Carlisle Corp., a 96-store, four-state Wendy's restaurant franchise headquartered in Memphis, Tenn., has implemented back-office service and software provider Syrus Restaurant Information Services in order to make informed business decisions, reduce food and labor costs and get faster access to their information.
Chance Carlisle, president and chief operating officer, is please with the new solution.
"What used to take a week to produce a good product mix for our stores is available immediately with Syrus," he said. "Now, I have a week to analyze the data."
For example, with the new Spicy Nuggets menu item, the Syrus back-office service allows the franchisee to spot menu mix trends for all 96 stores as well as determine pricing strategies, evaluate the effectiveness of the product, and see where to spend its advertising dollars.
"We used to make decisions in a vacuum or on hunches," Carlisle said. "With Syrus' information, we measure and either validate or debunk. For a company of our size to be able to do this analysis so quickly is tremendous."
Carlisle also has seen significant food cost savings. Managers are using all of Syrus' tools, such as daily targets and accurate prep and cook charts. Moreover, each manager uses Syrus differently to improve performance at his or her own store.
Carlisle fully expects to use Syrus' above-store reporting to make better decisions and to use the data in its top line business reviews. "We'll no longer manage 96 stores as one store," he said. "Now, we'll have accurate information to see demographic trends and discover why some stores are doing well compared to others.
"We'll be able to evaluate the effectiveness of new hires and of our training program. And, understand how menu pricing affects different locations. We'll have a whole different set of benchmarks."
