top beer, and finding a local partnership
opportunity is an option he encourages
franchisees to explore.
“We spend a lot of time and research
to give our guests a nice combination of
popular brands and styles, and we throw
out some off-the-wall beers that even some
of the extreme craft-centric restaurants do
not carry,” said Weatherholtz. “Local craft
beer is just that – local. The perception
of BWW is that it’s a big-time corporate
chain, so it brings us closer to the local
community by incorporating local beers
into our restaurants.” S
CHRISTINA CANNON is the FBS communications
manager. You can reach Cannon at
678-797-5160 or [email protected].
How World Wide Wings
Creates a Winning Formula
or World Wide Wings locations,
F
choosing what to carry on draught
is no matter of happenstance. Each
23
which really likes imports. They are almost
in reverse as far as the percentage of tap
handles that we allocate to them. We look
at domestics, crafts and imports, and then
within those categories, we try to allocate
the tap handles based on th e percentage of
the mix they represent.”
For example, Janaszek notes that in
Portland, Oregon, 30 percent of the beer
sold in that marketplace is craft beer. The
company will take that 30 percent figure
and multiply it by the number of handles
the restaurant has, which in this case is 36.
That formula lets World Wide Wings know
that it needs to reserve 11 tap handles for
craft beer in that market. What styles of
craft beer those 11 handles will contain
requires further research.
“There was a time where we had three
or four ciders on tap because the craze was
out of this world, and now we only have
one or two,” said Janaszek. “We use to have
seven or eight IPAs, and now we only have
a few. Just understanding the trends that
are occurring and staying in front of them
is really important.” S
November, the company hosts a three-day
beer summit where local and national
brewery representatives battle for a spot on
tap and also for promotional opportunities.
“The purpose of our beer summit is
really to understand what each brewery
has to offer,” said Chief Marketing Officer
Joe Janaszek. “We always ask them to
bring their A game. We ask them what
brands are doing well, what the outlook of
industry is and what their plans are for the
coming year.”
Following the summit, World Wide
Wings typically decides which suds it
will be serving over the next year, but the
process still isn’t one-size-fits-all.
“The core of our beers remains the
same throughout the year, but there are
certain beers that are becoming more
popular,” said Janaszek. “We want to
stay on top of the trends, so throughout
the year we’ll change our local beers out
frequently. We have about four tap handles
– I call them marketing handles – and we
rotate those out frequently based on what’s
really selling in the area.”
To stay in the know of what the hot
beers are in each market, Janaszek utilizes
third-party data companies that collect
information on the consumer market and
also looks at package trends.
“We try to use our data as much as
we can. We look at what’s selling in the
area, we look at AC Milton, we look at
other reports that we get from our supplier
reps,” he explained. “In the Northwest,
we’re really craft-centric, so we’ll allocate a
lot more on the crafts versus in California,