Message from Mike
Hello Team City Barbeque,
Thank you! Thank you to every Team Member working in a joint, and thank you to every Team Member supporting those Team Members who work in the joints. What you all have done since the beginning of this pandemic is nothing short of amazing.
In Quemmunication on May 12, I said, “Resilience is defined as: to rebound quickly from difficult conditions. As a character trait, resilience is a person's mental ability to recover quickly from misfortune. This brand and this team is absolutely RESILIENT!” You all have proven that statement true. Each day, each week, each period, you all have continued to execute at an extremely high level. You adapt to an evolving priority list, the ever-changing shift in revenue channels, providing a high level of service to a guest who is often more demanding than ever, and you all do it with a smile—a smile often hidden under your mask. You all are truly resilient!
The pandemic has driven many changes in consumer behavior and has certainly made its mark on the restaurant industry. We have seen a significant shift in our revenue channels since the pandemic began in late March. A quick summary comparing P2 results to P8 results:
Dining room: down by almost half, at 22% of total sales
To-go (guest walking in, placing order, carrying out): down only 3%, at 27% of total sales
Curbside: introduced in P3, has now grown to 19% of total sales
3rd Party Delivery: peaked in P4, has now settled in at 12.7% of total sales, increasing 5.3% from P2
Catering: sales are beginning to come back after falling to close to nothing in P4; P8 catering sales represented 5.9% of total sales, a decline of 1.5% from P2
Pig Up ‘N Go (formerly called Rapid Pickup): we have just started to break out this revenue channel (it was previously captured in our Olo/web sales)—Pig Up ‘N Go decreased 1.9% in P8 from its P2 level but remains a popular channel at 13% of total revenue
The adjustment you all have made to adjust so quickly in response to the shift in revenue channels is simply amazing. Although I know it wasn’t, you made it look easy. We fully expect the revenue channels to continue to shift as we work our way out of the current restrictions. The good news for Team City Barbeque is two-fold: first, our brand is positioned perfectly to deliver Competition Quality and Backyard Hospitality, regardless of how our guest chooses to experience City Barbeque. And second, this team’s resiliency will ensure we dominate each channel and Own the Barbeque Lane.
We realize the increased volume of OLO channels has created additional challenges in our joints, especially for our dine-in guests who for years have learned to expect their food almost immediately upon walking to the expo counter. Since we expect our OLO business to continue to grow, this is something we all must work together to remedy. We have started working with the Market Leaders and President’s Club to identify all potential solutions to this challenge. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to this, as each joint has unique challenges, so we are exploring all potential remedies: technology, how we wrap our product, staffing levels, boards and expo line configuration, menu make-up, and the overall set-up of our joints. If you have thoughts or suggestions on this, please be sure to share those with your Market Leader, as we plan to begin taking steps to solve for this very soon.
The remaining four months of the year will be action-packed. We plan to open our first drive-thru joint in Miller Lane. We will install our first mobile pick-up window in Newark, for guests to pick up orders placed ahead of time online via Olo. We will finalize plans for our first ever 3,000 square foot joint, to open in 2021 with the latest andgreatest technology and equipment, enabling it to generate above-system-average volume in a more stream-lined layout. We will finalize the 2020 pipeline, opening six new joints in 2021. Finally, we will invest over $1.5M into a new website and digital platform to create a frictionless online ordering experience for our guests. While many businesses have unfortunately had to make cuts and others have had to shutter altogether, we are investing and growing. We are able to do this because of the hard work and dedication of each of you. Thank you.
In closing, I want to remind you that at City Barbeque, we will always push to Improve a Little Every Day. We will always encourage our folks to push a little harder to achieve best-in-class results. We will never settle for mediocrity or substandard results. That said, we will never put business results ahead of our people or their families. Whatever challenge or problem you may face in your joint or your department, please know you have an entire team behind you as a resource to help you develop a solution. Do not go it alone: engage, reach out, and utilize the expertise and strength this team offers.
As a reminder we have the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and the City Cares Fund available to all Team Members who may be experiencing a personal difficulty. Please make sure all Team Members are aware of the programs and how to access them.
The EAP can be accessed at www.unum.com/lifebalance or by calling 1-800-854-1446 (24/7 & multi-lingual).
City Cares can be accessed at www.citycaresfund.org.
Thank you for all you do—you make Owning the Lane possible.