Pre-pandemic, 80% of Blaze Pizza’s pies were ordered to eat at its restaurants.
That all changed with COVID, of course. Digital sales at the fast casual surged 130%, and, even as dining rooms reopen, those channels are only taking a small hit, CEO Mandy Shaw said.
“Which means we’ve built an entire other business on top of our business,” Shaw said.
So, Blaze is working hard to make sure its franchisees are equipped to handle the big changes to the build-your-own pizza business, she said.
The 340-unit chain, which is back to its 2019 sales numbers systemwide, is currently working with an outside consultant on a labor study to make operations more efficient, measuring “every hand motion,” Shaw said, as well as how many steps workers take, how many times they refill bins and more.
So, Blaze is studying how to break its operations “down into digestible portions,” she said, to make each restaurant as efficient as possible. The work may lead to new store formats, and Blaze is already eyeing a concept without a dining room, focused solely on digital sales, she said. Such a design would likely open next year.
Efficiency is key to the chain as it battles staffing issues in many markets, Shaw said. She said her team is working with franchisees to tell them to “lean into what we’ve been good at” with prospective hires, like telling them about the casual dress code, acceptance of tattoos and piercings and prospect to increase hourly wages with tips.
“We’ve done some behind-the-scenes things of giving them tactical ways to source people,” Shaw said. “We’re going to continue to get more creative because we have to.”
Some stores have been so short staffed, they’ve had to adjust store hours “here and there, in pockets,” she said.
The chain is at work on a refreshed app, after hiring a CTO in January, that seeks to mimic the restaurant’s in-store experience, she said.
Although a number of fast casuals are moving toward a more curated menu to ease digital orders and speed throughput, Shaw said Blaze has no plans to move away from its customizable focus.
“Blaze was built on customization,” she said. “The target demographic of people who have money to spend on food, they want their pizza the way they want it … I don’t know that curation for us makes sense because pizza is a very personal choice.”
Blaze recently opened four restaurants in Texas and just sold 16 units across the panhandle of Florida and in Tennessee, she said. The chain also recently hired a senior vice president of development to help manage expansion.
“We’re emerging from a pandemic that in March, we were all worried whether it was the apocalypse,” Shaw said. “It’s really fun now to talk about thriving.”