Building a Bigger & Better Future for Foodservice

The 2022 Convenience Foodservice Exchange highlighted evolving best practices, ways to cope with challenges, and actionable suggestions to stand out from the crowd

By Angela Hanson

FROM IMPROVED branding to equipment upgrades to menu innovation and supply chain challenges, every aspect of today’s rapidly changing convenience foodservice market was addressed at the 2022 Convenience Foodservice Exchange (CFX) event, presented by Convenience Store News.

A record 70-plus convenience store retailers joined suppliers and other category thought leaders at this year’s event, held in June at the Marriott Savannah Riverfront in Savannah, Ga., the Hostess City of the South.

Over the course of two days, CFX attendees:

• Engaged in a variety of presentations, panel discussions and Q&A sessions about the most pressing issues and best practices of today; • Participated in valuable networking opportunities, including a curated Power Hour that matched retailers and suppliers based on a pre-event questionnaire; • Enjoyed a historic tour of downtown

Savannah while visiting two of the city’s best convenience stores, Enmarket and

Parker’s; and • Went on a walking food tour guided by

Savannah Taste Experience.

During his opening keynote speech, Ernie Harker, former marketing guru at Salt Lake Citybased Maverik — Adventure’s First Stop and current consultant and author, shared advice on how to boost the odds of foodservice success despite the current difficulties presented by a struggling supply chain and a tight labor market.

Branding and its ability to convey a chain’s individual qualities is particularly important in the convenience channel, as the vast majority of SKUs are common across most retailers, he said. “It is imperative that we differentiate in some remarkable way,” Harker emphasized, noting that such differentiation is key in whether a customer comes to visit one c-store or its competitor across the street.

While many c-store brands want to stay in “the safety zone” of not being too different from their competitors, this also means they are unlikely to be noticed, according to Harker.

The event included panel discussions and networking opportunities.

Differentiation alone, however, is not enough. “Great branding isn’t just being different. Great branding allows you to tell the story of your unique brand,” he explained.

Logos are a starting point, serving as a quick, visual shorthand to the full experience of visiting a particular c-store brand. Other steps to standing out recommended by Harker include:

Have a signature item/signature sides —

For a c-store that focuses on chicken, it’s not just about having chicken, but rather what makes that chicken awesome. The same applies to sides. He pointed to Rutter’s giant grilled cheese sandwich, Casey’s General Stores Inc.’s taco pizza, Wawa Inc.’s seasonal Gobbler and the biscuits at Church’s Chicken as examples of strong signature items.

Innovate — Innovation doesn’t have to require the stretching of resources, which may be difficult to find these days amid gaps in the supply chain. McDonald’s, for instance, was able to generate excitement by launching the limited-time Land, Air & Sea Sandwich, which required only standard ingredients shared by its main menu items.

Spread the word — Retailers should consider creative ways to reach out to influencers. Dropping off a complimentary order of food with a note at a radio station may or may not result in being mentioned on air, but it is a way of extending a brand’s reach in a relatively inexpensive manner.

Harker also recommended that c-store operators practice “hierology” to solve their labor shortages, as people want to work for businesses with a good reputation for treating their employees well. Energetic managers, product sampling and the addition of music can make a difference in employee retention.

A retailer’s employer brand strategy should involve choosing something they can own that is in line with their company values. “Make sure to excel in something you can actually fund or finance,” he stressed.

The Building Blocks of Foodservice

Marketing, operations and financials are three critical aspects of keeping a

Planning for a Food-Focused Future

As retailers adapt to the evolving state of convenience foodservice, they need to adapt their menu development processes.

Tony Sparks, head of customer wow! at Curby’s Express Market, a new concept in Lubbock, Texas, that blends the speed of convenience with high-quality food and beverages, and Jessica Williams, founder of Food Forward Thinking LLC, discussed the key steps in that process during the 2022 Convenience Foodservice Exchange event.

At Curby’s, which Sparks described as a c-store where “anything Panera Bread can do, we can do,” the company set out key targets in its menu development. Among them are: Define, Explore, Design, Refine, Launch and Measure.

Curby’s focused on three design features that are particularly relevant to the vast majority of convenience foodservice programs:

• Built for Speed — Convenience means customers getting in and out quickly. The layout of the preparation area and the store itself should facilitate this, allowing for easy traffic flow that lets shoppers view the menu, order and get their food quickly. Equipment is another critical aspect of smart design. Even those customers who choose made-toorder options won’t want to wait long for their food to be made.

