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Q&A with John Pepper
Founder, creator and CEO of Boloco
November 30, 2008
Little more than a decade after they opened their first location, the folks at Boloco — a name derived from "Boston Local Co." — have a lot on which to reflect. The "inspired burrito" concept has experienced not one, but two name changes in its short lifespan, as well as 15 new store openings, with more being planned every day.To the founders, the concept was simple — a so-called wrap could contain any number of ingredients, including, but not limited to, the traditional Mexican burrito contents. But after a few years and a few more openings, it seemed the message wasn't getting across, hence the movement to the name Boloco and the slogan "Inspired Burritos."
We recently had the opportunity to speak with Boloco's founder and CEO John Pepper about the growth of his concept and the fast casual segment, as well as how number 28 on our Top 100 list differentiates itself in a growing market.
— Caroline Cooper
1. After the rebranding of your operation from The Wrap to Boloco, you saw 36 straight months of same-store sales gains. Tell us why the rebranding was necessary and what you learned from it.
When we first started in the '90s, the word "wrap" was a very hot concept in fast casual. But what happened was that wraps became sort of ubiquitous in convenience stores and gas stations, and they came to mean more of a cold-cut, pita-bread, sprouts-sticking-out-of-the-top kind of sandwich.
When we decided to make the switch from wraps to inspired burritos, we changed not one menu item. So the concept itself is the same. It was just a very big shift in the general consumer perception of what wraps meant and what burritos meant. And the new challenge is convincing people that there is such a thing as an inspired burrito that's not just Mexican.
2. One interesting Boloco initiative is teaching English as a Second Language, as well as Spanish, to employees to facilitate better communication. Why this type of emphasis on your people?
First and foremost, our job is to take care of customers. If we're serving 40,000 customers a week, I get to touch only a small fraction of those. My real customers, therefore, are the people who are interacting with those paying customers every day — my employees. We have to figure out how to make the work meaningful and how to develop their skills so that they can apply them to more than to just working at Boloco. We don't have illusions that everyone will want to or should stay with us forever.
It's a little bit selfish, because we are trying to improve our business at all times. But at the same time, it helps you sleep at night if you think you're doing the right thing for the people. It gives the business more of a purpose.
3. Natural, organic ingredients and sustainable practices are huge in the industry right now, but Boloco has been moving in that direction for a while. Why?
One of the challenging things about these businesses is differentiating them from the next business that does the same thing. The answers aren't clear, so you have to do some digging. It's like putting a puzzle together.
It's also something that helps us attract the right people to work for us — those are basically people who are conscious of things other than themselves. Hopefully, the benefit from a business standpoint is that paying customers will at least consider choosing us over someone who doesn't look at how they affect the world outside of their four walls. It gets people emotionally engaged in what we're doing.
4. If you were to give any restaurant-industry advice to those just starting out, what would it be?
Make sure you pick your partners and investors very carefully. Make sure you have the same outlook on timing, i.e., short-term thinkers vs. long-term thinkers. There are so many different management and leadership philosophies out there, so just make sure those align. We've had situations in the past where we haven't done that very well, and it's costly and painful when you don't get that right.
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