In the hectic world of the restaurant business, getting noticed is as important as serving quality food. To that end, the Fast Casual Executive Alliance (FCA) was born.
Created by Paul Barron, publisher of Fast Casual magazine and Food Service Division executive vice president at NetWorld Alliance, the group represents more than 375 fast casual organizations.
Together, the group will work to continue the growth of the fast-casual restaurant segment, raise consumer awareness of the segment and support legislative issues that will serve the entire restaurant industry.
As the alliance begins to take shape this year, the group will work toward several short- and long-term goals.
First, it will help develop ideas for the annual Fast Casual Executive Summit, held Sept. 15-16 in Denver. It also will work to provide educational content about the fast-casual industry at other trade shows throughout the year. Beyond that, the alliance aims to create a positive connection with the National Restaurant Association (NRA) and broaden fast casual understanding.
“Our focus was really to get the industry a seat at the table,” Barron said.
The NRA tracks sales and demographics in the quick-service restaurant segment, but not the fast causal. The FCA aims to change that.
Earlier this year, Barron presented the NRA with the Fast Casual State of the Industry Report, which offered insight into the fast-casual segment, with details on operators, store volumes, check averages and more.
“It was the first real, hard factual data that they’d had a chance to review,” Barron said. “We’ll come back this summer and sit down with them and get their take on the Alliance and how we, as a special interest group, can help them gather even more research and data. This allows the NRA to get their hands around what this industry means.”
Industry obstacles
Broadening the understanding of the segment is a priority for the group, which recently named Louis Basile, of Phoenix-based Wildflower Bread Co., as president of the alliance and of the 12-member executive board. Because fast casual frequently is lumped together with quick service, the FCA sees battling key legislative issues as one of its first challenges.
In the coming year, for example, California and other states will try to determine how many quick-service operators can set up shop in a particular municipality. The FCA wants to make sure it establishes a clear differentiation between those operations and fast-casual operations, so as not to shut out fast-casual operators unjustly.
“A lot of people assume fast casuals are the same (as quick-service restaurants) and in so many ways they are not,” Barron said.
Within the last 30 years, the pop culture lexicon opened up to include the term ‘fast food.’
Barron and the FCA aim for that same kind of acceptance for ‘fast casual’ in the minds and mouths of restaurant-industry leaders and everyday consumers.
“The consumers eventually adopted the term ‘fast food’ and it makes sense today,” Barron said. “We hope to do the same thing.” Ken Clark, president and chief operating officer of Farmer Boys restaurants, joined the FCA because the idea of working together and making decisions about the direction of the fast-casual segment appealed to him. Based in Southern California, Farmer Boys has 60 restaurants in the state and a new store opening in Las Vegas.
“For all of us in the restaurant industry, to be involved in a larger group like this only enhances the individual,” Clark said. “I think that collectively we can bring the issues of the day together and say ‘How can we as the fast-casual segment improve in those areas that we all compete in every day?'”
For Clark and other board members, setting the fast-casual segment apart from quick service in the mind of the customer is key, and doing so in the current rocky economy is vital.
FCA board member and president of Elliano’s Coffee Company, Mick Rynning, believes the strength of the alliance’s numbers will help the fast-casual segment find innovative solutions during trying financial times.
“We share some unique challenges and opportunities that may not extend to the larger industry as a whole,” Rynning said. “We have a different customer than quick service. The economic impact on our segment will be a lot different.”
Fast casual customers typically have an annual salary of $50,000 or more, Rynning said. Working with the FCA on new ways to reach that demographic is something he is looking forward to doing as a group.
“We have to try and separate fast casual in the eyes of the guests,” Clark said. “In today’s economy, all of us are concerned about our guests and their disposable income. How do we make our concepts relevant?”
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