Fast-food breaks down barriers to minimize damage

The closure of points of sale in the streets, malls and other commercial establishments led fast food chains to invest in "war operations" to minimize the economic losses generated by social isolation determined by the coronavirus pandemic. If delivery has become a logical alternative, the structure to put this possibility of standing in units that have not yet worked with this format has been requiring flexibility of networks. In addition, the need for a careful and careful look at franchisees also got on the agenda with the extension of deadlines for payment of royalties and other negotiations aimed at harm reduction. "The most important thing is to preserve our employees and consumers, since the orientation is not to leave home and to eat is an essential part of people's routine. We at Burger King have been concerned and worked hard in recent weeks to increase our delivery offering across the country, making it available to our consumers to order Burger King now through the three largest apps on the market, Uber Eats, Rappi and iFood," says Ariel Grunkraut, Vice President of Marketing at Burger King Brazil. The network is working on the implementation of delivery both in its own stores, which did not yet have the service, as well as in franchisees, enabling a new sales channel for the business. Concern for franchisees also entered the burger king front line. Ariel says the company is providing all the support for them to succeed in managing their restaurants. "At this delicate time, our entire team is working hard to support everyone whether in negotiations with suppliers, tenants, but mainly in maintaining the quality of our operations and preserving all employees and consumers," he says. The Giraffas network has maintained about 74 restaurants of the 400 that has in operation in the country, either with delivery or with withdrawal for travel. According to Jaime Laranjeiro, Giraffas' chief operating officer, even with the measure, there was a 70% drop in sales volume. Despite having the delivery system deployed in about 240 units, they are not all in operation. "We chose this path due to the high cost of maintaining the active platform without the operation of the counter to dilute your expenses. However, for restaurants that have the possibility and feasibility of implementing the delivery, we are working on a record period of five days to operate", he reveals. To assist franchisees, he says that Giraffas has a strong communication channel through which, at the moment, is disseminating, daily, important information, guidelines and news coming from unions and the Ministry of Economy, in relation to the maintenance of jobs, in addition to the guidelines of the Ministry of Health. "We are also in contact with administrators of malls and galleries, in negotiation of rental values, condominiums and the like, and we will assist in the extension or installment of franchisees' salaries with malls and suppliers", reveals the executive. In the case of Bob's, the delivery operation represented on average 10% of the revenue of the entire company and, even being today the main sales channel, it will not be enough to migrate the entire sales force that the counter had. "Maintaining the sale at the delivery helps minimize the impacts of closing physical stores," says Antonio Detsi, general manager of Bob's. The network also relaxed the premises for introducing points of sale in this format, but the effectiveness also depends on delivery platforms, which had an increase in this demand greater than their operational capacity, explains the director of Bob's. "So we are focused on starting these operations in the short term," he says. He also says that to manage the difficulties of franchisees, a committee was prepared that makes daily conferences to address various topics, in addition to other weekly ones to pass the status of the network and solve doubts. The payment of royalties also presents itself as a major concern for franchisees amid the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. To soften this situation, Burger King's expansion team works with the enterprises and franchisees for renegotiations. "We have made our legal department available for clarification of doubts and are interceding with BKC, which owns the brand globally, on behalf of our franchisees," ariel reveals. Giraffas, on the other hand, informed all franchisees that royalties for the months of March and April should be paid in monthly installments, only after the next month of July. "We also extended the payment of the Marketing Fund for the second half of the year," jaime says. Bob's only reported that it is acting with extreme common sense in all forms of relationship with franchisees, considering the issue of royalties and also on other fronts.