[외식업]Chipotle 판매가 런던에서 부진한 이유

Burritos

Why Chipotle Sales Lag in London

By Venessa Wong on February 26, 2013

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-02-26/why-chipotle-sales-are-low-in-london#r=hp-ls

Burrito overlord Chipotle (CMG) has afairly devoted following in the States. (There’s even a fan site.) Not so in the U.K. In a recent earnings call, the company said that Londoners have been slow to warm to its oversized burritos and that awareness of the brand has remained low in the three years since Chipotle arrived.

Overseas expansion has been a key growth strategy for restaurant companies from Yum! (YUM) to McDonald’s (MCD), and Domino’s (DPZ). Chipotle is still in the early stages of expanding outside of U.S. and it’s moving slowly. The company has 12 international restaurants so far and plans to open an additional four this year, including its first in Germany. Still, “gourmet burritos and tacos,” aka American-style Mexican food, seems to have less allure in the U.K. than good old burgers and pizza do.

Mexican food—or at least its fast-food approximations—has always struggled in the U.K. In the late 1980s, Taco Bell tried to launch in the U.K. but closed all its restaurants by the mid 1990s. It returned in 2010 and now has three U.K. restaurants, with plans to “pursue development more aggressively in the future,” Rich Pinnella, general manager of TacoBell International, said in an e-mail.

Given the dearth of Mexicans in the U.K., salsa, guacamole and tacos are still novel treats. Brandon Stephens, founder of U.K. burrito chain Tortilla and a California native, says he still sometimes hears people pronounce the l’s in “tortilla.” When he first started the restaurant in 2007, customers had basic questions such as how to eat a burrito (some unwrapped it). “We’re still grappling with those things,” he says, but he’s now got diners at his 11 restaurants saying “carnitas” instead of “pork.”

As for Chipotle, it turns out most Londoners are not yet familiar with the brand, so the Denver-based chain plans to increase marketing. A study by Chipotle found that only 1 percent of survey takers knew about the brand without prompting, compared with 16 percent for Pret A Manger and 23 percent for McDonald’s. (With a nudge, Chipotle awareness rose to 34 percent.) “It looks likely that London will be a developing market for a while, until our awareness is raised there,” Co-Chief Executive Officer Steve Ells said during the earnings call.

Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold says part of the reason brand awareness is low in London is that the company has just six locations—four of which opened in the past year. New York, also a global city of 8 million-plus, has 40 locations. And even in the U.S., Arnold says, Chipotle’s approach has been “to build up the business organically, [which] gives us a chance to build up our crews and operations in a new location.” Its efforts in Canada, where Chipotle has opened five stores in five years, have gone better, he says.

As in the U.S., price has been an issue for some Londoners. Tortilla’s Stephens points out that many diners have a mental barrier against paying more than £5 for a lunch item. (Burritos at Tortilla start at £4.95, or $7.51.) Chipotle’s burritos start at £6.50.

As one reviewer commented on Yelp (YELP) commented, “£18.15 for two burritos and a non-alcoholic drink, WTF!” Still, he noted, the restaurant did have a line of eager Americans and tourists.\

요약

 외식 기업에게 글로벌 확장은 성장 전략의 주요한 역할을 하고 있다. 런던에서 Chipotle의 인지도 여전히 낮다. Chipotle는 12개의 지점이 해외 시장에 있으며, 올 해 독일을 포함하여 4개의 지점을 오픈할 계획이다. 여전히 영구에서는 미국 스타일의 멕시칸 푸드가 버거나 피자에 비해 덜 매력적이다. 멕시칸 푸드는 영국에서 항상 노력을 해왔다. 1980년대 말에 타코벨이 영국에 출시했으나 1990년대 중반에 문을 닫고 말았고, 2010년에 회복하여 현재 영국에 3개의 지점이 있다고 한다. 영국에서의 멕시칸 푸드의 실패를 고려해 보았을 때, 살사, 아보카도 소스와 타코는 신기한 것이다. 부리또 체인 Tortilla와 California native의 영국지사장 Brandon Stephens은 말한다. 2007년에 레스토랑을 오픈했을 때, 사람들은 부리또를 어떻게 먹는지 기본적인 질문들을 했다고. 

 런던 사람들은 아직 Chipotle 브랜드가 친숙하지 않다. 그래서 마케팅을 증가하기로 계획하고 있다.Chipotle가 한 한 연구에서는 프로모션을 하지 않았을 때 응답자의 1%가 Chipotle를 알고 있다고 답했다고 한다.(맥도날드는 23%, Pret A Manger는 16%였다.) 프로모션 후에 Chipotle의 인지도는 34%로 증가했다고 한다. Chipotle의 대변인 Chris Arnold은 말한다. 런던에서 브랜드 인지도가 낮은 이유는 6개 지점 중 4개의 지점이 지난 해에 오픈했기 때문이라고 한다. 그리고 미국에서의 접근은 새로운 지역에서 운영할 수 있도록 파트너들에게 기회를 줌으로써 유기적으로 사업을 구축해왔다고 한다. 이러한 노력으로 캐나다에서는 5년 동안 5개 지점을 오픈했다고 한다. 

 미국과 마찬가지로 런던인들에게 가격은 하나의 문제가 되어왔다. Tortilla의  Stephens는 대부분의 사람들은 점심 식사로 £5 이하의 식사를 하는데, Chipotle의 부리또는 £6.50부터 가격이 시작한다고 한다.