How To Stay Fresh

The variety of concepts available in the food industry continues to grow each year. Brands and restaurant groups continue to look for new ways to adapt their traditional concept to stay on top of up and coming trends. These successful brands employ intense market research and funds so that they can read and predict industry movements that have the potential to blowup. This research allows business owners to jump on trends early enough to make profit and back out when the trend is bottoming out. Brian Bailey, co-founder of Ichor Restaurant Group, continues to stay ahead of the curve with the development of fast casual concepts that continue to prove successful for the franchise owners. Ichor Restaurant Group currently houses concepts and brands in the fast Casual barbecue, fast casual pizza and fast casual burger segments. Bailey has no plans of slowing down the number of concepts that Ichor will stock. “Ichor has close to a dozen of concepts in various stages of development,” says Bailey. “By always paying attention to consumer lifestyle habits, we can accelerate development on the concept that most matches the current trends. No matter the industry, any reporter consumer data deviation might correlate to an idea we have been brainstorming on our future food or service models.” [caption id="attachment_6702" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Forever Yogurt proposed Miami design"][/caption] So, what if you jump on an industry trend that is on the verge of over-saturation? Mandy Calara, co-founder of Forever Yogurt, continues to defy the traditional model of frozen yogurt concepts. One way in particular the brand has differentiated itself successfully is in the design of each individual unit. “We feel an investment in customizing the store to create an ambiance that appreciates both the neighborhood and our customer are very important,” said Calara. “We feel that most of our competitors become complacent with their franchisee’s store build outs, and begin replicating frozen yogurt shops with little character and sterile environments.” Forever Yogurt has also looked to expand their concept to northern markets where frozen yogurt concepts are hesitant to go. The brand also has been seeking to connect with the 18-32 year old demographic through marketing and real estate selection of high traffic areas such including colleges and metropolitan locations. Currently, the brand is in the experimental stage of offering alcohol-infused beverages using Forever Yogurt flavors. With 32 signed deals in 2013, Forever Yogurt has been able to distinguish themselves as a unique business concept in an extremely popular and saturated industry. Both Bailey and Calara agree that understanding the consumer is key to future development.,The last decade or so has been about focusing on a single food niche,” said Bailey. “The result is that we now make consumers decide what specific food they are in the mood to eat before they decide which homogeneous restaurant they want to visit.” But like all trend, Bailey believes that this won’t last long, “In the coming years, I think we will see a switch that allows consumers to choose a comfortable neighborhood establishment that can offer exceptional food in a variety of service styles while putting the guest in control of their experience.”