The trials involve a shake-up of the food and drink offering, which will see it lean into its New York-inspired origins, as well as a refresh of the service, look and feel, marketing and capex investment.
With American comfort food and Italian American currently popular food trends, CEO Alan Morgan hopes leaning into this proposition will help shift consumer perceptions, with new items including bagels, and extension of dayparts through breakfast, brunch and lunch.
At the same time, a further two Frankie & Benny’s sites will be converted to Bella Italia, a brand that drives lower sales, but higher profits.
The moves come after Big Table was paid £7.5m to take on the leisure division from The Restaurant Group (TRG) last year.
Speaking to MCA, Restaurant’s sister site, Morgan said: “From a profit conversion perspective, this is going to turn out to be best acquisition we’ve ever done.
“It’s a perfect example of how one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. The beauty is it works for both parties.”
For Big Table, the estate gave it access to some prime leisure park assets, and the opportunity to find cost savings and synergies. For TRG, it was a chance to appease shareholder concern and offload a long-challenged part of its estate in order to focus on its core business and secure a sale to Apollo.
“For a business I was paid £7.5m for, I’m very pleased with the progress and money we’re making,” Morgan added.
Leveraging brand value
The original business case was to convert the mostly Frankie & Benny’s restaurants into Big Table brands, which also include Banana Tree and Las Iguanas.
However, after taking the leisure estate from an EBITDA loss of -£2m to +£4m in seven months, Morgan is exploring other options with the brand.
“When we got hold of the numbers we thought, some of these sites are taking serious money. There’s actually still a bit of brand value. Let’s take the time to understand it a bit more.”
Having completed this initial research, he said the findings on Frankie’s are ‘very positive’.
There is a big challenge to contend with, though, in overcoming common consumer perceptions that the brand no longer exists due to a drastic cull in its estate from 250 to 50 in recent years.
“It’s really hard to tell people a brand they’ve known for many years has changed,” he said.
“If you look at any social media about Frankie’s or Chiquito, the biggest comment is – I thought they were bust, do they still exist?”
Driving profitability
Despite these communication hurdles, he says there is ‘real material value’ in the brand, with average weekly sales ‘much, much higher’ than the wider casual dining market.
Working alongside leisure division MD Debbie Husband, Morgan and the wider Big Table team are now looking at other ways to drive profitability.
One initiative is a bid to add more value to brunch – already a strong area for Frankie & Benny’s, and a daypart category that is on-trend.
Morgan said with comfort food and Italian American categories in-growth, the brand is well placed to capitalise on this renewed consumer interest.
“Both of those are literally what Frankie & Benny’s does. It just has a historic reputation that isn’t positive with people who no longer use it.
“Average weekly sales in these sites are massive, bigger than all the other brands generally on retail parks.
“Customers are choosing Frankie’s over most of the businesses next to them. There’s just no one who believes they are there!”
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