Guest-Focused Initiatives Help Melting Pot with Franchise Growth

As the world’s largest fondue franchise, Melting Pot has made significant strides amid the global pandemic that rocked our economy and forced temporary closures across the country. Nevertheless, a combination of dynamic marketing and operations enhancements helped us persevere through uncertainty in 2020, only to catapult us to even more brand success in 2021.

Introducing Key Initiatives

Much of our brand’s success this year has been due to changes we’ve made on the operational side and by incorporating new marketing innovations.

Some of the new initiatives include:

• New national menu – Our menu has always been customizable, but we decided it was time to revamp the design and introduce new options. Melting Pot franchisees and outside consultants both added input that culminated in a new menu we can all be proud of.
• New national day-of-week promotion – In March 2020, we launched our new national day-of-week promotion, Thursdate®, a four-course menu special to help create the perfect Thursday date night. Because of capacity restrictions on Friday and Saturday, we needed to shift guest traffic to a different day. Thursdate® has been the ideal alternative with phenomenal return on investment.
• Curbside pickup – Once temporary COVID-19 restrictions were relaxed and our franchise owners began to reopen, we quickly pivoted to implement Melting Pot To-Go. Our curbside pickup service ensures our guests can safely enjoy our cuisine—from the comfort of their own home.
• New restaurant design prototype – Not only did we refresh our menu, but we also created a new ambiance with Melting Pot Evolution. We added contemporary casual dining elements, such as a social bar, outdoor dining, and patio bar areas.

Through these enhancements, we were able to drive positive results and elevate restaurant performance. For instance, the menu adjustments significantly increased guest satisfaction and per person averages (PPA) sales, making up for sales lost during pandemic-related closures.

Bob Johnston, CEO of Front Burner Brands, the company that manages Melting Pot, said, “The innovations from this past year have set us up for this strong start in 2021. We anticipate that this will resonate with our loyal and long-time fans for the balance of the year while also bridging us to a new set of guests.”

Attracting Franchise Investors

This past year has been a learning experience for the entire brand in navigating the ins and outs of ambiguity and making strategic decisions based on market data.

Shak Turner, Senior Director of Franchise Development at Front Burner Brands, said, “We looked challenges in the face and overcame them decisively as a unified group – the corporate team and our franchisees. Now, we have a tremendous opportunity to leverage our accomplishments from the past year to expand with talented ownership groups.”

On top of endearing us with guests, the momentum from these key initiatives has put us in the right spot to attract high-quality franchise investors. While we’re in strategic expansion mode, we’re continuing to bring on talented franchise owners who have the experience and passion for growing with our brand. We relish the opportunity to work with like-minded individuals interested in a fondue franchise opportunity with Melting Pot.

Given the refreshed energy of a new year and the success of our latest initiatives, our leaders have developed a franchise expansion strategy to award qualified (and current) franchisees the opportunity to expand into new markets with us. We’re strategically focusing on several major markets for brand growth, including Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas.

A Rewarding Fondue Franchise Opportunity

We are a brand that stands alone in the full-service restaurant category, relying heavily on our dedicated operations team and restaurant support center to provide assistance and transparency to our 97 operating restaurants.

In addition to accentuating our supportive and family-oriented culture, we stand by our core commitment to philanthropy. Our philanthropic endeavors have allowed franchisees to give back to their communities and the causes most important to them. Moreover, the brand and franchise operators have donated over $13 million to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital®, which is on a mission to treat and defeat childhood cancer and other diseases.

A fondue franchise opportunity with Melting Pot means you join a brand committed to enhancing guests’ experiences, supporting franchise owner-operators, and giving back to the community.