Global Franchise 9.1

David Bloom, chief development and operations officer for Wing Zone and Capriotti’s, points out that automation can actually help safeguard employee wage growth. “Aside from the obvious increases in efficiency, dependability and consistency of operations, there are significant increases in employee satisfaction and employee wage growth potential as their jobs become more focused on hospitality and supporting the technology,” he explained. “Being able to staff the restaurants during off peak hours, late at night or even 24 hours become so much more doable for brands or locations that have that demand. Additional benefits include smaller real estate footprints, speed of service and order accuracy improvements, as well as a reduction in the transmission of food- borne illnesses.” Even brands like McDonald’s have had to curtail operating hours, choosing to forgo the late-night trade. Restaurant Brands International’s QSR brands have also made similar decisions. “We saw about an average of [a] one-hour reduction in operating hours at Popeyes during this quarter relative to pre-pandemic levels, which obviously, has an impact, and that was disproportionately impacting our late-night business, which historically over indexes in family have signed partnerships with companies, such as KFC with Hyundai Robotics to develop chicken cooking robots. Wing Zone are not the only brand to make use of Miso Robotics’ solutions, Jack in the Box has too. In April, the brand announced its trial in San Diego restaurant with the Flippy 2 and Sippy (drink-prepping machine) to free up staff time and allow them to spend more time with customers. Panera, and two non-franchise brands, White Castle and Chipotle, have also opted to trial Miso Robotics’ offering to ascertain whether or not it is for them. Robotics has moved into the “Think of software and now robotics as a service when you think of the capital investment” and which comes along with a pretty high check,” said José Cil, CEO of Restaurant Brands International, on the company’s Q3 earnings call. As it stands, Flippy 2 is more expensive than an employee at that station, but the extra cost comes from the reliability and the fact that it will work 24/7. Included in the $3,000 a month charge is repair and maintenance, so operators can expect the fixing of malfunctioning robots to not cost extra. Robots in the kitchen, already? Most sizeable QSR brands are investigating robotics, and many Jon Taffer, founder of Taffer’s Tavern INS IGHT 40 GLOBAL FRANCHISE | ISSUE 9.1