• Built for Innovation — Menu favorites like pizza, breakfast burritos and hot dogs are nothing new, but c-stores can build their menu to allow for the addition of creative and interesting spins on the classics to pique customer interest and make themselves stand out. Curby’s menu features unique items like a chicken caprese pizza, a cilantro lime brisket breakfast burrito, and a hot dog topped with prosciutto, fig and bacon.

• Built for Volume — Some products are easy to make, some are more complex, and some must be fresh. Space and labor considerations should be set to allow for certain items to be made ahead of time when possible, leaving time for employees to focus on making the fresh items to-order without getting behind on other prep tasks or running out of items. This is particularly important for high-volume stores. convenience store foodservice program running. According to Kay Heritage, founder of Savannah-based Big Bon Foods LLC, they are also the foundation of a three-legged stool, supporting what truly sets a business apart from its competitors: purpose and value.

Big Bon Foods’ purpose is simply “to raise up more entrepreneurs,” Heritage said during “The New Convenience Retailer” panel held at CFX. An entrepreneur herself who operates a wood-fired bagel and pizza shop, food truck and ghost kitchen in Savannah, Heritage looks at her employees as individuals and tries to coach them in business and life skills.

“Foodservice is not the final destination of younger employees,” she said. “So, focus on the purpose of why they exist from the beginning.” Heritage pointed to her baker who ultimately wants to be a jazz musician and is happy to work a shift that fits around his practices and gigs.

“If they’re willing to learn, we invest in them,” she said. “We ask them what they really want to do.” As a result, Big Bon Foods has not struggled with labor shortages.

It benefits retailers to think of employees as their No. 1 asset, no matter the size of the business, said co-panelist Bassem Nowyhed, multifranchise owner of ampm convenience stores and founder and CEO of Studio City, Calif.-based Invig Consulting.

“They’re the ones that are running your business,” he said, pointing out that store employees drive the customer base through their customer service and attitude.

In addition to investing in them as people, Nowyhed suggests retailers look to make the workday more engaging for employees. One method is gamification — for example, the first person to sell a certain amount of a newly introduced product receives a major bonus.

“Everyone loves hitting targets and goals,” he said.

During the panel discussion, Heritage and Nowyhed touched on other relevant topics, such as:

Healthy products — In general, consumers are starting to transition to more health-conscious food, which means c-store operators should seek to offer a blend of healthy options and indulgent ones. Nowyhed pointed to Foxtrot, whose business platform marries the best of neighborhood retail and e-commerce, as a good example of a chain that balances health and convenience.

Inspiration — Retailers can and should imitate and be inspired by those who are doing foodservice well without being copycats. “It’s OK to look at who’s doing a great job,” Heritage said. “We learn from the masters.”

Omnichannel — This aspect of technology is vital to maximizing foodservice profits. “If you’re not somehow integrating omnichannel … there’s a lot of money being left on the table,” Nowyhed pointed out. “The new convenience is taking that product of yours and bringing it to the consumer’s hands without them having to drive to your facility.”

Proactive Program & Menu Planning

Although prepared food frequently gets the most focus, beverages are not the also-ran of the foodservice category. Over the past 10 years, carbonated soft drinks have seen double-digit sales declines,

yet soda makes up two-thirds of the in-store offering in the convenience channel.

Art Lopez, senior marketing director at Finlays, a leading independent business-to-business supplier of tea, coffee and botanical solutions for foodservice and beverage brand owners worldwide, advised retailers to proactively create a beverage strategy.

According to Lopez, retailers should focus on these areas to reimagine beverages in their stores:

• Unique offerings: Having stores with high-volume foot traffic means c-store operators have the opportunity to drive up sales with interesting beverages.

• Prioritize placement and pro-

motion: By making conscious decisions regarding the placement and promotion of exciting in-store offerings, retailers can influence the consumer behavior shift from packaged beverages. • Challenge the status quo: Beverage success involves looking past the 99-cent cup to more innovative beverage offerings. • Become a destination: C-stores have a major opportunity to become the go-to destination for new beverages, poaching the audience from cafes and fast-food restaurants.

C-store operators must take care to craft the right beverage for the right occasions. The top foods paired with beverages are snacks/side dishes and sandwiches — often during unplanned or impulse visits during the mid-morning and early afternoon — and consumers are most frequently looking to quench their thirst or buy a pick-me-up drink.

The future of beverages involves refreshing, healthy beverages that also taste great, Lopez noted. Retailers can succeed in this segment by recognizing where they stand now and deciding whether they want to focus most on a dispensed, made-to-order beverage experience or grab-and-go.

