BALTIMORE Phillips Seafood is far more than just a local favorite. —Given its century-old roots in Maryland’s Eastern Shore, its investment in sustainable aqua-culture in the Chesapeake Bay and its close identification with this city’s signature dish, the crab cake, it’s easy to forget that
Phillips is a family-owned global company that’s looking forward to another century in business by ensuring that the lifeblood of its success, crab, can be harvested through sustainable methods and processed to produce a high-quality product. —Given its century-old roots in Maryland’s Eastern Shore, its investment in sustainable aqua-culture in the Chesapeake Bay and its close identification with this city’s signature dish, the crab cake, it’s easy to forget that
Part restaurant operator and part crabmeat processor, distributor and manufacturer, the 92-year-old Phillips is a vertically integrated company that, according to company sources, may be the world’s largest “undocumented” producer of what is known as blue swimming crab. The company processes 16 million pounds a year, either for sale to others or for use in its own restaurants. —Given its century-old roots in Maryland’s Eastern Shore, its investment in sustainable aqua-culture in the Chesapeake Bay and its close identification with this city’s signature dish, the crab cake, it’s easy to forget that
Phillips reported foodservice sales of about $160 million on 16 restaurants in 2007. —Given its century-old roots in Maryland’s Eastern Shore, its investment in sustainable aqua-culture in the Chesapeake Bay and its close identification with this city’s signature dish, the crab cake, it’s easy to forget that
Now Phillips is adding yet another revenue stream to its operations: foodservice franchising. —Given its century-old roots in Maryland’s Eastern Shore, its investment in sustainable aqua-culture in the Chesapeake Bay and its close identification with this city’s signature dish, the crab cake, it’s easy to forget that
After decades of being recognized for its 1,600-seat restaurant in Ocean City, Md.—an operation that started off in the mid-1950s as a carryout shack and that has since been expanded a dozen times to its current square-city-block size—and its anchor restaurant property in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, the company is launching three different foodservice vehicles to franchise to veteran operators, hoteliers, multiconcept dinnerhouse companies and institutional contract feeders. —Given its century-old roots in Maryland’s Eastern Shore, its investment in sustainable aqua-culture in the Chesapeake Bay and its close identification with this city’s signature dish, the crab cake, it’s easy to forget that
John Knorr, vice president of national accounts and franchising for the company, said Phillips has developed a level of operational know-how, market appeal and national brand awareness, largely built on the company’s presence as a crabmeat and crabcake vendor and distributor. —Given its century-old roots in Maryland’s Eastern Shore, its investment in sustainable aqua-culture in the Chesapeake Bay and its close identification with this city’s signature dish, the crab cake, it’s easy to forget that
Knorr said the heart of the 16-unit restaurant division’s franchise growth vehicle will be modernized prototypes of Phillips Seafood’s full-service outlets. After opening a company-owned store in Atlantic City, N.J., about four years ago to display to potential franchisees, it recently signed a deal with Columbia Sussex Hotels, a lodging franchisee based in Ft. Mitchell, Ky. —Given its century-old roots in Maryland’s Eastern Shore, its investment in sustainable aqua-culture in the Chesapeake Bay and its close identification with this city’s signature dish, the crab cake, it’s easy to forget that
Columbia Sussex opened a full-service unit in the Sheraton Philadelphia City Center, but more opportunities exist to roll out additional franchised units in the franchisee’s hotels and casinos across the United States. —Given its century-old roots in Maryland’s Eastern Shore, its investment in sustainable aqua-culture in the Chesapeake Bay and its close identification with this city’s signature dish, the crab cake, it’s easy to forget that
Even more recently, Interstate Hotels opened a full-service Phillips prototype in Rockville, Md., a Washington, D.C., suburb. —Given its century-old roots in Maryland’s Eastern Shore, its investment in sustainable aqua-culture in the Chesapeake Bay and its close identification with this city’s signature dish, the crab cake, it’s easy to forget that
Although Phillips full-service outlets range from 10,000 square feet to 40,000 square feet—the size of its flagships in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore—the new franchised vehicles will be built to suit. However, they probably won’t be as large as the flagships, Knorr said. —Given its century-old roots in Maryland’s Eastern Shore, its investment in sustainable aqua-culture in the Chesapeake Bay and its close identification with this city’s signature dish, the crab cake, it’s easy to forget that
