Brand Tactics: It’s Not Easy Being Green
Big Bowl sacrifices food cost and purchasing efficiency to reinvent itself as an eco-friendly operator.
By Margaret Littman, Contributing Editor -- Chain Leader, 3/1/2007
 Big Bowl’s build-your-own-stir-fry bar is chock-full of local produce. Units in Minnesota get their veggies from different farmers than those in Illinois.
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Dan McGowan, president of Chicago-based Big Bowl, is financially savvy, but he is not a penny pincher. Over the last year, he’s increased spending—by seven figures—on labor, ingredients and even uniforms to create a stronger brand identity for the Asian concept.
The new Big Bowl is as young and hip as it was when it first opened 13 years ago, but now has an environmentally friendly and natural bent. Such a focus should strengthen Big Bowl’s position with Generation Y diners. Research from Cone Inc. and AMP Insights found 83 percent of these young diners would trust a company more if it is socially or environmentally responsible.
Chicago-based Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises created the casual-dining Chinese and Thai restaurant in 1994. In 2001, LEYE sold Big Bowl to Dallas-based Brinker International. But Brinker wasn’t successful at expanding Big Bowl because it didn’t appreciate the concept’s urban vibe, according to McGowan. So, in March 2005, LEYE bought the concept back.
Natural Resources
Since then McGowan has led a team to rebrand Big Bowl. Over two-and-half months they tested dishes, re-evaluated ingredients and procedures, and overhauled the menu. Big Bowl began roasting and grinding peanuts in-house for peanut sauces. It started purchasing heirloom pork from small producers, hormone-free chicken, organic fair-trade coffee and local produce.
The company is also trying to use as much seasonal produce as possible, sourcing from organic and local farmers and co-ops. As much as 60 percent to 70 percent of the menu is now all-natural, organic or local. Up next: all-natural beef.
“I don’t think anybody in our price point is doing this much,” McGowan says. While prices of these ingredients are almost double what Big Bowl used to pay—increasing food costs by 2 percent, or about $500,000 annually systemwide—menu prices have inched up $1 or $2.
McGowan knows it takes more than all-natural meats and local produce to make a restaurant “green” in consumers’ eyes. Not all concepts that become eco-friendly get the good will that goes along with it. “Companies that do it on their own can be accused of ‘greenwashing,’” cautions Michael Oshman, executive director of the Green Restaurant Association.
While Big Bowl has yet to undertake efforts like composting organic waste, the chain is looking at back-of-the-house options for saving water and natural gas. It is also evaluating more environmentally conscious alternatives for everything from napkins to light bulbs.
Late last year Big Bowl hired Michael Alan Stein, a Chicago-based designer, to create new uniforms for Big Bowl servers that are made of eco-friendly fibers.
“I’m not peace and granola,” McGowan says. “But if there are things I can do to make a difference because I am fortunate enough to be in charge of a $25 million to $30 million company, then I have a responsibility to do them.”
The Devil’s in the Details
The improvements were possible, in part, because Big Bowl increased spending on labor by an average of $2,000 per week per store. LEYE reversed a Brinker decision to eliminate the position of chef from the kitchen and added more hosts, hostesses and other staff.
“Over the course of a year, that’s almost $1 million. No public company would ever do that. But it was what I thought we needed to do to bring Big Bowl back,” McGowan says. “Most public companies are bottom-line driven. We are top-line focused. I teach everyone to worry about growing sales, and we’ll figure out a way to make money.”
Between 2005 and 2006, sales at the eight-unit chain increased by $2.5 million, which McGowan attributes to higher check averages, the LEYE frequent-diner program and other efforts. From 2006 to 2007, the increase will be less dramatic: $1 million.
In 2008, Big Bowl will open its next unit; the location has not yet been announced, but Scottsdale, Ariz., is being considered. Then the company will add one store every 12 to 14 months.
Sales growth until then will come from increasing Big Bowl’s $18 dinner tab to $20 to $22. McGowan thinks customers will be willing to pay more for organic and natural foods if they are marketed appropriately. In addition to a blackboard at the front of the restaurant, Big Bowl is promoting its new commitment to organic and natural foods with a specials sheet and servers trained to discuss it with diners.
“As Big Bowl morphs from the funky noodle and rice shop it was 10 years ago, we’re getting more adult and sophisticated,” he says
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