This week’s exclusive Diary comes from the European Foodservice Summit in Zurich. We have insights into Starbucks boss Howard Schultz’s conference demands (and his loudest critic); advice on team management structure in an economic crisis; more on Jamie Oliver’s astounding achievements; plus the successes of Latin chicken restaurant brand Pollo Campero and Naked Juice Bar.
Howard Schultz’s rockstar tendencies
As chairman, president and chief executive of global behemoth Starbucks you may expect to have a hanger on or personal assistant or two. However, Diary overheard that Howard Schultz turned up for his talking slot at the 12th European Foodservice Summit with an entourage of 11 in tow. Further rock-star tendencies were believed to include no clue given before hand to what the main points of his talk were to be, the man himself deciding when his slot would finish, and a private room to be made available immediately after for a spot of local business.
Pacifier, row nine
While the entourage and the demands may have been excessive, Schultz did have a room of over 250 of Europe’s top foodservice operators hanging on his every word for 25 enthralling minutes as he talked about the birth, the downturn and the subsequent revitalisation of the global coffee chain. While many industry veterans listened on in awe, Schultz was only knocked off his presenting stride by a cry from the youngest delegate member, nine-week old Mika, the daughter of fellow speaker and co-founder of Swedish chain Naked Juice Bar, Maria Wiren. It seems critics of Starbucks are getting younger by the day.
Howard’s muddy feat
It seems that mud played an important role in the turnaround of Starbucks. According to Schultz, for a number of years in the middle of the last decade as the company’s performance dipped, management and store staff had lost the ability or drive to do the hard yards or as the returning chief executive put it, “there was nobody in the mud, we had to get back in the mud”. Judging by the upturn in performance since Schultz’s return at the start of 2008, a lot of wallowing has taken place since then.
Naked Juice success
Talking about Naked Juice Bar, what’s not to like about a group that has a slogan “get Naked it’s natural”. The idea for the chain, which specialises in healthy smoothies, was formed by Wiren and her partner Steven Collyer during regular surf mornings in Collyer’s native Australia. The first site under the concept opened in Sweden in July 2007 and the chain has now grown to 15 company-owned or franchised stores. At the same time turnover has gone from €250,000 in 2007/08 to an estimated €3.8m for the current financial year. International expansion beckons.
Naked Chef success
A lot has been written and said about Jamie Oliver, whether it is sales per outlet for his Jamie’s Italian brand (an estimated £70,000 a week) or his different eating out formats, three (said Jamie’s, Barbecoa and Fifteen) and growing (Union Jacks). But what about those other crucial figures that have put him at the forefront of the UK eating out industry? The 27m best selling books, the 612,290 Facebook friends, the 1.1m Twitter followers and the two million-plus visits per month to his website jamieoliver.com. Impressive, and that’s before we get to the three Baftas!
Leadership in a crisis
Leadership was one of the main re-occurring themes at the Foodservice Summit, and Dr David Bosshart of the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute was quick to point out that for abnormal challenges such as the current global financial downturn, abnormal leaders are needed. Along that line of thinking he put forward a different take on how a company’s hierarchy should now be set out for the challenging times we currently face, with sociopaths at the top, the clueless underneath and losers at the bottom. Only the harsh or mischievous would suggest that some companies already have a similar structure in place.
Latin chicken chain success is no fluke
International expansion can be tough, there are many pitfalls, but it seems that Pollo Campero, the quick service, Latin chicken restaurant chain, is better at it than most. The chain, which was founded in Guatemala in 1971, currently operates more than 300 restaurants across 12 countries, including a site in Brighton, and serves nearly 80m customers yearly. However, in April 2002, the business took its first steps into international expansion when it opened its debut site in the US in Los Angeles. If there were any doubts about the decision to open in a new country they were quickly dispelled, as 30,000 customers went through the store’s doors on its first day, with sales hitting the $1m mark after only seven weeks of the opening. To show this wasn’t a fluke the company’s second site in the US hit the $1m-sales mark in just five weeks of opening.
Korean Tesco keeps customers app-y
Diary always likes to highlight new technology especially that which changes consumer purchasing methods radically, and the recent launch of a virtual store by supermarket giant Tesco in South Korea under the name Homeplus is no exception. The new store allows consumers to scan bar codes alongside pictures of products on the fascia of a virtual high street store as they would if those products were positioned in a normal outlet using a special app. Orders placed before lunchtime are then delivered to homes for that evening.
