Fazoli's Italian Restaurants - Company of the Year

Company: Fazoli's Italian Restaurants, Lexington, KY
Company Description: Lexington, Kentucky-based Fazoli's is the leading fast-casual Italian restaurant chain in the U.S., with 52 Company-owned and 163 franchised locations in 25 states. The Company and its franchisees employ 6,000+ Associates nationwide. Fazoli's has been the recipient of numerous industry and national awards for excellence in quality, service, branding, leadership and franchise satisfaction.
Nomination Category: Company / Organization Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Company of the Year - Food & Beverage - Large

Nomination Title: Fazoli's Restaurants

Fazoli's is America's leading fast-casualItalian restaurant chain, with 212 locations and 6,000+ employees in 25 states. For over 32 years,the Lexington, KY-based brand has offered Guests classic and contemporary Italian entrees, salads, sandwiches anddesserts through fast,friendly and convenient dine-in, drive-thru, carry-out, catering and delivery channels. Our signature, unlimited hot garlic breadsticks accompany every meal.

Fazoli's was an earlypioneer of the industry's fast-casual segment and, in 1994, was named one of the "Nine Hot Concepts of the '90's" by The Nation's Restaurant News.Led by award-winning CEO Carl Howard since 2008, the brand has continuously evolved to meet ever-changing consumer demands and has received numerous awards and accoladesfor leadership, innovation, franchise satisfaction, food safety, HR practices and more. The senior leadership team brings a combined 81 years of Fazoli's experience (13.5 years average) to bear against the challenges of a hyper-competitive restaurant industry.

Despite the unprecedented challenges within the restaurant industry throughout2020,Fazoli's quickly pivoted its business model in March when the pandemic hit and its sales and profit performance for the year place it in the 97th percentile among competitors, with comparable sales up +9.0%.

-Sales and profit performance for 2020 place Fazoli's in the 97th percentile among fast-casual competitors - Nation's Restaurant News
-In January 2020, Nation's Restaurant News names Fazoli's CEO Carl Howard to its list of "Most Influential CEO's In the Industry."
-In response to the pandemic, the Company successfully launchedtwo "ghost concepts" in 2020 to leverage the growing off-premise meal occasion trend, introducinga chicken wings concept ("Wingville") and licensing Wow Bao products for delivery by Fazoli's. Sales of these new product lines in 2020surpassed $1.6MM.
-In May, 2020 FastCasual.com named Fazoli's the 2020 recipient of it's annual "Excellence in Food Safety Award." The strategicimportance of this award during the pandemic cannot be overstated.
-In June, 2020 FastCasual.com ranked Fazoli's #31 on it's annual "Top 100 Movers and Shakers" list, marking the ninth consecutive year the company has appeared in the rankings.
-In June, the Company was honored with three Gold Stevies by the American Business Awards for Company of the Year, HR Team of the Year and Achievement in Management.
-Entrepreneur ranked Fazoli's #9 on its list of "Top Food Franchises of 2020."
-Named by Franchise Business Review to its 2020 list of "Best 200 Franchises in America" for the sixthe consecutive year,ranking #9 among food service franchisors.
-Opened 4new restaurants in 2020, a system unit growth rate of 1.89%. -- less than previous years but nonetheless solid in a year in which over 100,000 restaurants closed.

Without question, the most significant achievements Fazoli's accomplished in 2020 involved pivoting the business quickly and effectively to leverage the brand's strengths in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fazoli's flourished in 2020, setting more than 100 new sales records while sadly,more than 100,000 restaurants across the country closed their doors -- many permanently. Fazoli's comparable store sales rose 9.0% versus 2019, led by a 60% increase in drive-thru sales and a 1,038% increase in delivery sales. These sales gains offset the loss of dine-in and catering sales, which plummetedwhen shelter-at-home orders andindoor dining restrictions were imposed. Additionally, the launch of 2 "ghost kitchen" concepts within Fazoli's existing kitchen design in 2020 generated $1.6MM in incremental sales and significantly enhanced the brand's home delivery marketshare.According to Nation's Restaurant News, Fazoli's sales performance in 2020 placed it in the 97th percentile of its competitive set.

The Company's extensive response to COVID-19 relative to Guests and Employees alike gained national attention and accolades. CEO Carl Howard appeared on numerous national and regional media outlets 2 national news segments describing the Company's COVID-19 response plan, including 2 national TV news segments,2 trade-op ed pieces, 3podcast interviews,5 full feature news stories and featured speaker on 2 industry podcasts. As a result, the Company earned the prestigious "Excellence in Food Safety Award."

Finally, the Company opened nine new units in 2020 while the vast majority of competitors contracted, a4.43% growth rate.

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