EAT, the Lyceum Capital-backed food to go chain, will adapt its model to increase dwell time outside of London as part of its business development plan to continue growing the brand, M&C has learnt.
The group, which is returning to a regional expansion programme after a period of consolidation and refurbishment, is trialling a larger store format with greater choice of pastries and cakes to boost sales in the afternoon.
Adrian Johnson told M&C the breakfast and lunch grab & go format is well-suited to London where there is high footfall and customers predominantly want to take meals away but understands that dwell time will be more important in other towns and cities.
He said the model will be adapted for EAT stores outside of London to include more seating space and the larger selection of pastries and cakes will potentially be added to some London stores that would suit extended dwell time.
In smaller towns, Johnson highlighted the need to strengthen the drinks sales but at present EAT’s format is geared towards food to go, which requires consistently high footfall to be successful.
Away from London, EAT intends to open 2,000sq ft sites with space for 70-80 covers.
“We just need to find sites to keep growing and create new products as the food to go market is very competitive so we’ve got to keep ahead of the trends,” he said.
To keep productive development ahead of the curve, EAT has a dedicated team that adds 10/12 new menu items every two months.
Johnson said the recently promoted Ed Grimes’ role is to develop new ways to expand the EAT brand across multiple platforms.
He said in EAT’s current format the growth is limited to c200 – 250 UK units so to continue growing beyond that point would require an evolved format, which Grimes is exploring.
“We can get to maybe 200 – 250 shops in the EAT format we have today but need to be flexible for growth beyond that because we want to keep expanding the brand.”
Following Grimes’ promotion, Johnson appointed Neil Campbell to his previous role. Campbell was previously international operations director at Costa and most recently the chief operating officer at Whitbread Restaurants.
