By now we’ve all seen the direct impact on guests’ experience from the ongoing labor shortage: less hands to prep and fulfill items, less time to train, longer wait times, compromised product quality, and reduced menu options. Wayne-Sanderson Farms, headquartered in Oakwood, Georgia, with 23 facilities and 26,000 employees, is here to assist as the nation’s third-largest poultry producer. Specializing in the production, processing, marketing, and distribution of fresh and frozen chicken since 1955, the farm’s diverse portfolio of products offer a solution at every level.
Incorporating Wayne-Sanderson Farm’s pre-prepped, fully cooked chicken wings, for instance, into your kitchen can improve efficiency by reducing cook time, eliminating quality issues, and lowering risk of cross contamination—all the while allowing for customization of signature sauces and thereby increasing and/or maintaining menu options.
“Especially during the start of COVID so many restaurants reduced their number of menu items to simplify the process,” says Director of Marketing Matt Christensen. Wayne-Sanderson Farms offers a better solution to simplifying without sacrificing quality or number of menu items. The key is to reduce the workload of the labor you do have. “Getting further prepared products makes for less tasks being demanded and required from the individual in the back of the house.”
Likewise, today’s quick-service restaurants have to balance the push and pull of slow guest wait times while simultaneously preventing staff from panicking to fulfill orders and impacting the food or experience. “The shorthanded staff is trying to move quickly so it’s easy to forget or miss a step. And with fewer people, there are also fewer opportunities to be trained,” Christensen says.
The bottom line—that precious word of mouth marketing—is most at risk. “It’s really hard to regain that trust,” Christensen says. “If guests have had a bad experience, it’s not only impacting that one individual. They talk and share with their friends.”
Ready-to-go, fully cooked products help retain those good recommendation vibes, not to mention the mental alleviation for staff knowing the product essentially takes care of itself. “The amount of time it takes to fulfill orders and bring food to the table is reduced significantly. Again, all you have to do is essentially reheat the wings and add some of your specialty sauces from the restaurant and you have a great dish,” Christensen says, ultimately turning a labor-intensive product into an item that significantly saves labor. “Wings are a great item because they can be used as an appetizer, a side dish, or the main course. There’s a lot of variety and the way that guests are consuming wings, they’re being used a lot.”
Three top sellers have cornered the value-added market. The bone-in or boneless breaded Crispy Fliers® pack a crunch great for holding sauce; the signature hot and spicy Buffaloos® brand comes already marinated; and the lightly coated, steamed Fly’n Saucers™ allow each operator to fully customize. “As you look across our portfolio of wings, we have options for any type of consumer coming in to the restaurant that we can help satisfy.”
To learn more, visit the Wayne Sanderson Farms website.
By Jocelyn Winn
