TGI Friday’s is planning to shape its design and offer around three core segments and is eyeing moves into food-to-go and delivery, MCA has learnt.
Karen Forrester, chief executive of the Electra Partners-backed chain told MCA the group was talking to Harrison Design about a new direction for the estate as it seeks to ramp up expansion beyond its current 75 sites.
It follows the unveiling of a new concept for the group in the US where a design and offer specifically aimed at millennials is being trialled at a store in Texas. The store, which features bento boxes to go as well as a coffee and juice bar offer, also dropped the TGI from the branding. However, Forrester said the name will remain the same for the UK.
She told MCA: “The work they have been doing in the US with Jackman Reinvent is very exciting. It’s way out. I’ve been speaking to Philip Harrison about re-engaging Harrisons to step change a design with us. He’s aligned to the Jackman work with the US.
“I don’t think we’d step too far out. But the way we pushed the offer in Birmingham about seven years ago, it feels like the time is right to step change again.
“We’re going to start looking at whether we need to flex the offer a bit more to the relevant segments.
“We have probably got three distinct segments around major city centre, major shopping centre and then retail park. The occasionality and the users are quite different. We are going to be looking to flex the design and the offer a bit more to specifically suit each segment.
“For instance, in the city centres we have much more of a bar offer whereas in the retail parks it’s more families and the shopping centres are more couples led. We have been building one-size fits all and I think it’s time to reassess that.”
On the branding, she said: “We generally do refer to the brand as Fridays and that’s much more how it’s known widely in the US. In the UK for some reason we’re more likely to be known as TGIs so we have no intentions of dropping that from the name. It makes sense in the US in way that it just doesn’t over here.”
On extending the offer to home and food-to-go market, she said: “You see the massive growth in to-go and in home delivery and that’s trend that isn’t going away. If the millennials like it then Generation Z will demand it.
“Food to go and delivery is something we absolutely will get in to. It’s something we’re looking to incorporate into the new designs but we need to get our technology set up first because if you’re going to do it you need to be sure you can do it well.
“In the first instance we would look to partner with someone else for delivery with the aim of maybe doing it ourselves eventually. There’s a lot to look at. I think it’s something it’s a market that’s very much in its infancy and in a lot of cases could be done a lot better.”
