Famous Toastery Chief Executive Officer Robert Maynard spoke to FSR Magazine about how the brand pivoted during the COVID-19 crisis to forge their own path by switching to QR codes, contactless payment, online ordering and limited menu items. Maynard also shared how he was able to turn his brand around after experiencing difficulties in 2019.
“You just had to face the facts of where things were,” Maynard said. “Casual-dining, family-dining got smashed. You really had to do what you thought was best for your brand. There were so many people with so many ideas. The word pivot became the new ‘thank you.’ You had to do what you knew was best for what you could execute. And if you just follow the leader, that really wasn’t working. Everyone does have a little something different.”
Famous Toastery, the better breakfast brand with 26 locations, had to make changes quickly to keep up with the turnaround of cities reopening. It switched to online ordering chainwide in just four days.
“We knew online ordering was going to be big,” Maynard told FSR Magazine. “We were already in the middle of different programs to do online ordering anyway, and it was kind of like well, we picked one, and we had to roll with it. Our POS system was great, the group that did it for us was great, and our team was great. They just worked day and night.”
Restaurants have since reopened at limited capacity, with an emphasis on lunch due to more people changing their morning routine and not coming in for breakfast as often anymore.
