VANCOUVER – Eighty-three years after Nat Bailey opened his first White Spot restaurant in Vancouver, British Columbia’s most iconic food brand is showing no signs of age.
White Spot market research indicates that 87 per cent of British Columbians who dined out last year enjoyed at least one of those meals at a White Spot or Triple O drive-through.
Under the leadership of president Warren Erhart, they’ve expanded from 27 full-service restaurants in B.C. to 64 restaurants and 55 drive-throughs – including markets in Alberta, Hong Kong, and soon, Singapore.
Erhart noted in a recent interview that growth in B.C. has been so robust that only a few select opportunities remain for full-service White Spots.
In response – and this is no secret to anyone who has seen White Spot television commercials with guest appearances by celebrity chefs including Rob Feenie and Melissa Craig – they’re counting on their menu, customer service and corporate culture, to drive future growth.
They recently opened a 1,548-square-foot culinary training centre at their Vancouver head office, offering White Spot chefs Red Seal apprenticeship and certification.
All this effort, Erhart notes, is what keeps the White Spot brand relevant to successive generations of customers.
Sun: I don’t know that there’s any other restaurateur, or retailer, in British Columbia that could have attracted the celebrity chefs you did for your TV ads about what’s cooking in your kitchens.
Erhart: Every person we’ve asked said yes to it, whether it be Rob Feenie, or John Bishop, or Umberto Menghi, or our most recent, Melissa Craig in Whistler.
It’s interesting to think about White Spot as an iconic brand. We’ve been around 83 years – longer than any other restaurant chain in Canada, for sure.
Past success doesn’t guarantee future success. I grew up with Eatons and Woodward’s, and I thought they’d be around forever.
So remaining relevant is really important to us.
With the TV campaign, there’s sort of a consumer proposition, but there was also a great recruitment-retention employee proposition. All of a sudden, our passion for food, and having Red Seal chefs in our restaurants, really told people that we care about the food.
Also, it meant you don’t need to leave White Spot if you want to get your Red Seal certification. It attracted and retained some of our best kitchen people who really wanted a career in the culinary arts with White Spot.
The average head office employee has almost 10 years with White Spot. We see that even in our restaurants – the average hourly employee has 5.7 years. That’s unheard of in our industry.
On the food side of things, last year was our most successful year in the history of White Spot. And we never spent more money on training than last year. So I go back to the fact that developing the basics, to make sure we have well-trained people in our restaurants, is really important to us. We’ve never spent more money, and we’ve never had more success.
Sun: White Spot was recently named one of Canada’s 50 best managed companies. What are some of the underlying values that guide you as a leader?
Erhart: We’re honoured by the top 50 ranking. Being market focused, having a good understanding of the pulse of the market, is really important as well.
I think there are two attributes for every successful company. One is a sense of urgency, the other is a dedication to continuous improvement.
Every successful organization, I find, is continuously improving all attributes of their business. For us it’s menus, it’s training, it’s marketing, everything we do, and a sense of urgency because things in this industry are moving so quickly.
Sun: What do you do to maintain the interest of younger consumers, those in their 20s?
Erhart: It’s not just the younger consumers. We’re open from 6:30 in the morning, so we’re offering breakfast, lunch and dinner. We’re looking for all consumers, and how we can get people to use our restaurants.
You wouldn’t have seen a full bar at a White Spot 10 or 15 years ago. We offer TV screens. There’s a lounge area, fireplaces.
Last year we did the biggest research study in the history of White Spot to get a good pulse on our position in the marketplace. We also do a lot of surveys of employee and internal stakeholders.
Every one of our employees gets asked every year about menu items they’re proud of serving, what items they think we should improve upon, what items guests ask for that are not on our menu today.
Sun: One of the things you found was that 87 per cent of British Columbias who dined out last year visited a White Spot at some point in 2010. That’s an unbelievable number. Is that because you’ve expanded your number of locations, your food, your marketing?
Erhart: The Triple O’s (drive-through) concept is part of that as well.
You need to provide a good experience for people who come to your restaurants. I think our marketing has been top notch. And we’ve been expanding with more points of distribution.
We continue to grow even in British Columbia during these tougher economic times.
Ten per cent of all casual and family (restaurant) visits in British Columbia are at White Spot. We know that success is fleeting, that we have to keep working at it and keep focused all the time.
Sun: You’ve worked hard to expand and innovate your menu, but still, it seems that a lot of people come to White Spot for a hamburger.
Erhart: I think a lot of competitors would love to have a product as powerful as the Triple O burgers.
We keep evolving our menu. We use a lot of data to determine what sells in our restaurants. We do sales mix analysis. It’s not emotional. I might personally love the item and feel that we should keep it on the menu.
But the sales mix may not support it. Once again, it’s that ongoing relevance of the menu to make sure we have the taste that people want on there.
But you are right. Still, about a third of our guests order a burger.
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