November 2, 2009

Dear Popeyes Team,

Today marks my two year anniversary with Popeyes. That is not very long at all by Popeyes standards.  In fact, most would say “a blink of the eye.” Nonetheless, I’m grateful for these two years that we have worked together. The best testament to this system is that in this difficult economic environment, Popeyes is getting better, and better and better. Few restaurant chains can say that.

Popeyes is growing market share up against some very big, heavy spending QSR chains. Popeyes overall delighted guest scores are up 15 percentage points over year ago. And while not where we want it to be, Popeyes restaurant profitability is improving steadily over year ago, as commodities come down.

But not one of us can take a victory lap; this is the restaurant business. We just get up again today and work at getting better and better and better. We work to get comp sales growing faster. We work to improve speed of service. We clean parking lots and bathrooms. We coach and encourage our team members. We save money on the electric bill. And that is just for starters…

So as we head into a new week, I thank you for the opportunity to serve along side of you, as we work to quickly give our guests the very best food on the planet with a warm Louisiana smile….that’s Popeyes.

Build and Protect the Brand

Invite the guest

After each national promotion, our marketing team publishes a post-event analysis.  During our September national window we featured five (5) Bonafide Wing pieces for $2.99 and an 11pc Bonafide® Chicken box for $9.99. The promotion ran six weeks, from August 31 through October 11; three of those weeks were on national media at 450 TRPs.

During this window, we were up against aggressive value messages from the competition including Dollar Menu messaging from McDonald’s® and Burger King®; and new product news from Wendy's® (boneless wings) and KFC® (grilled chicken).

The system enjoyed positive transactions and comp sales in this three week window. This was the seventh consecutive promotion with positive transactions and the fifth consecutive national promotion with positive comp sales. Our sales were driven by transactions as our check was down over prior year; and as expected, check improved versus the prior 13 week trend.  (Note:  exact sales figures cannot be reported in Point of View until the end of the quarter).

We continued to outperform QSR and CQSR competitors in five out of the six weeks during the promotion. Wing mix varied considerably by market. In some markets our promotional wing mix was more than double the typical promo mix we see during advertising. Other markets underperformed. It appears that markets that had high wing mix experienced better comps than those with low wing mix who did not comp over prior year.

We are concerned with this uneven performance across markets and will continue to seek market insights to help us understand how to drive more consistent wing performance in future wing promotions. You can offer your insights today by merely clicking “reply” to this email and telling us what you experienced.

Run Great Restaurants

Delight the guest

As you know, this week marks the beginning of the new period and the close of the GEM reporting period for P11. At the end of each period, we receive calls from franchisees that are surprised by their final GEM results.  Here is why. In order to ensure the integrity of our GEM data, an inconsistency cleanse occurs on the Wednesday following the close of every period. Our vendor examines multiple metrics to identify and remove questionable responses. Many times, the guest count numbers drop between Monday and Wednesday when the data is cleansed.

If you are interested in finding out whether possible inconsistencies exist in your GEM data, here is how you find out. Pull your GEM scores up TODAY on the website. Then, wait until Wednesday afternoon following the cleanse and pull your restaurant data again. If your GEM scores and guest counts have dropped, possible inconsistencies were found in your restaurant(s) data collection.

The most common inconsistencies are team member calls to the 800 number. Please ensure that you receive clean data from your guests by checking your scores at the end of each GEM period.

Should you have questions about the cleanse or a drop in your GEM information between Monday and Wednesday, please contact Rachelle Dever, Guest Relations Manager for assistance.

Grow Profitably

Make money and build more restaurants

Continuing our efforts to increase your profitability, Popeyes has sourced and approved a second in-restaurant music provider. The new provider, Retail Radio, joins Muzak as the two approved music vendors for the Popeyes system. Below are some of the benefits of Retail Radio:

• Consistent music styles and audio delivery
• Enhances the brand while playing 100 percent legally licensed family friendly music
• The music system is hassle free, has no maintenance cost, and does not require a large antenna installation
• All equipment comes with installation instructions and an appointment with a phone tech for assistance

There are three basic installation scenarios ranging from simple plug and play to full wiring and speaker installation, depending on your restaurant needs. Please contact Steve Currier at Popeyes at (404) 459-4681 for more information or Bill Louie with Retail Radio at (916) 768-2455 or e-mail Retail Radio at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Align & Collaborate

A new culture of partnership

At AFC, we want to continuously improve.  Will you take just a few minutes and respond to a survey from the AFC Communications team.  Please tell us where we are meeting your needs for communications and where we could do better.  To participate, click on the link below:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=5Pb8_2bcDYAt3KBFYbekF6_2fQ_3d_3d

Milestones and Celebrations

I want to take this opportunity to highlight a woman restaurant operator who has 19 years of success in the QSR industry, and is now part of the Popeyes family.

Shana Gonzales, who has worked for Checkers Drive In Corp and Taco Bell, joined Aziz Hashim’s National Restaurant Development (NRD) group in 2003 as director of Operations. She was soon promoted to vice president of Operations and earlier this year was appointed to the role of chief operating officer. She got her first taste working with Popeyes back in June when Aziz’s Nashville Restaurant Management, LLC, a subsidiary of NRD, acquired a group of Atlanta restaurants from AFCE.  We asked Shana to share with us a few of her observations about being a senior woman executive in the restaurant business.

Shana says the most rewarding part of her job is having the opportunity to impact others through training and development. One example in particular is a female Area Manager Shana works with at another one of NRD’s brands. Paulita Huchim started as a cashier working for Shana 17 years ago. She saw the leadership potential and worked to ensure she was continuously being developed. Today, Paulita is one of their most successful Area Managers. Shana’s hope is to apply her learnings, like promoting from within the team, to the Popeyes brand.

Shana believes that women bring distinctive attributes to the table such as cultivating strong relationships through collaboration and team building.  The hard part of advancing is there are usually few female role models.

Shana’s advice to women: “Learn to be yourself, you’re the only one that knows how to do it the best; treasure your uniqueness. Once I learned how to embrace my differences, I was able to develop the confidence to succeed.”

Thank you Shana for offering good counsel to women pursuing a career in restaurant operations!

As I say every week…it’s Monday….let’s get to work!

Cheryl Bachelder

President & CEO

Popeyes® Louisiana Kitchen

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