Raving Brands bucking trend in Fast Casual segment

ATLANTA, Nov 30, 2004 (BUSINESS WIRE)-- Raving Brands, a pacesetter of fast casual concepts, has a message for the food and beverage industry - "The demise, or if you prefer, the struggles of the fast casual category, have been greatly exaggerated."While data from Restaurant Research revealing same-store sales of Baja Fresh, Cosi, La Salsa, Panera and Rubio's Fresh Mexican Grill show a decline from a high of 3.8 percent in Q3 2002 to almost flat in 2003, Raving Brands believes it's a short-term spike resulting from the fast food giants flexing their marketing muscle to create a healthier perception. The American consumer will re-migrate to what it calls the "smart food" category known as fast casual. "We don't see the fast food category as America's preferred dining destination, be it for families, young adults or people driven by haste," explains Martin Sprock, founder and chief, Raving Brands. "Americans are driven by value, convenience, taste, experience and increasingly, by some justification that what they put in their mouth has a healthy value to it. Those qualities cannot be delivered through a fast food window and still generate profit." Raving Brands, which currently operates four brands - Moe's Southwest Grill, Mama Fu's Asian House, PJ's Coffee (and PJ's Coffee and Wine Bar) and Planet Smoothie (and Planet Smoothie Cafe) - reports more than 10 percent same store sales for its anchor concept, Moe's. Its other comparable brand to the Restaurant Research group is its newest brand, Mama Fu's, which shows 17 percent increase over same store sales. "We see Raving Brands as a pacesetter for the fast casual category because we are not only redefining the pace of bringing new concepts and stores to market, but opening up the category's potential for foods that have yet to make the migration to fast casual on any kind of scale," explains Sprock. "We will bring three concepts to market in 2005 - Doc Green's Gourmet Salads, Bonehead's Seafood and Shane's Rib Shack. These are three very distinct concepts that are selling well on the franchise side." Raving Brands has 50 Doc Green's in development and expects to open 40 in 2005. Bonehead's will launch mid-year with plans to open 10 by end of 2005. Recently acquired Shane's has 30 in development and anticipates 20 to open in 2005. Shane's is a 2200 square foot concept generating $1.5 million in its flagship while being closed on Sunday. "We believe that's a scalable concept," explains Sprock, "as are a number of fast casual concepts in the marketplace. Fast casual remains an emerging category and the path to market is a slower one than fast food, but we believe it is one that will redefine the way America dines out and continue to force fast food to re-invent itself."About Raving BrandsAtlanta-based Raving Brands! features a franchisee-centric portfolio of fun, healthy and fresh restaurant concepts. It includes Moe's Southwest Grill, Mama Fu's Asian House, Planet Smoothie, Doc Green's Gourmet Salads, Bonehead's Seafood, Shane's Rib Shack and PJ's Coffee and Wine Bar. Collectively, the Raving Brands portfolio expects to have more than 425 open and another 950 stores sold and in development by the end of 2004.source:Raving Brands