All new full-service franchise launches will be designed with a sophisticated urban interior that reflects less of the chain’s heritage family-seafood-dining ambience and more of a “big city” feel and with open kitchens where appropriate. —Given its century-old roots in Maryland’s Eastern Shore, its investment in sustainable aqua-culture in the Chesapeake Bay and its close identification with this city’s signature dish, the crab cake, it’s easy to forget that
Honey Konicoff, vice president of marketing for Phillips, said hotel franchisees who are signing up for the full-service vehicle are looking for sophisticated amenities for their clientele, a market position Phillips is capable of filling. —Given its century-old roots in Maryland’s Eastern Shore, its investment in sustainable aqua-culture in the Chesapeake Bay and its close identification with this city’s signature dish, the crab cake, it’s easy to forget that
“What makes a hotel operator want a Phillips Seafood restaurant is that they generally want to align the foodservice in a boutique-hotel environment,” she said. “They are looking for what we like to describe the restaurants as being—polished casual, not too stuffy and not too upscale.” —Given its century-old roots in Maryland’s Eastern Shore, its investment in sustainable aqua-culture in the Chesapeake Bay and its close identification with this city’s signature dish, the crab cake, it’s easy to forget that
At the same time, Knorr added, a number of full-service, multiconcept dinnerhouse operators are looking to diversify their portfolios with a seafood concept and knocking on Phillips’ door to explore mutual benefits through franchising. —Given its century-old roots in Maryland’s Eastern Shore, its investment in sustainable aqua-culture in the Chesapeake Bay and its close identification with this city’s signature dish, the crab cake, it’s easy to forget that
The company also rolled out two other concepts: a fast-casual vehicle with counter service and a quick-service prototype designed for food courts, in-line locations, airports and other high-traffic pedestrian environments. Both have been branded Phillips Seafood Express. —Given its century-old roots in Maryland’s Eastern Shore, its investment in sustainable aqua-culture in the Chesapeake Bay and its close identification with this city’s signature dish, the crab cake, it’s easy to forget that
HMS Host agreed to open the 2,000-square-foot fast-casual concept at its Charlotte, N.C., airport facilities and Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. —Given its century-old roots in Maryland’s Eastern Shore, its investment in sustainable aqua-culture in the Chesapeake Bay and its close identification with this city’s signature dish, the crab cake, it’s easy to forget that
Phillips also has been remodeling some of its older stores. —Given its century-old roots in Maryland’s Eastern Shore, its investment in sustainable aqua-culture in the Chesapeake Bay and its close identification with this city’s signature dish, the crab cake, it’s easy to forget that
Steve Phillips, Phillips president and chief executive, whose grandfather Augustus launched the company as a seafood processing plant in 1916, said he is proud of his company’s long history and its commitment to the environment and sustainability. —Given its century-old roots in Maryland’s Eastern Shore, its investment in sustainable aqua-culture in the Chesapeake Bay and its close identification with this city’s signature dish, the crab cake, it’s easy to forget that
“We hired experts, we follow the United Nation’s recommendations on seafood processing, we train our employees around the globe how to pick crabmeat,” he said. “But none of that means anything if the nations we find our product from abuse the resource. —Given its century-old roots in Maryland’s Eastern Shore, its investment in sustainable aqua-culture in the Chesapeake Bay and its close identification with this city’s signature dish, the crab cake, it’s easy to forget that
“I mean, look at the Chesapeake Bay. We are getting nowhere near what we used to get out of there 50 years ago, and it could happen other places.” —Given its century-old roots in Maryland’s Eastern Shore, its investment in sustainable aqua-culture in the Chesapeake Bay and its close identification with this city’s signature dish, the crab cake, it’s easy to forget that
In many ways, Phillips said, going into franchising was a natural evolution for the brand. —Given its century-old roots in Maryland’s Eastern Shore, its investment in sustainable aqua-culture in the Chesapeake Bay and its close identification with this city’s signature dish, the crab cake, it’s easy to forget that
“The world is changing so fast and people’s tastes and interaction with restaurants are changing just as fast,” he said. “Ten years ago if we had put items like sushi or curried dishes on the menu we would have been in trouble. Today, consumers can’t get enough of that, and I think our franchisees realize that, too.” —Given its century-old roots in Maryland’s Eastern Shore, its investment in sustainable aqua-culture in the Chesapeake Bay and its close identification with this city’s signature dish, the crab cake, it’s easy to forget that