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Food & Beverage: The Aramark Era begins

Popeyes, Five Guys, Franco Manca, Wendys, etc... All expensive enough on the high street that there is enough margin in there not to hike the price too much and for Merlin still to get their 30 pieces of silver. McD's and KFC are more price sensitive.
 
Smiley said:
Popeyes, Five Guys, Franco Manca, Wendys, etc... All expensive enough on the high street that there is enough margin in there not to hike the price too much and for Merlin still to get their 30 pieces of silver. McD's and KFC are more price sensitive.
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How do you know their margin is higher?
 
jon81uk said:
How do you know their margin is higher?
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Franchises are a complex beast, and typically kick-back to the company (management, marketing costs) are quite similar across many. Five Guys (@ £11/burger) is guaranteed to have a higher gross margin than McD's (at £3/burger). McD's and all operate more on lower gross profit per customer but higher number of customers, but the number of potential customers in a theme park cannot be influenced by them - and their operating hours are severely limited.

I'm quite good friends with a franchisee, and they all know exactly what business models everyone operates. A family of 4 might spent £50 in Five Guys - try doing that in McD's or KFC!
 
Smiley said:
Franchises are a complex beast, and typically kick-back to the company (management, marketing costs) are quite similar across many. Five Guys (@ £11/burger) is guaranteed to have a higher gross margin than McD's (at £3/burger). McD's and all operate more on lower gross profit per customer but higher number of customers, but the number of potential customers in a theme park cannot be influenced by them - and their operating hours are severely limited.

I'm quite good friends with a franchisee, and they all know exactly what business models everyone operates. A family of 4 might spent £50 in Five Guys - try doing that in McD's or KFC!
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McDonalds is £5 a burger (Big Mac) now but also uses frozen beef patties and frozen pre-cut fries. Five Guys use fresh mince and cut the fries in-store, so the costs to produce the food is significantly different. I don't think it is guaranteed that the margins will be massivly different. Yes Five Guys will make more money per meal sold, but they sell fewer (McDonalds has always been designed to operate best at scale, selling food quickly) and Five Guys will likely have higher rents and own fewer of the stores. Overall profit per store isn't linked to the margin per item really.

McDonalds worked well in the park because they had the systems in place to sell at high volume so could offer a reasonable price.
 
McDonald’s also offer street prices in motorway service stations unlike BK which for me is a big thumbs up. I think they did the same when they had outlets in Alton.
 
GaryH said:
McDonald’s also offer street prices in motorway service stations unlike BK which for me is a big thumbs up. I think they did the same when they had outlets in Alton.
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Although McDonalds has a lot more price variability than they used to. I can recall they used to be almost the same price nationally, but it is now more regional than it used to be. But yes their prices don't vary as wildly as BK do.
 
So a few years back we had the breakfast in a pizza box that made the news. Just noticed this yesterday on Tripadvisor.

I give you children’s pasta - 11 pieces for £10

Not my review - this was posted in the Crooked Spoon. Seriously is anyone at towers management taking note of the dire state of the restaurants. Just look through the recent reviews of RCR this year and they are shocking.
 

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GaryH said:
So a few years back we had the breakfast in a pizza box that made the news. Just noticed this yesterday on Tripadvisor.

I give you children’s pasta - 11 pieces for £10

Not my review - this was posted in the Crooked Spoon. Seriously is anyone at towers management taking note of the dire state of the restaurants. Just look through the recent reviews of RCR this year and they are shocking.
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Actually from people I have met the food isn't half bad this year better than previous years more options. They Ate at RCR and said it was decent. Loaded Fries I have heard are decent

Problem with Towers its inconsistent with the food its not all bad.

But that dish does look terrible reason I don't eat there no more.

Its more the price puts me off of eating there
 
GaryH said:
So a few years back we had the breakfast in a pizza box that made the news. Just noticed this yesterday on Tripadvisor.

