Restaurants Hungry for Data-Rich Expansion Strategy

FORT WORTH, Texas, May 7 /PRNewswire/ — A rapidly growing trend in the restaurant industry is using consumer buying and dining data, provided by Buxton’s Real Estate Solutions, to select sites for expansion. Identifying and profiling customers so that sites with the highest concentration of their customers are selected is the key to success, but in consideration of an economic slowdown, the ability to measure performance enables restaurants to avoid opening mediocre locations and select only the very best. Buxton’s newest restaurant clients using this cutting-edge, customer analytics method are Pei Wei Asian Diners, Granite City Food and Brewery, Mimis Cafe and Burrachos Fresh Mexican Grill.


Buxton’s Real Estate Solutions will provide these restaurants with detailed profiles of customers, identifying who they are, where they live, their purchasing behaviors and other lifestyle characteristics. This information is then used to create a “Sales Model” which identifies all prospective customers, and statistically calculates sales for each site under consideration. This analysis is used as a tool for opening only the restaurants with the highest possible potential for success.


Buxton has an excellent track record with restaurant clients, helping more than 100 restaurants with strategic growth plans. Clients that have incorporated Buxton into their real estate strategy include California Pizza Kitchen, Peter Piper Pizza, Islands Restaurants and Morton’s.


Data provided by Buxton is used not only for site selection, but benchmarking how well existing stores should be performing and analyzing entry into new markets. Additionally, our clients will use this information to optimize the markets they are in by opening new locations without cannibalizing their existing restaurants.


About Pei Wei Asian Diners


A quick-casual restaurant, Pei Wei’s menu samples flavors from Thailand, Vietnam, Japan and China. Dishes are individually prepared and made-to-order using Mandarian-style woks. Currently operating in 24 states, Pei Wei is based out of Scottsdale, Ariz.


About Granite City Food and Brewery


Based in St. Louis Park, Minn., Granite City Food and Brewery has been serving made-from-scratch food and signature beers throughout the Midwest since 1999. Granite City features an on-site brewery, with hand-crafted beers offering unique styles and flavors not typically produced by major breweries. The company operates 18 restaurants in eight Midwestern states.


About Mimis


Mimis Cafe is an upscale family dining restaurant with 132 locations in 22 states. Mimis Cafe is a unit wholly owned by Bob Evans Farms, Inc., a publicly traded company (NASDAQ ticker symbol BOBE), and is known and loved for its full breakfast, lunch and dinner menus with high-quality, eclectic cuisine, unparalleled service and tastefully appointed decor.


About Burrachos Fresh Mexican Grill


In 2005, Burrachos started as a fun, fast casual Mexican restaurant, where it began making delicious and wholesome food exactly the way the customers want it. Using only the freshest and highest quality ingredients, Burrachos operates several locations in Wisconsin and is currently looking to expand in other states.


About Buxton


Since 1994, Buxton has been the industry leader in customer analytics for the retail industry. Its focus now includes healthcare organizations, consumer packaged goods manufacturers and city governments. Buxton draws from its individual- and household-level data to determine lifestyles and buying habits to clearly identify an organization’s best customers and find more like them anywhere in the U.S. Among its 1,700 clients are FedEx Kinko’s, California Pizza Kitchen, The Container Store and New Balance Shoes. Buxton’s founder Tom Buxton was named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of The Year(R) 2007 in Business Services for the Southwest Area. In 2006, Retail Traffic recognized Buxton as one of three figures “influencing the future of retail real estate.”


For more information, visit BuxtonCo.com.


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Source: Buxton


CONTACT: Courtney Hall of Buxton, +1-817-332-3681, chall@buxtonco.com


Web site: http://www.buxtonco.com/