Commercial Construction & Renovation

JUL-AUG 2016

Commercial Construction & Renovation helps our subscribers design, build and maintain better commercial facilities by delivering content to meet the information needs of today's high-level executives.

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BRINGING THE CASUAL COMMERCIAL KITCHENS Why did you pick the locations you did for your restaurants? Our real estate, legal and development teams do extensive studies on selection of locations. We examine many factors before making a decision. Demographics, traffic counts, access points, visibility and competition are some of the driving factors examined. There's not one singular one that determines an approved site. Location and visibility is always at the top of our list. Our real estate team does a tremendous job in finding opportunities, and then pulling all the information together for review in order to make a final determination on selecting a site. All of which must fit into the business model of the brand. What is your growth plan? What areas are you targeting? Texas is a big growth market for us. Starting with Dallas in 2014, we continued expansion to Houston and San Antonio. Now we're moving into Austin with our first location that opened in July and four others to come in 2017. We're also concentrating growth in the Atlanta metro area. What trends are you seeing? Many restaurant groups tend to look at fads versus brand stability, and brand rec- ognition. We see trends in designs all over the map. Many other brands copycat from others. As I see our Pollo Tropical brand, designs and awareness factors we have are unique. We have a building that no one else immolates. We have tropical theme of colors that are unique and inspiring. Build- ing trends are more going in the direction of energy savings, low maintenance and quick building timelines. We incorporate all those things as well. What is the secret to creating a "must visit" restaurant in today's competitive landscape? I don't know if there's really any secret. When you have a grand opening of a new brand in a market, curiosity seekers will show up. The key is maintaining customers. Our companies marketing and operations teams do a tremendous job in promotion of new stores. We have huge turn outs. Our building design just looks fun. Food, service and customer experience is how to maintain the customer and gain loyalty What's the biggest item on your to-do list right now? Cost reduction. This is always No. 1. Keeping the costs within the business model and maintaining brand image awareness. We've been fortunate to have an economy with slow inflation in the past few years. That is slated to change in the coming years. Being out in front of cost increases and being creative to divert those is the key to fighting the inflation curve on costs. You divert them by planning ahead and having solutions. Many restaurant groups tend to look at fads versus brand stability, and brand recognition. We see trends in designs all over the map. 92 COMMERCIAL CONSTRUCTION & RENOVATION — JULY : AUGUST 2016

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