President and Founder of Fresh Burritos (France's leading Mexican fast food network, with 36 restaurants, including 23 franchises and 13 branches), Timothée Tronet shares with us his experience and strategic thoughts in the context of the health crisis.
Where is Fresh Burritos today?
Some of our restaurants have remained open for delivery since the beginning: these are mainly franchisees. As for the branches, we decided to keep the outlets closed, because our structural costs did not allow us to keep them open for delivery.
The human side was an essential factor to take into account when the containment was announced. Our kitchens measure between 10 and 15m²: we were not yet in a position to immediately put in place barrier measures against the virus.
How do you see the recovery of the business today (click and collect, delivery...)
At the moment, people are excited and many people want to reopen. In reality, however, the situation has not changed that much: the virus is still the same. But I understand the decision to organize the reopening: to close 1, 2, 3 weeks is fine, but then...
Today, my position is that I don't necessarily have a human or financial interest in opening a store to make 1/3 of my sales. Some franchisees are in a position to do this because they do the delivery, alone or with an employee. They have fewer structural costs.
For the branches, the situation is different and more complex: it implies putting in place precise schedules, a set of barriers and adapted training, while ensuring fair treatment of all staff.
If the potential for delivery and click and collect is too low for an outlet, then the decision to remain closed is necessary. On the other hand, some downtown establishments can operate very well with delivery. It is then necessary to see to what extent the latter compensates for a part of the sales on the spot or to take away.
How did you organize the communication and the maintenance of the link with the customers?
We continued to publish posts, stories, and even held a Fresh Burritos Challenge "on social media.
But our priority is to prepare for decontamination and to put in place barrier measures to reassure people. We are also working on sourcing equipment such as masks and protective visors.
We also use this break to rework our product line and to move forward on several issues: purchasing, recipes... we use this period to do this in-depth work... In a way, the post-Covid burrito will be better than the pre-Covid burrito!
That being said, the crisis has also impacted the schedule, especially the openings - we had 3 planned during this period.
How do you see the sector "after" the crisis?
Many people say that "nothing will ever be the same again". This is not my vision, at least not for us, as fast food players in a very resilient segment. Of course, this crisis is pushing us to strengthen our position on health, hygiene and traceability issues, but I don't see why that would change everything, since we weren't the cause of the problem.
One thing is for sure: customers are going to need reassurance. It's not going to be an overnight surge, but at some point, people are going to get back into their routine. Our clientele is quite young and surveys show that people under 35 have relatively little fear of the virus.
I would prefer to open some time after deconfinement rather than "right out of the gate," once people have returned to a modicum of normalcy, even in an arranged fashion.
It is of course different if you manage a very large retailer that already generates 60% of its turnover with the drive-through, for example.
