November/December 2020

During the height of shutdowns,
many, including Liberty
Entertainment Group, took
the time to assess their options
before implementing an offpremise
strategy. Its first focus
was its casual Italian-food brand
Cibo Wine Bar, which already
had some delivery presence.
“[We] increased the offers we
had, did things to make it better
[and] we even went into things
that were never offered before,”
says Di Donato, explaining that
Cibo began selling cook-athome
meals.
While JRG also implemented
new offerings — including meal
and cocktail kits — as it shifted to
off-site dining, Moreno says the
company found itself in a somewhat
more favourable position
than some of its competitors, as
its portfolio of public houses and
upscale-casual restaurants already
had established digital-ordering
channels. The company had
also launched its ghost-kitchen
platform, Meal Ticket Brands, in
2019, which Moreno credits with
helping get the company through
the shutdowns.
“We were extremely lucky we
had launched this delivery concept
prior [to the pandemic],” he
says. “We didn’t have to lay off
any of our management across
the company…they were the
ones, from the front and back
of the restaurant, operating the
delivery out of our stores.”
Moreno also credits its focus
on more suburban locations in
the Fraser Valley with helping JRG
maintain demand at its restaurants,
explaining these locations are
more community focused and
less reliant on tourism or office/
business clientele.
Di Donato points out that,
generally, fine-dining restaurants
were not well equipped to quickly
pivot their operations during
shutdown. But, after enhancing
Cibo’s delivery offerings, the
company began testing delivery
for its Blue Blood Steak House.
“We weren’t sure it would resonate,
FOODSERVICEANDHOSPITALITY.COM
Commercial Foodservice Sales, march and april 2020
(vs. March and April 2019)
-37.1%
Total
March
-61.4%
April
because [it’s] high end, very
expensive,” he says. But the company
was ultimately surprised by
its success. “People were getting
tired of the same old food and
were ready to have a special meal
at home, so we filled that gap with
Blue Blood.”
“[COVID-19 has] forced a
lot of restaurants that were
never interested in online
ordering [to] all of a sudden
start scrambling and looking
for a solution,” says Hopkins.
“Now, if you don’t have that,
you’re behind.”
With the re-opening of
on-premise dining, FSRs
saw a significant increase in
sales (dollars), which grew
58.3 per cent in June from
the previous month, according
to Statistics Canada.
However, the segment’s
unadjusted sales for June
2020 were still down 51.8
per cent in year-over-year
comparison.
And, with the return of cooler
weather, full service is expected
to see renewed challenges. “In the
table-service [segment], whether
it’s upscale-casual, casual-family
or high-end dining, we’re going
to see price increases over the
next little while,” says Hopkins,
citing the end of patio season and
decreasing government support.
“The only way that restaurants
with reduced capacity can remain
Full-Service
Restaurants
-49.3%
-78.1%
profitable is to increase prices.”
ALTERNATIVE CHANNELS
Given the current uncertainty
and ongoing shifts in consumer
behaviour, Charlebois says, “This
blurring line we’ve been talking
about for many years, between
service and retail, is going to
become even more interesting…
COVID-19 just blew everything
up — there’s no line anymore, it’s
just food.”
As an example, he points
to Loblaws’ recent collaboration
with Toronto
restaurants for meal-kit
offerings, adding
he expects to see
more initiatives
Quick-Service
Restaurants Caterers Drinking places
-23.6%
-40.6%
-33.3%
-74.7%
-58.1%
-90.5%
Source: Canada/Foodservice Facts 2020
like this in the future. The launch
saw Loblaws add dishes from
Burger’s Priest, La Carnita, Fresh
Restaurants, Fat Lamb Kouzina,
General Assembly Pizza, Kinton
Ramen and Sala Modern Thai to
its PC Chef Meal Kits direct-tohome
delivery service.
“Probably the most important
While loosened
restrictions and
warmer weather
created more
opportunities for
restaurants, many
full-service
restaurants continued to face
challenges. Statistics Canada
reported 32 per cent of FSRs
were closed for part of June
(compared with 44 per cent in
May and 65 per cent in April)
and 11 per cent were closed
for the entire month of June.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020 FOODSERVICE AND HOSPITALITY 25