WILBRAHAM Mass. Friendly Ice Cream Corp. said Monday it would test a fast-casual restaurant format beginning next year that reduces costs and expands the availability of possible locations for the family-dining brand.
The company plans to test three to four Friendly's Express restaurants in the New England cities of Boston and Springfield, Mass., and Providence, R.I., said Jim Sullivan, vice president of franchising and development for the 505-unit Friendly's. Within three to five years, Friendly expects to be able to open 50 express units a year, he added. Franchisees also will have the option of opening the express stores.
The Friendly's Express concept, which has been in development for about a year, will offer a reduced menu that focuses on the chain's core items of burgers, sandwiches and ice cream. Customers place their orders at a counter, and their food is delivered to their tables. Sullivan said Friendly also is planning an ice-cream-only express concept for on-site locations, such as airports and hospitals.
“This is probably one of the more if not most exciting pieces of our business right now,” Sullivan said. "This will allow us to enter into alternative venues where our traditional stores may not be viable for today’s consumer. The brand itself is still positioned with ice cream as the hero and it will still be geared toward the family, but each family is not what it was 30 years ago, what with the speed of lifestyle and that type of thing."
The Friendly's Express units will be 2,200 to 2,400 square feet in size, which compares to the 3,000 to 3,500 square feet of space required for a traditional Friendly's restaurant. The smaller space and pared-down service also will lower labor costs, Sullivan said.
“We have eliminated some back-of-house positions, but we’ll have dedicated fountain, cashiers, food runners and production," he said. "Just based on the overall footprint, it’s a simplification of the business.”
Sullivan said the fast-casual units will feature such design touches as “LCD flat-screen televisions, a merchandised display with ice cream and toppings [up front] and an entirely new menu board system.”
Also on Monday, Friendly’s said it would begin serving Green Mountain coffees later this month at 300 of its restaurants across 11 states. The restaurants will offer two varieties of the coffee: a Latin American blend and a Colombian decaffeinated brew.
“We wanted to make a marked improvement to our coffee service and quality,” said Andre Fuehr, Friendly’s vice president of research and development.
Friendly Ice Cream, which was acquired for $337.2 million in 2007 by private-equity firm Sun Capital Partners Inc., last week named Ned Lidvall president and chief executive.
