June 2008: Cafe Culture
With £5m to spend on its in store restaurants, Debenhams is rolling out its blueprint for the future with the emphasis firmly on freshness and quality
Earlier this year Verdict Research reported the department store sector being set for a third consecutive year of growth, and expected consumers to continue spending with the premium retailers. However it warned that as money became tighter, consumers would be more selective about where they spent their money and “more in need of a rewarding and indulgent shopping experience to lighten their mood”.
Improving in store eating experiences was one way of “rewarding” shoppers and was certainly something Debenhams has been working on since its research in 2006 into what consumers wanted highlighted more choice, high quality and good value.
Now Debenhams is on a roll. Thanks to an injection of £5m into its foodservice operation, a makeover programme has begun not just of its food offer but the interiors as well. A number of new stores are being rolled out – Liverpool’s has just opened and includes its Style Café and Douwe Egberts Coffee@Debenhams (DEC@D) concepts, and Blackpool, Dunfermline, and White City in London will open soon. In addition its new summer menu is about to be launched across all its restaurants as well as a number of promotions designed to attract more consumers through its doors.
Sourcing, developing and fine tuning recipes for individual outlets is down to a [dedicated team of experts. Senior brand development manager Mark Kent says the group has a trend director who [travels the world to get ideas and, interestingly, trends are not coming so much from the US.
Just from what is [going on in other major stores – Selfridges, M&S and Fortnum & Mason – standards are constantly being raised, he says, and in these places ideas can be spotted. “We look at the big names,” explains Kent. “Between the team we are on the high street all the time.”
Kent joined the business 10 years ago as a regional catering manager and is now responsible for the design of the [restaurants, display and of course the food offer. “Now I’m into food development which I like. It’s not just about where we buy but how to get it to market,” he says.
Foodservice sales are big business worth more than £73m a year, while food accounts for 3.5% of total sales. “Our restaurants are seen as a good reason to keep people in store,” says Kent. “To change counters you have to make sure it pays and will continue to pay.”
The team meets twice a year in Birmingham to discuss food development, buying and equipment. The company has two food development managers and three food developers, who use the London Oxford Street store’s test kitchen, plus Brakes [innovation centre for further testing.
He puts the menus together and says the group tries to source locally as much as possible. Chicken comes from [Ireland and some of the companies it uses include the [Authentic Food Company, the sauce company TSC, Dawn Foods and the English Cheesecake Company. “We try to pick products we can shout about,” says Kent, adding [that sometimes it’s not always local. “We use Brakes as our wheels. We also use the Sandwich Factory. Our food [offering is about provenance but not always local provenance.”
He says a lot of outlets such as Starbucks are coming into department stores but Debenhams had a different approach and felt the business would get more from its own on-premise products.
Kent says the store group tries to have big offers on different floors to attract shoppers into its cafés. Unlike Oxford Street, which attracts a high turnover of tourists, stores in places such as Reading, Milton Keynes and Bristol, provide a better picture of the café culture within the business.
Depending on the store, food is continuously on offer. Debenhams claims to be the first restaurant business to ban hydrogenated fats, GM ingredients and azo colours from all its products as well as introduce the smoking ban, and [it says there are 10 statements about the business for all customers to see. Another first is an easy to follow food [file for front of house staff to check information about food ingredients particularly with regard to allergies.
The two main café concepts overhauled in the first phase of redevelopment were Café Venue and DEC@D coffee shops. “It’s not a Starbucks or a Nero but Douwe Egberts is a good quality coffee, and we’ve had 30% increase in [sales since that concept came in,” says Kent. “The coffee comes from good origin certified beans and we have [spent £1.2m on replacing coffee machines,” he adds. DEC@D also offers hot and cold snacks, and patisserie. Café Venue’s best sellers are coffee followed by pastries and muffins.
For selected items at these cafés, there will be a takeaway meal deal this summer, while new products will include [filled breads, summer fruit pudding, vanilla panna cotta, plus summer fruit frappes and Belgian and white chocolate shakes.
Drinks are big for Debenhams. March figures show year on year it served 10 million cups of Douwe Egberts coffee and more than five million cups of tea, while drinking chocolate too was becoming more popular. To encourage [consumers to drink even more, the group has launched the Douwe Egberts Coffee Club whereby if you purchase five coffees, you get a sixth free.
These coffee shops are sited mainly on the ground floor by the escalator to take advantage of the heavy through traffic. The further customers move into the store, they come to the Style Café, which offers a family friendlyenvironment where customers can help themselves to a wide range of affordable, high quality food ranging from hot dishes such as fish and chips, roasts and jacket potatoes, to made to order baguettes, sandwiches and salads, and desserts.
This restaurant concept hadn’t had anything done to it for four years and needed refurbishing but, says Kent, it took £1.3m in sales last year.
Kent says the plan this year is to simplify the range across the board. It aims to focus on the things that sell so that if say fish and chips are a winner then that’s what they will concentrate on making the “best you can buy”. Battered cod is in fact one of the most popular choices as is its strawberries on a crème anglaise base.
Sources are named where they can, as in the case of Welsh farmed shepherd’s pie and Scottish cheddar macaroni cheese. Portions are generous; and the mains cost £5.50-£6.50 while the desserts cost between £2.50- £2.95.
New main courses at Style’s this summer include Spanish breast of chicken and gammon hock with parsley sauce. Healthier breakfasts will run alongside its ‘creating your own’ breakfast that will cost £3.15 for six items and £4.15 for eight.
Children are catered for with the help of child expert Dr Miriam Stoppard. Low counters offer a pick and mix menu that ranges from small cheese packs and healthy snacks to fruit and dips. This summer it will be offering ‘healthier options for VIP kids’ which includes a kids’ hot menu, lunchbox, half adult portions, plus free fruit. Restaurants also have children’s and baby food warming facilities.
Kent says stores would not normally have four restaurants but, with the extra floor at the top of the Oxford Street branch, it had Dee’s Diner for kids, a colourful American style diner with a movie theme offering meals such as Aberdeen Angus burger and fries, but when the floor was refurbished, this concept may disappear.
Kent works by the seasons and says already Christmas is in the bag. So what worked last year?
It ranged from lots of cup cakes with cranberry to beef bourguignon and traditional turkey, says Kent. “Many people reverted to classic, comfort food last year. Our bestseller was a chocolate ganache. Trading for Christmas starts in October and this year there are going to be lots of new twists on turkey. We shall be looking at where these products will sell in stores across the country as each region is different,” he says, adding that in some areas there will be specials and meal deals, which would not be the case in London.
Recognising the need to offer value for money in these credit crunch times, Debenhams is offering meal deals from September onwards which will give consumers a free packet of gourmet crisps when they buy any sandwich and any drink. Kent says these deals are rolling out in September across all the outlets at particular times of the day. “People are tightening their belts so people want to spend their money wisely and know it’s value for money.”
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