The challenge
+400 Heineken franchises restaurants in Spain
10 brands of restaurants and themed breweries
Between 2011 and 2015, THE INNOVA ROOM created and leaded the Technical Department at BEER & FOOD franchise restaurants group (belonging to HEINEKEN Spain), which operated more than 400 stores throughout the country. In 2021, Beer & Food became Avanza Food.
During this period, the organization transformed its business model, and the mission of THE INNOVA ROOM was to lead the design and implementation of the real estate and technical strategy, as well as the creation of new concepts and the repositioning of the existing ones. The team integrated internal and external professionals, with a transversal approach into the organization.
How we did it
A) Strategy, processes and methodology
We defined the global strategy for the technical area of Beer & Food-Heineken, agreed with the General Manger and according with the following work fields:
- Design of the business model for the franchises.
- Creation of the methodology, processes and work flows, in coordination with the other departmens of the company.
- Convergence Plan with other business partners of the group. Assesment and search for synergies with the internal resources, collaborators, suppliers, etc.
- Creation and management of the stores analysis system for Development.
- Global planning and coordination of new openings, refurbishment, Capex and singular projects.
B) Information Management
All the information of the brands was standardized to ensure the consistency of the content, and to offer third parties a solid brand image of the Group. In addition, several databases were created for the management of all relevant information about the business and the portfolio, such as:
- Global restaurants portfolio, which generates all the reports for the General Manager and the Board.
- Approved elements and investment database.
- Franchisees for Development.
C) Innovation management and know how
During 2011-2015, five new franchise brands were generated and rebranding process of the existing restaurants was carried out. THE INNOVA ROOM team organized the innovation process, managed the pipeline, and leaded the construction and equipment of the stores.
The aesthetic parameters of the new image were integrated in the creation of each brand, incorporating functional, operational and business requirements. Likewise, a continuous research of market trends in franchised restaurants was carried out, regarding the design, product and service.
D) Investment Strategy
Once the brand concepts were defined and after opening the first units (prototypes) and evaluating their results, the mature concepts were standardized for going to the market. To do this, the optimal packetization strategy for was defined, suppliers were searched and selected, their contracts were negotiated and their intervention in the new openings was monitored.
Results: average savings of -31% in each restautant investment.
E) New openings management
THE INNOVA ROOM designed an innovative system for feasibility analysis, highly automated and based on LEAN methodology, with detailed investment ratios and customized to the characteristics of each store. This allowed to multiply by five the number of projects in pipeline, without increasing the cost of internal resources.
Each location was managed from the analysis phase until its opening by the Project Manager of THE INNOVA ROOM team. In each project the result was controlled in detail. And the generated data were incorporated into a global file, providing information for the quality improvement system.
Images source: THE INNOVA ROOM and corporative web of Avanza Food
