Despite consumer concern about the economy, Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) customers that stayed with the category spent 9% more in 2024 than the year prior.
Last week, Fonto CEO Ben Dixon spent an afternoon with Barrenjoey at their QSR day, hearing from senior leaders in the industry about their growth and strategic challenges.
Brett Houldin, CEO of El Jannah, talked about its rapid growth and customer loyalty, which has added 50 new locations in 4 years.
Simon Crowe, founder of Grill'd, cited how “Scale is the nemesis of all businesses that want to create experiences”, and how they are taking this on in their expansion strategy.
Erik du Plessis, freshly returned from a trip to the US, highlighted the challenges of US expansion in his role as Chief Financial Officer and why Guzman Y Gomez need to remain connected to food delivery apps.
There were also great sessions with Stephen Anders (Sushi Sushi) and Karen Bozic, CEO of craveable brands., who each outlined their unique paths to improving customer experience and finding growth.
To wrap up the afternoon, Fonto presented some data from our Moments in QSR category measurement, highlighting the impact that customer satisfaction has on customer loyalty, and how Premium QSR brands continue to win repeat customers by providing better quality products at comparable prices to larger chains.
With 36% of breakfast sales being via drive through, and 28% of these being for café-style drinks only, the battle for consumers' morning coffee is a key growth area in 2025.
Many thanks to Tom Kierath and Peter Marks from Barrenjoey for inviting Fonto to provide an independent view of QSR customer experience and market share.
For more information about how Fonto collects competitive customer experience, satisfaction and market share metrics, reach out to the team using the contact us link above
