WSMP storms budget-steak-buffet niche with Prime Sirloin

Nation's Restaurant News, Sept 26, 1994 by Jack Hayes

SPARTANBURG, S.C. -- Striding into the "mega-sized" budget steak segment with an 11,000-square-foot buffet concept that is grossing more than $85,000 a week, Claremont, N.C.-based WSMP Inc. is hopeful of regaining its mark as a major family steak-house player in the Southeast.

The parent of Western Steer -- the struggling chain that shrank from 200 restaurants to fewer than 90 units during the budget steak segment's swift evolution toward buffet feeding in recent years -- WSMP believes its goal is reachable with the newly launched 408-seat Prime Sirloin prototype that opened here in mid-August.

That unit, costing approximately $2.1 million and pushing toward a first-year gross that is expected to surpass $4 million, is an updated version of the highly successful "Metro" concept developed in 1992 by Golden Corral and now expanding rapidly.

"This is the biggest and the most expensive restaurant we've ever built," said Trey Safrit, who is WSMP's restaurant group operations vice president and oversees the company's three foodservice units: Western Steer, Prime Sirloin and the newly launched Bennett's Steakhouse & Saloon.

WSMP president and chief executive Jimmy Richardson added that after a month the new Prime Sirloin is serving 15,000 customers weekly. The per-person check average, he added, is $6.20.

Those numbers are higher than Safrit's preopening estimates. He had projected a minimum weekly gross of $70,000 to $75,000, with 12,000 customers and an average check between $5.80 and $6.

"We're right in the middle of Ryan's and Quincy's country -- and still doing this kind of business," Richardson remarked. "That tells me we've got something to grow with."

The Greer, S.C.-based Ryan's Family Steak Houses Inc. operates 240 units, while Quincy's Family Steakhouse, owned by Flagstar Corp. in Spartanburg, has 211 stores.

Richardson estimated that 15 more giant Prime Sirloins will open by the end of 1995. The second unit will debut in Bristol, Va., in January, and WSMP's Spartanburg franchisee will break ground this month for another restaurant in nearby Greenville, S.C.

"We're negotiating for sites in northern Virginia and Maryland," Richardson said. His estimate of the opening cost ranges between $1.7 million and $2 million, depending on real estate.

"The biggest problem we'll have is trying to develop support staff to handle the expansion."

The unit here is owned by a franchisee but operated by WSMP. The same franchisee owns the newly launched Bennett's Smokehouse & Saloon, a casual steak and barbecue dinner-house concept that is also being expanded.

Prime Sirloin was founded in 1985 and acquired by WSMP the following year. It evolved early as a concept with more seating and successfully incorporated the buffet and fresh bakery features that have become a hallmark of the family steak segment.

The 16 Prime Sirloins now operating gross an average $2 million each, Richardson said.

Safrit said the new Prime Sirloin design has two key architectural innovations.

First is the "panorama" entry, which gives customers a view of the entire buffet floor and dining room rather than routing them along corridors.

The second is the "double-line" system, which directs guests from the entry to the buffet floor without creating what Safrit labeled "cross traffic."

Meanwhile, the main buffet bar floats in a reverse "U" from the kitchen on to the self-service floor, which is also garnished with scatter bars.

"It was built for speed and efficiency," Safrit said.

Richardson said the architectural changes and improvements in traffic flow make the units appear "completely" different to the customer.

"It's amazing," Richardson said. "We're doing so many of the same things, and yet our guests will come up and say they've never seen anything like it. It's mindboggling."

Richardson said the one-price buffet here is hitting more than 70 percent of sales.

"We believe, with the holiday season approaching, that we're going to see some $100,000 weeks," he said.