Just Poké has been waiting to flex its catering muscle. The Seattle-based fast casual was plotting an aggressive outbound push to drive growth in the channel four years ago after it opened a new commissary kitchen capable of handling large orders. Then in-person gatherings came to a grinding halt and moved those plans to the back burner.
Cofounder Norman Wu says the poké chain started seeing an increase in inbound orders early last year, prompting it to revisit those plans for an outbound program.
“We were getting a lot of orders from tech companies in Seattle as part of the drive to get people back into the office, and we were hearing that they were going to continue mandating more days in the office over the next 18 to 24 months, so it just made sense to really go after that business,” he says. “I think there’s demand on the employee side to have more unique offerings instead of just sandwiches and pizza. That’s definitely been helping us.”
With more people returning to in-person work and private events swinging into full gear, catering is fast becoming a priority for a growing number of brands. CAVA, Sweetgreen, Noodles & Company, and El Pollo Loco are just a few of the public companies devoting more airtime to the channel in earnings calls. Over half of operators surveyed by TouchBistro last year planned to introduce the service in 2024.
Restaurants aren’t just looking to meet the organic increase in order volume. Many are setting their sights on actively growing in the channel and making it a bigger portion of their overall business.
Fajita Pete’s knows a thing or two about the advantages that come with a robust quick-service catering program. It’s been a focal point since the Tex-Mex chain launched over 15 years ago, consistently making up a third of its total sales with average tickets hovering around the $500 mark.
Founder Pedro “Pete” Mora says there are several factors that make catering an attractive growth channel, beyond the obvious uptick in demand.
“It’s easier to stock up, easier to staff up, easier to order for, and easier to prepare for,” he says. “You can do higher tickets and higher sales with less people, so it’s just a higher-margin part of the business.”
It also is less reactive to inflationary pressures.
“The corporate card is always more flexible than the personal card,” Mora says. “With all the inflation going on in the market, people are still ordering for the office, while the retail customer is trading down or ordering less frequently as they adjust their budget at home.”
Fajita Pete’s catering revenues are back at pre-pandemic levels after surging nearly 30 percent year-over-year in 2023. Now, it wants to further sharpen its focus by channeling more dollars on generating growth and investing in tech upgrades to improve the online customer journey.
The company earlier this year teamed up with smart website platform Clutch Creator to introduce AI into its catering program. Previously, customers answered upwards of 80 questions on an online form when submitting an order. Now, they respond to a single prompt asking about their event and sit back as AI does the rest. The site generates their entire order, using data from previous transactions to predict preferences and provide personalized recommendations. The entire process can be completed in less than half the time it takes to add items to baskets on an individual basis.
“We’re constantly analyzing where the friction is in our ordering process,” Mora says. “We decided to make it easier by using AI as a kind of catering concierge, where you type in the kind of event you’re having, and it pre-fills your cart with recommended items. The whole idea is to get people what they want and need faster.”
Tech vendors like Toast, Lunchbox, and Olo have amped up their catering solutions lately with features designed to streamline the customer experience and reduce operational overhead. They’re also aiming to make it easier to get started for brands venturing into catering for the first time. That can be a daunting task, says Nathan Torres, senior product manager for Olo’s catering solution. High ticket values come with equally high stakes, after all.
“For starters, menus are extremely important, both in terms of what you’re offering and how you organize it,” Torres says. “Guests who are ordering catering for the first time may not necessarily know where to begin. They don’t know if they want a buffet, box lunches, or something else. You should not only have your suggested headcounts for each of your items, but also what you recommend it for. Is it for on-the-go? Is it for something that’s more social?”
To that end, Wu says feedback from early adopters set Just Poké on the path of having distinct options for different sizes of groups and different types of events. That includes multiple build-your-own poké bar packages as well as individual meal options featuring the same signature bowls available in its stores.
Torres also recommends restaurants focus on developing separate workflows specifically for catering. Otherwise, they’ll invite chaos into the kitchen and risk sacrificing their day-to-day business.
“You have to make sure that catering isn’t going to overwhelm mealtime capacity or vice versa,” he says. “Make sure you really understand how your stores operate when they’re fulfilling these catering orders. Look at what’s going to help you improve those processes and maximize your efficiency. Can you remove some of the manual touchpoints? Can you reduce the amount of effort that goes into planning and spend more time on executing?”
Just Poké asked itself those questions and took the time to develop separate SOPs for catering. Wu says that made it feasible to not only accept inbound orders but start revisiting the outbound program. Now, he sees the channel accounting for up to 10 percent of the company’s top-line revenue this year.
“The beautiful thing about catering is that it’s a more profitable part of the business, so the net on that 10 percent is going to be higher than our traditional brick-and-mortar sales,” he says.
