London Inc. April 2022 - 24

ENTERPR I S E
And this is how it works: any given
GKB location has deals in place with
dozens of established and recognizable
brands to produce and sell
their products (either via take-out
or delivery), all out of the same large,
modular kitchen. Want a Cinnabon to
go with your Jamba Juice? No problem. A
Slush Puppie to go with your Taco Del Mar?
Slush on.
And they aren't knock-offs, either - in most cases, the
food is made of the same ingredients, from the same suppliers,
using the same equipment and are ostensibly cooked to
the same quality standards.
For proponents of the model, it's the future of fast food.
" What I pitch to [prospective franchisees] as the way of the
future is multi-branded ordering, " says Martin. " I've always
wondered why in a town, outside of the mall, there isn't a food
court - a place you go with your family and say, 'You go here,
you go there, I'll go here and we'll meet at this table and eat.' "
GKB, he says, simply tries to create that experience outside
of the shopping mall.
The North American fast-food industry is at an obvious
crossroads. Tastes are changing. The desperate help-wanted
signs that started popping up during the pandemic are proof
enough that the existing model - inexpensive food made by
workers being paid subsistence wages - isn't working, at
least not the way it used to. What's a brand to do?
One answer is to detach the brand from the franchise, and
allow other companies (like GKB, in this case) to make and
sell their products, often to app-based customers who might
be none the wiser, while they collect a fee. (Martin explains
that the deals differ - some of their brands are brought
in through licensing deals, while others are considered
mini-franchises within the GKB
location.)
" New brands, " Martin notes,
" especially in the U.S., still have that
dream of going to every state in the
union and building a traditional store.
But it could take them years. Whereas
we can really fast-track that for them. "
GKB also benefits from the rise of 'virtual
brands' - brands that skipped the physical stage
altogether and have always contracted out production to
other kitchens.
" We have MrBeast Burger in our stores, and right now it's
our number-one brand, " Martin explains. " His YouTube
channel has like 90 million subscribers. He's been huge and
he created his own virtual brand. And now MrBeast Burger is
served by probably 1,500 restaurants across North America. "
When they rolled out the MrBeast Burger brand in London,
they didn't even engage with the delivery apps. " I knew it
would create enough of a buzz in town that we didn't put it
out for delivery, " Martin says. " We did in-store only, and it
quickly became our number-one brand. "
No doubt that the reach of apps like UberEats and
SkipTheDishes have made concepts like GKB more viable -
for one thing, they do conceal the novel (and to some, confusing)
nature of the business. But when Martin thinks about
the future of this business, it doesn't live and die by what
UberEats is doing - what he believes GKB is reimagining
and recreating is the classic food court experience, outside
of the mall.
" In-store, I call it your neighbourhood food court. Online,
it's your virtual food court, " he says. " I still think that the
appeal of a multi-branded offering will be successful, regardless
of third-party delivery. "
24|londonincmagazine.ca|APRIL 2022
https://musiccitycanada.com/pages/pa-shop-av-solutions/
London Inc. April 2022

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