to come outside to pick up their orders, the way they approach the car, and how they interact with the screen outside of the vehicle to get the food.

Is your company ‘Looking A Customer Ahead’?  Are you trapped doing what you have always done and doing it the same way?  Interested in learning how www.FoodserviceSolutions.us can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information.