BROS New Hire
The new president is building our her team.
Dutch Bros has hired Tana Davila as its CMO, effective June 12. Davila has over a decade of experience in the foodservice industry and most recently served as CMO at CKE Restaurants, where she worked for about a year, according to her LinkedIn profile. Davila joined the brand seven months after the coffee brand appointed Chirstine Barone, former True Food Kitchen CEO, as its president. In her new role, Davila will work with Barone and become a member of the leadership team, working on brand and product marketing, creative and the Dutch Bros rewards program, according to the press release. The company said her experience in digital marketing and managing large marketing campaigns will be important for Dutch Bros’ next phase of growth, which includes reaching 4,000 units within the next 10 to 15 years. The company has been been emphasizing various product promotions within the last few months. During the first quarter, Dutch Bros doubled down on targeted promotions on its app to help drive traffic and to encourage guests to load money on the Dutch Bros app. The company refreshed its app during the quarter to move away from a one-size-fits-all approach. In April, the company rolled out Double Point Tuesdays as part of the company’s latest promotions leading into the summer. Outside of digital, the company has been pursuing in-store promotions like its “Fill-a-Tray” campaign in March, which lasted six hours and led to the company’s largest single-day sales in its history. In addition to her position at CKE, Davila also spent over eight years in various roles at P.F. Chang’s, including three years as CMO. She also worked for over five years at Grupo Bimbo. During her time at CKE, the company launched a rewards program, debuted new branding and began a physical and digital transformation.
SHAK Real Estate IN SF
On our recent SHAK deck we made a point of questioning SHAK's real estate strategy. According to SFGATE a new Shake Shack opened at the San Francisco mall Stonestown Galleria (also having problems with violence) on 12/22/22, making the third location following its first in Cow Hollow in 2020 and its second at Westfield San Francisco Centre in 2021. Why did SHAK open a store at a failing mall in SF in 2021? This is a clear example of how SHAK's aggressive growth profile leads the company to making bad real decisions. Is this an isolated incident (s)?
Last Thursday, San Francisco’s mayor proposed remaking the city’s struggling downtown by tearing down abandoned retail space, including the city’s Westfield mall, and building new structures to reshape the struggling city. “We can’t completely rely on retail in downtown restricting what happens in downtown anymore,” Mayor London Breed told Bloomberg’s Technology Summit in San Francisco on Thursday. Breed’s comments come as San Francisco faces empty offices, a cratering commercial real estate market, and an exodus of retailers from its once-bustling downtown area, especially as pandemic work-from-home policies saw many residents leaving for less expensive parts of the country. San Francisco has also come under fire recently by politicians, business leaders and locals for a perceived uptick in retail thefts, though it’s not clear that crime has grown significantly more serious, according to industry watchers. Breed argued that an overall shift to online shopping post-pandemic has contributed to declining foot traffic in the area. Earlier this month, Westfield said it planned to surrender its mall, the San Francisco Centre, back to its lender. The mall operator cited the “challenging operating conditions in downtown San Francisco, which have led to declines in sales, occupancy and foot traffic.”
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DASH
Potential pressure on 4Q23 orders?
Following the Department of Education's announcement last week that student loan payments will start in October, borrowers are preparing for a change in their usual spending patterns. A majority of student loan debtors (58%) are at least "somewhat concerned" about making payments when they resume, with one-third rating themselves as "extremely concerned," according to current CivicScience research. Food delivery businesses are likely to be among the most negatively impacted of the many industries that borrowers support. According to the most recent CivicScience statistics, the majority of borrowers who order meal delivery at least weekly are "extremely concerned" (52%) and a sizable majority are "somewhat concerned" (74%) about repaying student loans. Most borrowers who use meal delivery services in any way are at least "slightly apprehensive" about loan payments starting up again. Different delivery services might be more or less impacted than others. Users of DoorDash are more likely to be "extremely concerned" or indicate any level of anxiety about paying back student loans in October than users of Grubhub or Uber Eats. The users of Uber Eats are the least likely to be worried about their student loan obligations. Younger adults are significantly more likely to order food delivery at any frequency, but especially at least monthly or weekly. However, according to CivicScience data from earlier this month, the 18-34 set was already reducing or planning to reduce its food delivery spending at a higher rate than the Gen Pop. Therefore, student debt repayment could result in a significant disruption to the sector with certain reductions already planned for adults ages 18 to 34.
