The restaurant biz and the pandemic
As coronavirus lockdowns hit the U.S. in March, Bloomin’ Brands CEO David Deno called an emergency meeting of his executive team.
“We collectively said, ‘What we do today and over the next few months will be remembered forever, so let’s be proud of the decisions we make during this time,’” Deno said.
Bloomin’ Brands — which operates more than 1,100 Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Bonefish Grill and Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse restaurants in the U.S. and Brazil — decided not to furlough its 93,000 employees and offered relief pay while restaurants were closed.
As restaurants reopened, menus were streamlined to cut costs and ease growing takeout orders. The Tampa, Florida-based company launched a delivery-only brand,
Tender Shack, out of Carrabba’s kitchens.
Deno spoke with The Associated Press about the impact of the coronavirus.
How are things looking as you head into winter?
What we’re seeing is, as long as you make sure you serve your food in a safe environment, we are in really good shape. I don’t make light of it at all, and there are concerns out there. But we’re finding our customers want to come in and eat our product and enjoy our service. A large part of our footprint is in the Texas and Florida area, where actually eating outdoors is preferable than the hot summer. And then we think up North, people that decide not to come in the restaurants, we still have a great carryout and delivery business.
How much business has shifted to delivery and carryout?
We are now 39% carryout and delivery (up from 20% last year). Now, what has the pandemic done? It made current trends happen just that much faster. We saw, years ago, delivery and carryout would be a big part of our future, and we felt that we needed to be there. We invested heavily behind it and it really paid off when it came time to close down the restaurants.
Why did you decide not to furlough your workers when restaurants closed? We did it for two reasons. One, to help our country and help our employees because we felt it was the right thing to do and we had the financial resources to do it. And two, we knew that this would improve engagement and improve how people feel about the company. And if they’re already on our payroll, when we turned the restaurants back on, they would be there.
What would you like to see the government do to help the industry?
The big companies should not get help. If you happen to be in a chain that wasn’t properly capitalized or whatever, that’s your decision. I do think, given the pain that this has caused to thousands and thousands of people and independent restaurants, I would hope that our government would take a look at that and provide some assistance to the independent restaurant companies that are out there.