I give you children’s pasta - 11 pieces for £10

Not my review - this was posted in the Crooked Spoon. Seriously is anyone at towers management taking note of the dire state of the restaurants. Just look through the recent reviews of RCR this year and they are shocking.
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I would assume they asked for pasta without sauce. It would look OK with sauce as a proper dish. Although £10 for a child meal is a rip-off.
 
jon81uk said:
I would assume they asked for pasta without sauce. It would look OK with sauce as a proper dish. Although £10 for a child meal is a rip-off.
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I was thinking the same. Nobody in their right mind would serve that.

May have been a pasta & tomato sauce or bolognaise and they’ve just asked for it plain.

Will it looks crap, and the price is horrendous it’s also worth remembering that there are two sides to every story and context is a great thing.
 
jon81uk said:
I would assume they asked for pasta without sauce. It would look OK with sauce as a proper dish. Although £10 for a child meal is a rip-off.
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I would dispute that it would look alright with sauce. It would probably improve it from ‘totally dreadful’ to ‘pretty terrible’.
 
Hid said:
Hopefully the more Aramark food sales drop the more likely they'll ditch Aramark
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That's not quite how it works. Alton Towers / Merlin charge ground rent for the units, they're not getting a cut of the sales. They do not care whether you eat there or not. They do not want to care whether you eat there or not, that's why they brought in a third party operator. Not their circus, not their monkeys.

The only time they will care is if measurable, and reported, guest satisfaction drops significantly in their own research, or if it starts significantly negatively impacting their own brands. Arguably it hasn't, yet.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
That's not quite how it works. Alton Towers / Merlin charge ground rent for the units, they're not getting a cut of the sales.
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Do you have a source for this? As far as I am aware the details of the commercial agreement are not known?

This could well be a rental arrangement as you state, but equally could be some form of rev share or a hybrid model, but you are wording it as fact as opposed to conjecture so I am genuinely curious.
 
AT86 said:
Do you have a source for this? As far as I am aware the details of the commercial agreement are not known?

This could well be a rental arrangement as you state, but equally could be some form of rev share or a hybrid model, but you are wording it as fact as opposed to conjecture so I am genuinely curious.
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I swear someone on here has previously stated that Towers got a lump sum of money every season from Aramark. So they get the revenue upfront and then Aramark earn it back across the season, effectively taking the financial risk.

Not sure how true that is though, and there’s no way Merlin would let the public even get a hint of how the contract works. As it’s fundamentally profit protection, and a potential reputational risk.
 
AT86 said:
Do you have a source for this? As far as I am aware the details of the commercial agreement are not known?

This could well be a rental arrangement as you state, but equally could be some form of rev share or a hybrid model, but you are wording it as fact as opposed to conjecture so I am genuinely curious.
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I have not read the actual agreement, but I am aware of the general agreement and the frustrating lack of stick and carrot elements for Merlin to use for quality control, at least with the outlet brands Aramark inherited, rather than developed alongside. It's causing no end of headaches for the Customer Experience team.

I have an old professional contact who works within that team. The last time we saw each other, about 16 months ago, we briefly discussed the general situation. I'd previously encouraged a TST user to email them directly about a negative experience and lack of dietary provision. They were frustrated that they couldn't provide a more helpful response, or meaningful action, to the TST user.
 
Maybe negotiated by the same people that did the rail franchises! Kids pasta is £5 tops - it costs next to nothing in ingredients nor prep. I can get a freshly prepared pasta ragu starter in our local Italian for £8. Aramark really do themselves no favours...
 
Its the way its presented though! Like the breakfast in the pizza box, just no disguising how cheap it is compared to the price being paid. There are ways to make something that is cheap look more expensive than it is! If they had put it into a smaller white bowl to make it look more and stuck a sprig of something green on top which could easily be removed it would be something and hardly rocket science! It looks nothing more than a quid's worth in that picture!
 
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