Tanner's gets a makeover

Nation's Restaurant News, Feb 23, 1998 by Jack Hayes

FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. -- In an ambitious quest to penetrate the region and eventually emerge as a recognized brand in the casual segment nationwide, 10-unit Tanner's, the chain that pioneered chicken rotisserie in the Atlanta market a dozen years ago, has debuted its 168-seat neighborhood-themed freestanding prototype here.

Boasting a new name as well as a re-engineered logo, menu and ambience -- and piloted by a new investment team and a roster of veteran chain executives -- the two-unit Rick Tanner's Original Rotisserie Grill is grossing twice the sales of the average Tanner's unit, according to chairman and equity partner Clyde Culp.

"We're doing double the volume here that we've done at any other restaurant," said Culp, who bought into the Tanner's system a year ago for $2 million with three partners, including Atlanta-based broker and deal maker John Feltman, who also will become a franchisee in early March.

The Fayetteville store is grossing in excess of $200,000 a month compared with the average Tanners unit, which generates roughly $100,000.

Culp, who two decades ago developed the Crofton, Md.-based DavCo group into the largest Wendy's franchisee in the nation and later served as president and chief executive of Long John Silver's, picked Ponderosa and Miami Subs veteran Robert Hoffman as a new senior vice president to steer the operations side of the Tanner's expansion effort.

Meanwhile, founder Rick Tanner, who created the award-winning Tanner's core menu, which accounts for 75 percent of both dine-in and takeout sales, has been positioned as the company's advertising spokesman. Like Feltman, Tanner will become a system franchisee. His unit will debut in the Montgomery, Ala., market in late March.

According to Culp, the 4,700-square-foot, 10-week-old unit here cost $100 per square foot to build. The equipment price tag of $200,000, plus the land lease, lifted the total to between $900,000 and $1 million, he added.

A 6-week-old, renovated strip-center unit of Rotisserie Grill in Suwanee, Ga., a northeastern Atlanta suburb, opened Dec. 1 and also cost $900,000, including the lease capitalization, and it is generating annualized sales of nearly twice that amount, Tanner revealed.

We've got a break-even of $750,000, and the restaurant is ringing in $1.7 million out in the middle of nowhere," he said. The group wants to grow with freestanding locations and 5,000-square-foot remodels.

Launched as a modified cafeteria concept that was tailored for traditional strip centers and end-cap sites, Tanner's gradually evolved into a full-service operation specializing in barbecued ribs, chicken fingers, salads, rotisserie chicken and signature vegetable side dishes like zucchini squash souffle, fresh stir fry and "world- famous" baked beans.

The expanded menu includes new appetizers like Texas nachos, cheese-covered fries and spicy "Buffalo" fingers as well as pork barbecue, pot roast, salmon fillet and sirloin-steak entrees. The group also added a rotisserie melt sandwich and 10 new desserts -- including hand-scooped ice cream.

`We're in the casual-dining niche now that we have the building to support it," said Tanner, boasting that the concept competes directly now with Applebee's and Chili's.

Culp added that the "portability" of Tanner's menu -- all 85 items are available for takeout -- and its "more appealing" flavor profile give the concept a competitive advantage foodwise.

I used to talk about licensing Rick's chicken lips [wonton-wrapped rotisserie chicken and cheese] and chicken fingers [deep-fried tenderloins with made-from-scratch honey-mustard sauce] while I was at Long John Silver's," Culp said.

"The food is clearly as portable as Boston Market's, but it's better -- plus we've got the sit-down potential of Applebee's but with terrific homemade flavor," he added.

A key to the concept's profitability, according to Tanner, is its high percentage of takeout sales. Another profit contributor is the business catering niche, he said.

Takeout averages 27 percent systemwide, and corporate catering added another $1.1 million to the group's sales in 1997.

In another 1998 initiative, the new management group has begun appointing unit catering managers and charged them with generating $100,000 in additional sales per unit, Culp said.

"The new catering manager in Suwanee booked $4,000 in the first week," Culp boasted. Tanner said takeout sales are climbing so rapidly in Suwanee that the new store is being fitted with a second takeout register.

The group's 1998 growth plan calls for seven to 10 new restaurants, all franchised. Investor-franchisee Feltman, who owns the development rights in the Georgia and Florida markets, expects to open at least four Tanner's units this year, including stores in Macon, Albany and Conyers, Ga. Feltman also is studying the Alpharetta and east Cobb County territories.