7 Tips to Attack Foodservice
By Angel Abcede on Jul. 20, 2016HILTON HEAD, S.C. -- From food-truck insights to securing top-down buy-in, three retailers and a convenience-store consultant reviewed a number of foodservice lessons learned in the field at a recent technology conference.
Speaking before about two dozen attendees at the Gilbarco Veeder-Root Retail Technology Conference in Hilton Head, S.C., this past spring, Jason Collins, information technology director for Englefield Oil Co., Heath, Ohio; Lisa Dell‘Alba, president and CEO of Square One Markets, Bethlehem, Pa.; Rachel Mehl, specialized category manager of foodservice for Wallis Cos., Cuba, Mo.; and c-store consultant Ieva Grimm, president, SYNERGE, Duncansville, Pa., spoke about their foodservice development, inclusive of design, logistics and technology decisions.
What follows are seven insights they revealed ...
1. Involve your customers
Nine-store operator Dell‘Alba of Square One Markets, recently tested a program of nutritional, take-home kits that led to an ongoing conversation with customers about what type of foodservice program they’d like to see. While they opted not to continue the meal kits, they’re on a continuous path of working with vendors and customers to provide a strong foodservice offer in markets where food-first chains such as Sheetz and Wawa call home.
2. Respond effectively
After feedback from customers and working with area vendors, Dell‘Alba initiated new programs with fresh-fruit and cookies.
3. Create an action team
Launching On the Run Café in 2014 was a process for Mehl and the team at Wallis Cos. Their first move was to create a foodservice “action team,” charged with creating a made-to-order program. They visited multiple retailers, worked in their stores and shared ideas with a study group.
4. Hire a foodservice consultant
To help them devise a proper menu, Wallis Cos. hired a foodservice consultant to better understand “what they could become famous for.” It lead to discussion of menu items and packaging, and the chain's On The Way Cafe.
One of the things that Mehl and her colleagues at Wallis Cos. spent considerable time on was the layout of the foodservice operation in the store. They hired another consultant to help them understand and engineer the most efficient process and traffic flow.
5. Get top-level buy-in
With culture change being a high priority in delivering a sophisticated foodservice program, Mehl said top-level buy-in was critical. She called the process a “challenge, since associates are used to leaving hot dogs on a roller grill. … We have to make it important to us [as management] because we had to communicate that message with every interaction, at every location.”
6. Bring everyone together
For Collins of Englefield Oil, foodservice technology implementation required the chain's operations, marketing and IT teams to come together. They would implement made-to-order kiosks, a kitchen-management system, pricebook, menu displays and drive-thru ordering for the chain's Deli foodservice program.
7. Food-truck insights
Grimm of SYNERGE said retailers she’s worked with have used food trucks to track menu trends, increase in-store traffic and extend their brand. Some retailers rent space on their lots for recurring food trucks, others actually operate them as a mobile kitchen and testing lab.