A&W Restaurants Pub-Style Cod Sliders, Other Seafood Specials Return for Lent
March 8, 2021 · ·
Limited time offers contributing to double-digit sales growth
A&W’s Cod Sliders, introduced last year, are being reprised for the 2021 Lenten season at the chain’s single-brand locations. The mini sandwiches join other longtime seafood favorites, including pub-style battered cod and shrimp baskets.
“With many of the country’s full-service restaurants closed or facing dine-in restrictions, A&W is pleased to offer consumers a variety of popular seafood options,” said CEO Kevin Bazner. “Whether guests enjoy them in our dining rooms that are open or take them home, A&W’s seafood items are a tasty and affordable way to observe Lent.”
A&W Restaurants Pub-Style Cod Sliders, Other Seafood Specials Return for Lent
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A&W: An unusual form of ownership doing unusually well
Franchisee-ownership of a brand may be rare, but one QSR that has operated under that structure for most of the last 10 years, is proof that it can be successful.
A&W has made a name for itself based around all-American food, like its renowned root beer floats. (Photo provided)
Franchisee-owned QSRs are rare. If you asked industry veterans for a few examples of successful brands built on the structure, you ll get plenty of silence and blank stares in return. In fact, many industry insiders, including Harold L. Kestenbaum, said it rarely works.
Image courtesy of iStock
March 1, 2021
Despite the pandemic, A&W s sales were up 8.5% over last year, and the growth trend is continuing in 2021. January same-store sales climbed 20%, making it the best single month of sales growth since 2011, according to a company press release. If you look across the burger chain landscape, it s hard to find any other players experiencing this level of consistent growth, CEO Kevin Bazner said in the release, which also reported that total comps are up 51% since a franchise group bought it from YUM! Brands in 2011. Last year our brand strategy, launched in 2012, proved to be even more relevant, Bazner said. We also saw how tenacious our franchise partners are, as they are the ones who persevered and worked against the odds to succeed during such a challenging period. I am immensely grateful to them and to our support center team.
Taco Bell, A&W CEOs among those sharing 2020 lessons learned
Granted, there s not much to love, let alone like about 2020 in the restaurant universe or elsewhere. But under the heading of pain so often bringing gain, we checked in with QSR chiefs about what they ve learned this year and how it is changing their moves going forward.
Photo: iStock.
Among restaurant service categories, quick-service has fared better than most this year of the pandemic, thanks to this service category s light-on-its-feet approach that emphasizes speed and convenience over the many factors involved in dining in a restaurant, per se.
But it would be giving short-shrift to simply say that quick-service restaurant leaders have not been severely tested and maybe even a little traumatized by the dramatic dips, dives and disappointments the virus has brought on the industry in the last 10 months or so.
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