Both Lunchbox and C3 are Looking a Customer Ahead

Technology companies provide platforms that drive customer adoption for less money to operate than current platforms or business models within the food space including for restaurants, grocery stores, convenience stores and food trucks according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. Does your business model look more like yesterday that today or tomorrow?

Lunchbox, is one of the next-gen online ordering engine for restaurants, and C3, is the innovative culinary direct-to-consumer ecosystem that manages and operates award-winning global brands, today announce their partnership to develop the very first virtual food hall for sbe subsidiary c3’s digital kitchen brands. Say, What, that’s right digital kitchens. Now that’s looking a customer ahead, creating new electricity for your brands growth.

So, here is how it is going to work. c3 (Creating Culinary Communities) will use Lunchbox’s patent pending technology through the virtual food hall; to solidify its leadership as the fastest growing virtual kitchen company by accelerating its nationwide expansion as the restaurant industry continues to embrace a digital-first approach to serving customers. Cutting through the crap you can grow your brands geographic presents for less than ever before.  Now, just think about that.  Are you growing your brand or closing units?  Growing customers, or losing customers?  Is your brand on a digital side road or a digital highway?

So, C​3​ was launched by Sam Nazarian, founder and CEO of sbe, and a visionary in defining the future of global lifestyle hospitality, to meet the rapidly changing needs of consumers has emerged as a revolutionary way to approach food halls, digital kitchens, and mobile delivery.

Through C3, Nazarian has built a first of its kind brand incubator where consumers can order from some of the best chefs and quick-service culinary brands in a single transaction. The C​3 portfolio which includes Krispy Rice, Sam's Crispy Chicken, Plant Nation, Ella Mia, and Umami Burger, is poised to grow rapidly with a pipeline of 7 new brands that will launch in the coming months through their digital kitchens that will number over 200 by then end of 2020.

The virtual food hall, developed in partnership with Lunchbox, will unite all C3 brands under one next-gen app and web experience. Through this unique, industry-first solution, users will be able to group orders from multiple C3 restaurants into one bag and checkout. This is about growing your brands SHARE OF STOMACH:

 In a Battle for Share of Stomach

The brands the ilk of chefs like Masaharu Morimoto and Dani Garcia that offer higher-end meals that can withstand 30-minute delivery routes. The virtual food hall is designed to seamlessly serve diners with varying and eclectic tastes. 

“We are excited to be leading the much-needed wave of innovation within the restaurant industry and the virtual food hall will provide consumers a seamless solution for ordering high quality food from multiple C3 restaurants without needing to visit a physical location. Lunchbox has been a critical partner in developing and executing this solution and we’re excited to continue working together as we prepare for our next stage of growth,” says sbe Founder & CEO Sam Nazarian. 

By developing the platform for c3’s virtual food hall, Lunchbox is helping the company seize the opportunity for ghost kitchens as the restaurant industry continues to rely on delivery orders to drive revenue. With Lunchbox as its digital platform, c3 will be able to decrease their reliance on third-party apps to fulfill orders and own most of the revenue generated. The virtual food hall will be an integral part of the company’s next stage of growth as they aim to open more than 250 ghost kitchens by 2022. 

Nabeel Alamgir, CEO and Co-founder of Lunchbox stated, “It’s important now more than ever to shift the restaurant industry towards a digital-first model, and we’ve been impressed with c3’s leadership on this initiative. Our partnership will set the standard for how ghost kitchens and mobile solutions will evolve moving forward and we’re thrilled to be a key partner in realizing those opportunities,”. Is your brand looking a customer ahead?  Are you building brand relevance with digital natives, you know Gen Z, Millennials and the like or do you units look more like yesterday that today or tomorrow?

Johnson stated “that in my minds-eye the new electricity must be very efficient for the supply chain and includes such things as fresh foods, online ordering, delivery, plant based foods, virtual restaurants, sampling, toy’s, cereal, developing brands,  grocerant positioning, fresh food messaging, autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, plates, glasses, cash-less payments, digital hand-held marketing.

All food and beverage retailers to survive the next generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution while simultaneously embracing fresh food and beverages that are portable, fresh, with differentiation that is familiar not different.  Does your retail path forward look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Why?

For international corporate presentations, regional chain presentations, local educational forums, or keynotes contact: Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions.  His extensive experience as a multi-unit restaurant operator, consultant, brand / product positioning expert and public speaking will leave success clues for all. For more information visit GrocerantGuru.com, FoodserviceSolutions.US or call 1-253-759-7869

Is Eating-Out while Eating-IN the New Restaurant Business Model

Success does leave clues and one clue the was first identified, quantified, and qualified by Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® is Eating-Out while Eating-In.  Regular readers of this blog know that one key element discovered in Foodservice Solutions® study “The 65 Inch HDTV Syndrome” was Eating-Out while Eating-In.

Now the former chief financial officer of Smashburger Bradford Reynolds has been named chief operating officer of the recently launched C3 (Creating Culinary Communities), a subsidiary of SBE Entertainment Group that plans to build a nationwide network of ghost kitchens and limited-service delivery brands.

So, get this, C3 is a partnership between hotel and restaurant operator SBE, shopping mall-owner Simon and hotel partner Accor. The partners plan to leverage Simon’s real estate footprint and SBE and Accor’s hotels to open 200 ghost kitchens by the end of 2021, along with a portfolio of restaurant brands available for delivery. That is a template for growth with location, demographic specialist combined with restaurant success experience.

 

C3 is the company that is planning to opened a food hall called Citizens planned for the Manhattan West development in the Hudson Yards area of New York. While it may work in NYC a food hall is no more than a food court in a non-traditional location. Johnson, does not believe that food halls are scalable.

Reynolds in a statement said C3 has “the chance to modernize the culinary experience, providing innovative solutions to address the new ways consumers want their food. In rethinking every step of the dining process, from the longevity of delivered food to efficient and sustainable packaging and distribution, C3 is bringing to market an incredible offering that the hospitality industry has never seen before.”

Johnson, does believe that C3 and Reynolds do have a chance to drive growth within the grocerant niche with multi-branded fresh food via a virtual kitchen.  Success does leave clues and the team at Foodservice Solutions® believes C3 had the ability to drive change within the restaurant “price, value, service equilibrium”.

Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your retail food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how www.FoodserviceSolutions.us can edify your retail business model 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.