In the food service industry, many companies are beginning to try to reduce the amount of secondary restaurants that the company runs and owns. Companies like Buffalo Wild Wings have even sold their small line of pizza chains recently. The reason behind companies selling off their side businesses is to get back to the core of the original restaurant and reinvest. This will lead to an increase in customers and sales, because the company will be more focused on the customers and not the businesses.

Key Takeaways:

• Many companies are selling of their secondary stores and businesses that they have bought or created in the past.
• The new era is not to own it all, but it is to focus on one business and make sure it is great to the core values.
• It will be a hard initial adjustment, but it will balance and pay out in the long term.

“The concept shedding stands in direct contrast to what seems like a trend toward industry consolidation.”

Read more: http://www.nrn.com/mergers-acquisitions/faltering-restaurants-shed-secondary-concepts

We live in a society of grab and go with everything, we don’t like to wait and patience is no longer a virtue that most have. Businesses are catering to that by allowing customers to order directly from their phones or by voice commands. That being said, it will make grabbing food or your favorite coffee order for your business meeting a lot faster. Once this is more established, soon businesses will have a problem if customers are not able to order online.

Key Takeaways:

• Within 3 years, all regional and national quick serve food should have mobile ordering.
• Mcdonalds recently announced intention to have mobile ordering and curbside pickup.
• There is an added complexity which is forecasting not only foot traffic but also mobile orders due to traffic flow.

“The whole world of fast-food ordering options—from mobile ordering to in-store kiosks and from delivery to curbside pickup—is arguably growing at a pace unrivaled since the drive-thru explosion that began way back in the late 1970s.”

Read more: https://www.qsrmagazine.com/ordering/why-biggest-brands-are-all-digital-ordering

Growing up in the restaurant industry, Yoav and David Adir were ecstatic to be approached by a television executive just three months after starting their own business. Their restaurant, The Carving Board, was featured on the Travel Channel’s “Sandwich Paradise” and their popularity within the Los Angeles area has only blossomed since then. Another television appearance, this time on Food Network, further boosted their appeal and they are currently slated to open four locations in Dubai and are pursuing opportunities in the States as well. The Carving Board currently has three locations.

Key Takeaways:

• Adir’s decision to get on a segment on Travel Channel’s “Sandwich Paradise” attracted a lot of new customers.
• They started creating their menu by looking at comfort foods that they loved to eat.
• They wanted a franchise, so had exact recipes for everything and do inventory every week.

“In 2007, Adir was working at The Cheesecake Factory when he decided he needed a break from restaurants. Three years later, he was itching to return but didn’t want to work for anybody else. The heart of the recession influenced the brothers to create a concept designed around a $10 price point.”

Read more: https://www.qsrmagazine.com/fast-casual/how-chance-encounters-created-exciting-sandwich-franchise

If you are a business entrepreneur who wines and dines a lot, you might consider getting a wine locker at a participating restaurant.

Actually anyone who loves to have wine during dinner out can have their selected wines on display in their wine locker, replete with an appealing display case and a fancy plaque that can be designed to advertise your business in an unobtrusive way.

One restaurant that offers wine lockers is Strega Prime in Woburn, Massachusetts. General Manager Romeo Carrafa says a patron can buy their favorite wines in advance and store them in their own wine locker so that the wines will be made available whenever the patron comes to the restaurant to dine. Since the wines already will be available and visible in one’s wine locker one will not need to buy wine each time one returns to the restaurant. In Orlando, Fla. one can lease a wine locker at Christner’s Prime Steak & Lobster for five hundred dollars at the annual rate.

The wine locker lease arrangement works well for the restaurants too. A restaurant that offers the service can keep its wine inventory smaller and less costly. It also can increase the number of people who return to the restaurant for wining and dining.

Key Takeaways:

• You may not come across wine lockers very often, but their numbers are growing.
• In-house sommeliers, bartenders and managers personally help wine locker owners select, purchase and store their selections.
• At Christner’s Prime Steak & Lobster in Orlando, Fla., wine lockers can be leased for a flat annual fee of $500.

“Any guest who orders wine regularly at your restaurant can benefit from a wine locker.”

Read more: http://www.restaurant-hospitality.com/drink-trends/make-guests-feel-vips-wine-lockers

Recent changes in the restaurant consumer market have prompted a spur in growth of revenues for independent restaurants. The millennial market, for example, favors local and small-scale businesses. Other influences like lifestyle entertainment such as television shows highlighting unique eating experiences are also prompting the shift away from chain restaurants. Social media is also a major factor in these recent shifts. With such trends many independent restaurants are striving to maintain and improve quality to continually delivery products and services above that of their chain restaurant competitors.

Key Takeaways:

• Traffic at restaurant chains has been increasingly problematic in recent years, and has fallen at least 4.2 percent on a two-year basis in four of the past five months, according to MillerPulse.
• One reason for the decline is that consumers are broadening their spending, especially at dine-in concepts where prices are higher.
• To be sure, it’s difficult to truly get a handle on shifts in the independent market, and there’s some disagreement among experts as to whether independents are really gaining market share.

“This cannot be emphasized enough. Large chains can tout their local ingredients all they want, but they will have only so much credibility with consumers. Independents have no such problem.”

Read more: http://www.restaurant-hospitality.com/consumer-trends/5-reasons-independent-restaurants-are-winning