The country’s largest operator of travel centers is going all-in on foodservice.
Knoxville, Tennessee-based Pilot Travel Centers on Tuesday announced it would expand the company’s full hot deli menu to about 400 travel centers. Pilot also said the nearly 350 franchised fast-food restaurants at its travel centers would now be open around the clock.
Pilot introduced two new proprietary food concepts, “Pilot eats” and “Pilot eats Express” to establish consistency for how food “looks, feels and travels” companywide.
“Pilot eats is about offering drivers food that goes the distance that is as portable as it is premium,” Sean Marrero, Pilot’s senior vice president of food and beverage, said in a statement. “We want travelers to know they can count on us to have what they need to keep them fueled up, filled up and lifted up for the road ahead.”
The Pilot eats menu includes items such as an upgraded Southern Chicken Sandwich; Hand-Roped Pizza, available by the slice or the whole pie; and comfort-focused deli entrees like meatloaf, roasted chicken and mac & cheese.
The Pilot eats Express line will sell grab-and-go items like pizza, chicken wings and snackable sides at about 200 locations.
Limited-time meal deals include a breakfast sandwich and hot coffee for $6 and, for later in the day, two slices of pizza and a 20-ounce bottle of Pepsi for $8.
Pilot’s foodservice rollout started this month in Chicopee, Massachusetts, and Ponce de Leon, Florida, with plans for a phased rollout with new packaging and updated signage starting this spring.
Both of the food concepts will be available for mobile ordering on Pilot’s app.
Pilot, which was founded in 1958 and is owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, has more than 900 locations in 44 states and five Canadian provinces and serves an average of 1.2 million guests per day. The company has long partnered with franchised restaurant brands including Subway, Dunkin’, Arby’s, Cinnabon and more.
The company’s push into foodservice comes as many convenience-store retailers are realizing the growing consumer demand for prepared foods on the go.
In August, c-store giant 7-Eleven said it planned to open 1,100 new restaurants in its U.S. stores by 2030. The Irving, Texas-based c-store chain said it also intends to open 1,300 larger-format stores during that time period, all with an enhanced focus on foodservice.
In most categories, c-stores are beating fast-food restaurants on price. A c-store chicken sandwich, for example, averages 39% less expensive than one served at a quick-service restaurant, Donna Hood Crecca, a senior principal at RB sister research firm Technomic, said last week at the Convenience Retailing University event in Austin, Texas. (The event is presented by RB parent Informa Connect.) Cheese pizza, Hood Crecca said, is about 23% cheaper at a c-store.
“We’re finding that prepared food and beverage item quality is now top of mind for consumers,” Hood Crecca said. “And it will influence which store they’re going to visit for a foodservice occasion … The industry has done a phenomenal job of foodservice quality enhancement over the past couple of years.”
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