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Chili's Grill & Bar intends to expand its value positioning and enhance technology in its restaurants this year, executives said Thursday during an investors' day presentation.
Executives at Chili's, owned by Dallas-based Brinker International Inc., said they would launch next month a new value platform that includes Hand-Crafted Burgers, apply changes to the brand's bar program, and expand technology for both customers and staff as the company replaces its in-house My Chili's Rewards loyalty program with a new coalition-based Plenti rewards partnership.
Wyman Roberts, Brinker president and CEO, acknowledged that 2016 "was not a good year for Brinker." In April, the company said Chili's company-owned same-store sales fell 4.1 percent in the third quarter ended March 23.
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Brinker said late Wednesday that it expected fourth-quarter same-store sales to improve, although they were anticipated to be negative.
"As of June 2, quarter-to-date Brinker International company-owned comparable restaurant sales decreased 2 percent, which includes a 2-percent and 1.5-percent decrease for Chili's and Maggiano's company-owned restaurants, respectively, as of that date," Brinker said.
"It wasn't a fundamental brand deterioration," Roberts said Thursday. "It wasn't the competition doing something to us."
Roberts said Brinker put "too many eggs into one basket," such as beefing up its My Chili's Rewards program, which took marketing dollars away from media promotions.
Roberts said Brinker has "rebuilt as a plug-and-play business" its information technology department, replacing 50 to 60 percent of the IT workforce to accommodate new...