Through expert presentations, market tours and interactive sessions, participants learned how to achieve foodservice success in spite of today's challenges.

Making that decision is key because signage, promotions and store flow all need to be crafted to facilitate the desired outcome, Lopez added.

Eight Must-Take Steps for Success

In addition to revisiting their purpose and values, c-store operators need to push beyond rhetoric if they want to succeed in foodservice, Howland Blackiston, co-principal of restaurant and retail consultancy King-Casey, told this year’s CFX attendees.

To date, many chains have refrained from making more than evolutionary or incremental changes to their foodservice offerings, rather than bold moves to seize the competitive advantage. This is largely due to a cultural resistance to change, perceptions of disadvantages, and the lack of a stunning crisis to drive revolutionary innovations and improvements.

“I don’t think the pain is there yet,” he said.

Blackiston pointed to eight “absolutes” for c-stores to get serious about foodservice success:

1. Brand your foodservice business — From décor to equipment to ordering methods, everything should communicate “food” to the customer.

2. Have a proprietary/signature menu — Parker’s fried chicken and Texas Born’s tacos are examples that make those chains memorable. “Developing a signature item is an important step,” he said.

3. Create a menu strategy — Business objectives determine strategies and tactics, which are applied to categories and then individual products.

4. Offer off-premise solutions — This can include digital ordering, delivery and drive-thru, as well as other unconventional means. Blackiston cited Chick-fil-A’s habit of “line-busting” by sending store employees out to the drive-thru line to take orders.

5. Design a distinctive environment — Foodservice initiatives such as Whole Foods Market’s Ramen Bar intentionally signal that “this is a place to eat.”

The Value of Thinking Small

Foodservice may be big business for the convenience store industry, but multiple retailers took the time to highlight the importance of thinking small, and discussed ways that c-stores can boost their foodservice programs without making sweeping adjustments.

A Convenience Foodservice Exchange panel entitled “Small Changes — Big Returns: How Focused Improvements Can Bring Bountiful Results” brought together Ryan Krebs, foodservice director at Savannah, Ga.based Enmarket; Dave Grimes, vice president of foodservice at Carmi, Ill.-based Martin & Bayley Inc./Huck’s Market; and Jeff Hagans, category manager at Greenville, S.C.-based The Spinx Co.

Challenges and limitations presented by the COVID-19 pandemic made it hard to innovate or roll out major new launches, but Enmarket learned how to “pivot, don’t pause,” according to Krebs.

He listed multiple smaller initiatives that yielded success for Enmarket, such as locating a produce expert to deliver local, in-season fruits to stores, which grew several hundred percent; swapping out a generic frozen carbonated beverage program for Coke-branded products to leverage strong brand recognition; and adding individually wrapped doughnuts with a 75-day shelf life.

Adding Enmarket branding to coffee cups, hot dog containers and other packaging also strengthened the retailer’s marketing for minimal investment, Krebs pointed out.

Grimes highlighted the importance of “theater” around foodservice and dispensed beverages in order to draw attention. New graphics, significant additional signage and other methods of guiding customers to the roller grill and coffee station contributed to sales boosts at Huck’s, while the rollout of a “guaranteed to love it or it’s free” promise generated buzz.

Additionally, catering has been “huge” for Huck’s, Grimes said. Along with the actual sale, catering serves as a marketing opportunity to reach consumers attending the school function or sporting event being catered. “We may not have gotten food in their mouths any other way,” he noted.

Finally, while consumers have increasingly resumed dining out, Hagans advised retailers not to overlook the value of take-home food. Spinx used the same chicken to make take-home meals as for the fresh case, which provided steady incremental sales growth.

Hagans highlighted the importance of fresh fruit, too. Spinx first began working with a fresh fruit provider to add the offering to smaller stores that didn’t have access to the company’s commissary several years ago, only to see sales “just skyrocket.”

While the small changes that yield the best results will vary from c-store to c-store, Krebs offered one key piece of advice to identify the right opportunities: “Focus on the things that are small enough to change but big enough to matter.”

must start at the top because nothing at a chain will happen “unless the people at the top say they want it to happen,” he said.

7. Embrace continuous improvement — Zone-specific innovation and improvement teams should continuously focus on identifying improvement opportunities and solving them.

8. Innovate through technology — Not every piece of technology will be relevant to every brand, but technology can be used to create a proprietary branded experience. CSN