Is Luby's a Brand of Yesterday or Tomorrow?

When a restaurant company possesses all of the required components to excel within the fastest growing sector of the retail foodservice space (the grocerant niche – filled with Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh food) and elects yet does not.  It gets the team at Foodservice Solutions® wondering if it is a brand of yesterday rather than tomorrow.

One sure hint of a brand having an internal conundrum according to our own Grocerant Guru® is when a company reports lower same-store sales and places the blame on weather and a consumer cutbacks’.  When the consumer’s stop visiting it’s time for product refresh, refocus, redo. Remember consumers are not eating less, they are eating somewhere else. 

Chris Pappas, Luby’s president and CEO, in an earnings call Friday stated Third-quarter same-store sales decreased 0.6 percent in the period, the company said, but traffic showed improvements at the Luby’s Cafeteria brand.  On the call company executives cited consumer cutbacks, and wet Texas weather for the slide.

Here is what is particularly interesting for the team at Foodservice Solutions® both Luby’s Cafeteria and Fuddruckers are ideally positioned within the foodservice sector to evolve with consumers that are migrating to Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food. 

Restaurant brands must be mindful that consumers are dynamic not static and their brands must be as well.  Steven Johnson Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® stated “year over year same-store sales are a key driver a brands relationship with the consumer.  Consumers today are empowered with choice and the pressure consumes apply is reflected in sales.”

Is your retail food brand a brand of yesterday or tomorrow? Are your sales up? Customer count’s up? In our Omni-channel retail world all brands need to be mindful of the undercurrents of customer migration, key drivers of customer adoption, and that consumers are dynamic not static.

Are you trapped doing what you have always done and doing it the same way?  Interested in learning how Foodservice Solutions® FIVE P’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