My biggest challenge is taking our food offer forward as I am pretty certain that unless we get our offer right we will really struggle to drive footfall. This is going to be a huge challenge for all sorts of reasons, firstly the “free flow” style of service which our restaurants have always provided is something that we won’t be changing as it’s what our customers have become used to and our competitors still provide it (in one form or another) and finally because making any wholesale changes to our counter areas is not going to be viable economically so in most of our units apart from making some small changes to the amount of display capacity we will continue with this format but combine the speed of service that can be achieved through the use of the hot plate with the provision of more cook to order items. Our food plan involves changes (hopefully for the better) to our impulse range, our bakery range our hot and cold drinks ranges and our main meal and sandwich ranges. So by the end of the year we will have pretty much updated our whole offer. Along side this work there will be a lot of investment in training, we have some good staff with lots of potential but the require some support in order to deliver the planned menu changes efficiently and to a high standard.
Whilst all of the above is going to be hard work, the size of the challenge both excites and inspires me as playing a part in the renaissance of one of the best loved brands in the high street would be a wonderful achievement.
random outpourings 