Why Franchise Brands Are Instituting New Compliance Measures

On Tuesday, QSR Magazine highlighted how Hy-Vee, an employee-owned grocery chain in the Midwest, has implemented a new compliance program. The brand is introducing a new system called ComplianceMate, a “highly customizable food safety management software that automatically tracks key indicators of food safety risk.”

It’s no easy task to implement a system like this for a company that employs over 80,000 workers, but it’s also dangerous to evade health and safety — especially after a global pandemic has put it at the forefront of people’s minds.

The franchising industry can look to Hy-Vee and its new compliance system as a model for risk management. The same ComplianceMate service has already been implemented at Five Guys locations across the country.

New compliance measures could end up costing franchisees a little more in initial startup costs, but it could also help preserve the reputation of a franchise brand and help a business thrive with greater peace of mind. If a potential recall is caught before going to market, a brand can avoid the public backlash that comes with putting consumers at risk.

Just as Hy-Vee is investing in long-term food compliance, franchises could also find themselves investing in long-term safety strategies. A franchise model has the ability to prove a system far more than an independent business too, as a corporate office has the ability to research, develop, experiment and implement a well-defined compliance system. 

To that end, it might be safer to own a franchise than an independent business, given the attention to detail that a corporate office can put on compliance measures without taking away from day-to-day operations as a business owner.

While Hy-Vee itself is not a franchise, the brand’s approach to health and safety can show how a Franchise Disclosure Document is bound to change in the coming years. Hy-Vee anticipates putting ComplianceMate in all of its nearly 500 units, and other brands can anticipate similar systems, in multiple industries, on a similar scale, for similar purposes.

QSR Magazine said the ComplianceMate system is geared to “alert any level of management – from store level to corporate offices – of potentially unsafe food before the food is served to the public.” The system can collect a wide range of data on food products, and this compliance strategy shows that businesses have little room for error when it comes to health and safety management.

Implementing a system like this could save loads of money and reputation if it works the way it is supposed to.