Traditional fare of burgers, chicken and chips has set many a franchisee on the road to financial success. In 2010 will the route to healthier eating take the market to a different destination?

Ron Gorodesky is ‘the restaurant doctor’ – as CEO of Philadelphia-based Restaurant Advisory Services he heads a team of consultants whose clients include McDonald’s Corporation, Holiday Inn and Marriott Hotels. Recently, in putting together a presentation to a large quick-service restaurant franchise operator, he identified a number of trends that are taking hold in the US. These included:

• A move away from healthier or diet options because they don’t work in the fast food sector
• A return to larger portions, because larger portions do work
• A slowing of growth in the burger sector because the public is becoming more health-conscious
• More value-priced meals because they’re cheaper for customers and also provide a good way to increase sales of high-profit fries and soft drinks
• More creative thinking in terms of locations, with outlets appearing in places like K-Mart and Wal-Mart as well as different restaurant chains pooling resources by operating from the same location.

We’re often told that where the US goes, Australia follows – so how literally should a would-be franchisee take Gorodesky’s view of the future?

Health is off the menu

Burger Edge franchisor Enza Soubjaki has good reason to dispute the suggestion that healthier options don’t work in this sector – if it were true, there would be no Burger Edge. From the outset, the intention of Burger Edge was to bring the world’s favourite food into the realm of healthy dining; the franchise has built its growth around a formula of quality food made from healthy ingredients, such as chemical-free chicken breast and lean meat, presented in a clean and customer-friendly environment.

Soubjaki sees the move towards healthier choices as an evolution rather than a revolution.

“Customers still want the convenience of a fast food, but they are becoming increasingly mindful of the health impacts of their diets,” she says. “As a result, many food retailers are trading up by offering better-quality varieties of old favourites. The concept of a fast, value-for-money and tasty meal remains, just using better ingredients.”

Like Burger Edge, the Nando’s menu has been built around the concept of providing customers with healthier alternatives.

“We only use A grade chickens which are trimmed of excess fat before being flame-grilled,” says Jacinta Chapman-Cavalot, national PR manager of Nando’s Australia. “The chicken breasts are unprocessed rather than mass-produced, perfectly shaped patties, which makes such a difference to the flavour and the texture of the burger. Plus we use only light mayonnaise and provide a choice of white and wholemeal rolls.”

Chapman-Cavalot is also seeing customers trade up from traditional fast food outlets to the fast casual model pioneered by Nando’s.

“When you order a meal at Nando’s, rather than just handing it to you on a plastic tray, someone brings it to your table on a ceramic plate and you’re provided with metal cutlery,” she says. “Customers want choice and that’s what we’re able to offer them, both with our menu and with our dining experience.”

Clearly, in Australia at least, Gorodesky has missed the mark in terms of franchises with a commitment to healthier options – but what about traditional franchises which have simply slipped a couple of healthier add-ons into their regular menu?

“The saying in fast food for many years has been that people ‘think thin and eat fat’,” says Steve Hansen, managing director of Chooks fresh & tasty. “Many groups have introduced salads and healthy options but they still tend to be small percentages of gross income, and usually with high wastage factors. Our belief is that most groups focus on their core product, provide the best-quality product and fastest service and get on with business. With Chooks fresh & tasty the customer knows exactly what he or she is getting. It’s comfort food – good Aussie food that tastes great.”

Research supports Hansen’s thinking. Gavan Fitzsimons, professor of marketing and psychology at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business in North Carolina, says that, although fast-food restaurants and vending machine operators have increased their healthy offerings in recent years, analysts have shown that sales growth in the fast-food industry is not coming from the healthy items but from increased sales of burgers and fries.

That doesn’t mean a canny franchise should get rid of them. Fitzsimons’ research also showed that just seeing a salad on the menu can drive the sale of more traditional menu items.

Meanwhile, some KFC franchisees in America have taken the idea of focusing on core products to the extreme. Even though the new Kentucky Grilled Chicken attracted close to $1 billion in sales in its first year, they are so determined that nothing should distract from the traditional fried offering that they are suing KFC management. They claim that, by promoting the less-greasy alternative, they are misdirecting the advertising budget and weakening the brand.