SugarCreek: Brandworthy Food Solutions

2 Great Ways to Bring Your Restaurant Operations Up to Speed

Posted by Frank Barcelona

Oct 28, 2016 11:30:00 AM

In fast food restaurant operations, speed is everything. Customers make nearly instantaneous decisions — a long line at the drive-thru or walk-up window can mean the difference between a hungry customer pulling in or driving on to a competitor.

Menu items can’t take a lot of assembly time. Cook-to-order times can’t be very long. Asking customers to pull ahead and wait for their order to be brought out to them doesn’t work well — running orders slows down drive-thru times, and longer waits discourage repeat business. At the same time, modern consumers want fresh food prepared with premium ingredients. They want to be able to customize their orders. And they want their food at an affordable price.

So how can your QSR company stay ahead? How can it meet so many seemingly contradictory consumer demands? How can it be all things to all customers?

Let’s look at 2 strategies your restaurant could employ to speed up service, while meeting diners’ demands for fresh and inexpensive fare.

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Topics: Food Service, Innovation, Technology

Vegetarian Protein Choices Open a Whole New World for RTE

Posted by SugarCreek

May 28, 2015 11:31:24 AM

Raising and producing enough food to provide for the ever growing global population is a top priority for everyone from farmers to food innovators. This global conversation has covered more than a few hot topics: genetically modified foods, the agricultural cultivation of sea plants and insects, vegetarianism. In fact, dialogue in the industry has indicated a move toward diversified proteins.

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Topics: Innovation, Proteins

4 Food Brands That Are Changing American Food Culture

Posted by SugarCreek

May 11, 2015 2:30:00 PM

Food culture in America has been undergoing Silicon Valley-style disruptions over the past decade, resulting in food companies and restaurants launching new products and services, and re-evaluating and changing procedures at a seemingly ever-increasing rate. Frankly, it's hard to keep up with all the innovations in the market.

But there are four companies we'd like to focus on for today's post. A few we've talked about before, so we'll update you on doings with them. One we haven't mentioned before, but we're pretty excited about its new product and its potential to influence consumer decisions. So, without further ado…

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Topics: Innovation, American food culture, Proteins

Don't Know How Sous Vide Works? Check Out Our Infographic.

Posted by SugarCreek

Apr 27, 2015 2:30:00 PM

At SugarCreek we’re all about finding the next challenge—how do we match this exact flavor profile, can we find a better way to cook this cut of meat, could we get this food packaged faster— and pushing the boundaries of food innovation.

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Topics: Sous Vide, Innovation

Millennials Are Leading Digital Innovation in the Food Industry

Posted by SugarCreek

Apr 24, 2015 2:30:00 PM

Innovative food trends aren't the only things changing the American food industry. Digital technology solutions are re-shaping food service at an unprecedented rate, giving restaurant owners and food entrepreneurs better efficiency, more accuracy and more reliable profit predictions.

By some estimates, tech-savvy Millennials will make up the majority of the quick-service restaurant workforce in as little as five years from now. Restaurants and food companies that are lagging behind their competitors on the tech curve risk losing not only revenue-boosting productivity, but also top talents at hiring time.

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Topics: Innovation, Millennial Consumers

Want Your Brand to Resonate with Millennial Foodies? Reach Out.

Posted by SugarCreek

Apr 23, 2015 2:30:00 PM

It's no secret that Millennials are an active segment—especially in the sense of being activists. Research conducted by Achieve and reported in 2013 showed that Millennials, as a generation, are compassionate and quick to unite behind altruistic causes. This means that food companies have an opportunity to reach out to young adults by supporting charitable or social movements that they are passionate about.

Here's the rub, though: Millennials demand authenticity. A food brand can't simply throw money at, or latch onto, a cause. Young adults are savvy—they'll immediately detect a disingenuous or cynical advertising ploy and sink it fast with negative, viral social media attention.

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Topics: Innovation, Millennial Consumers

Don’t Get Left Behind as the Industry Trends toward Digital Innovation

Posted by SugarCreek

Apr 10, 2015 2:30:00 PM

The digital revolution has unquestionably disrupted the food service industry. Consumers today are flocking to online restaurant ordering sites and food brand e-commerce portals. They regularly peruse menus online before deciding whether or not to try a particular eatery. They review—and read crowd-sourced reviews—on Yelp.

Internet-based food delivery services will bring users meals from any restaurants within their specified service areas. Customers can have food delivered even from restaurants that do not offer their own delivery service; they can even mix and match items from several restaurants, resulting in a highly customized in-home dining experience.

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Topics: Innovation

What's the Best Sous Vide Solution for You?

Posted by SugarCreek

Mar 31, 2015 2:30:00 PM

It used to be that a sous vide setup required significant capital investment and a lot of space for equipment: a large water bath, a water pump, a heat regulator. But in recent years, several innovative, small-scale sous vide circulators designed for the smaller kitchen have made it to market, making the cooking technique a viable experiment for many restaurants, caterers and even home chefs.

So how can you choose the best sous vide setup for your needs? The answer to that question begins with the answer to the question: "What is your intended end use?"

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Topics: Sous Vide, Innovation, Technology

Valuable Food Innovation Lessons from the Industry's Little Fish

Posted by SugarCreek

Mar 27, 2015 2:30:00 PM

The big names in the food industry like McDonalds or Chipotle or Kraft get a lot of press when they try something new—whether it ends in success or failure— but, sometimes, the greatest innovations come from the smallest places. With fewer layers of bureaucracy that ideas need to vault past and a looser corporate structure that encourages creative thinking, small enterprises are often able to take unusual ideas to market far more quickly than larger corporations.

Just as a lean start-up can outmaneuver a tech giant, small food businesses can come up with startling innovations. In fact, some of the most groundbreaking new ideas in food innovation are originating in places you've never heard of.

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Topics: Food Service, Innovation, QSR

Brand Building Case Studies: How Big Brands Make New Trends Work

Posted by SugarCreek

Mar 24, 2015 2:30:00 PM

Building a brand and a trustworthy reputation involves more than just engineering innovative foods and then slapping an interesting label on the product. Thanks to the ubiquity of social media, branding in the 21st century includes the expectation of consumer connections. Three of the top food brands—General Mills, Kraft Foods and Nestle—have come to terms with the necessity of sharing their brand with consumers. Using every online resource available from Facebook to business blogs, these companies express the power of positive branding.

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Topics: Innovation, Retail