SALAD DAYS Tossed
The brainchild of entrepreneur Vincent McKevitt, the fi rst Tossed opened in London in 2005 and there are now eight sites around the capital. The latest is due to open at Westfi eld in Stratford and future expansion is tar- geted at other key London locations. McKevitt says the salad concept is no longer a niche product, and the brand attracts an equal mix of male and female consumers who are inter-
McKevitt has spiced up the simple salad
ested in healthy eating. “We wanted to shift the salad from the side dish to the main meal, adding good fi lling ingredients such as lean proteins and low GI carbs like brown rice, whole- meal wraps and couscous,” he says. Tossed uses free range meats and eggs, sustainable fi sh and whole- foods, all in compostable packaging, says McKevitt. There are also soups, smoothies, stews and wraps, and deliveries are made in an electric van. A popular tool for customers is the website’s online nutritional calculator where they can select the ingredi- ents of their Tossed meal and get an instant reading in terms of fat, carbo- hydrate and calorie content. Similar information is displayed in store. Tossed sites have done well with the lunchtime trade in City locations, while the Covent Garden site is popular with tourists and the Westfi eld outlet in Shepherds Bush enjoys trade late into the evening. Going forward, McKevitt sees the brand having an even wider application as more customers tune into healthy eating when dining out.
Two brands that have been ‘sexing up' salads and walking the talk in terms of operating ethical, ‘healthier food’ businesses are Tossed and SumoSalad – and both brands feel the market is right for stepped up expansion in the UK.
SumoSalad originated in Australia SumoSalad
With around 90 sites operating suc- cessfully in Australia, SumoSalad was fi rst brought to the UK as a master franchise in 2008 by Dominic Perks. The brand is defi ned as ‘healthy fast food’, with a wide range of hearty sal- ads prepared freshly to order. Opening in the the recession, the company’s business development manager, Polly Bolus, admits that it was diffi cult to establish a new brand offering salads at that time, but now they have a loyal customer base and a profi table business and are ready to roll out the franchise model. “We hope to have fi ve new fran- chises in the next year and currently receive around 20 email enquiries a week. We need to fi nd people who value the brand and share our ethical values towards food,” she says. With the fi rst two SumoSalads now established in London, Bolus says the company sees the brand expanding to large cities around the UK, and target locations will be major shopping cen- tres like Bluewater, airport concourses and in-house catering for large fi rms.
Tossed displays nutritional content
loyalty at a relatively low ROI and posi- tively impact the bottom line. The key to effective social media is in applying co-creation. Engaging consumers in business and new prod- uct development decisions through Facebook and Twitter voting, consum- ers feel ownership of the development of their favourite brand.
Successful operators that manage
to retain a balance between engage- ment and marketing messages include
ISSUE 4 2011 © cybertrek 2011
While eating out is considerd a treat, consumers want to combine this with their healthier eating habits. Expectations are increasing as they look to operators to innovate
Starbucks and Nando’s. Both of these operators also have the most prolifi c presence on Facebook and Twitter in the UK, with Pizza Hut, Greggs and Domino’s Pizza making up the top fi ve. In the long-term, social media will encourage higher standards and poten- tially new ways to connect on site with consumers. Foodservice operators need to embrace the opportunities presented by social media without sim- ply using them as a selling tool.
The challenge with social media is to avoid using it solely to target consum- ers with promotions and discounts, which engenders loyalty to the offer rather than to the brand itself. In fact, 59 per cent of consumers who fol- low establishments through social networking say they do so in order to benefi t from deals on offer. ●
Anya Gascoine Marco is Director of Insight at Allegra Strategies
Read Leisure Management online
leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital 63
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