Drive-thrus and delivery thrived throughout the pandemic. Now, America is getting hungry for something healthy.
OUTSIDE INSIGHTS | APRIL 6, 2021 | JANIA BAILEY – In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic changed everything. A year later, many of us are now grappling with the COVID 15, or the weight gained by Americans forced to live off of drive-thru and delivery as the pandemic shuttered dining rooms across the country. That’s why 2021 will be the year of the health food franchise.
Franchising holds up better than other business models during economic downturns, and the pandemic has been no exception. Of the 110,000 restaurants closed during the pandemic, franchises fared well, especially in the quick-service and pizza spaces. But as every functioning adult knows, eventually we must eat a green vegetable.
That’s why FranNet is predicting a surge in healthy food franchises and all that comes with them. When gyms reopen, expect them to look like the New Year’s resolution crowd on January 2nd again. When people make choices about what to eat, expect to see them turn to a salad.
The younger generation has placed a renewed focus on healthy, sustainable food. Also, the pandemic has forced us to consider our health and wellness like never before. Expect to see fast food restaurants and pizza concepts add on healthy options to hold onto their momentum, but those never quite work out as planned.
2021: The Year of the Underdog Franchise?
The problem with the salads on McDonald’s menu or veggie options on a Domino’s pizza is that nobody associates those brands with health foods. Instead, expect healthy food concepts like Freshii and Salata to take off. Over the pandemic, there was little restricting consumer’s access to McDonald’s or Dominos. When the pandemic ends, millions of people will figure it’s time to have a light salad with friends for lunch.
We all know there is a looming demand for healthy food and on-premise spaces to enjoy them. The question now is if businesses are best positioned to cash in on that coming wave.
To ride that coming wave, brands must embrace health-conscious terminology. Brands will affiliate themselves with a certain winning niche—maybe it’s gluten-free, low-carb or sustainable protein. Salad fast-casual concepts that can show you a Chipotle-style assembly line of workers putting together your salad from a sprawling mix of fresh vegetables will have all the credibility in this space. If a restaurant has healthy options that guests don’t know about, it’s time to modernize that messaging.
Additionally, in the franchise space, this moment marks an ideal time for smaller brands to take a front seat as big name franchises had their turn during the pandemic.
Meanwhile, quick-service brands that halfheartedly ventured into the health food or vegetable-heavy offerings may have shot themselves in the foot. All it takes is one slimy tomato on one Wendy’s burger for a consumer to decide that Wendy’s can’t do fresh produce. When the time comes for the consumer to pick a healthier option, they’ll surely look to brands that specialize in that space.
Brands like Nekter Juice Bar, Clean Eatz and Vitality Bowls, should be taking off with healthy vitality bowls and shakes.
In short, expect a generation of consumers molded by the pandemic to have high, demanding standards. The pandemic was great for convenience, and that’s here to stay. But now, customers will demand convenient, healthy food they can order and eat on or off premise, whenever and wherever they want.
Jania Bailey joined FranNet in August 2006 as President and COO while the company was transitioning to new ownership. In 2015, Jania assumed the role of CEO of FranNet. Under her leadership, she’s led the company through unprecedented growth and has established FranNet as the most respected voice in the franchise consultant industry in North America. Her background includes over 30 years of experience in the banking and franchise industries. Bailey served for 6 years on the Executive Board of Directors for the International Franchise Association (IFA) and is a certified franchise expert. She currently serves as Chairman of the IFA Membership Committee. Bailey also authored the book, “Thriving—The Journey to Success in the Business World” and co-authored the Amazon best-selling book, “More Than Just French Fries.”
Cody says, “Get ready to celebrate superfoods because it is National Açaí Bowl Day, and this morning we’re learning a yummy recipe from the owner of Vitality Bowls in Vacaville, we have Diana Salas joining us this morning. Hi, Diana”
Diana: “Hi, Joan and Cody how are you?”
Cody: “I’m doing great. Let me ask you this, I’m from Alabama and I mispronounced Açaí earlier, what is the worst pronunciation of that word you have ever heard?”
Diana: “I’m actually I don’t know, because my pronunciation is very strong too. Aa-saa-ee is the rightway to say it.”
Cody: “Very good. Very good.”
Diana: “We also have other superfoods that are a little bit harder. We have Acerola, Graviola, Pitaya, so Açaí is actually the easiest one!”
Cody: “I know how to eat it sometimes I can’t say it.”
Diana: “Today we are celebrating National Açaí Day.”
Cody: ” Okay. You promised to show us a recipe. Can you share that with us?”
Diana: “Yes, so we are going to do our famous Vitality Bowl. That’s the fan favorite. So we start with the VB blend that is a pomegranate juice that we mix with our Aronia, Camu Camu, Moringa, Mangosteen and Açaí. Then we add the frozen Açaí, it is pure Açaí. Then we add frozen bananas, we also add frozen strawberries, and we add a teaspoon of grounded flax seeds to help with your digestion system. Then we blend it, of course we are not going blend now because it will be to strong, so we have one here that is already blended.”
Joan: “Oh that looks good!”
Diana: “So, we take it out. The base you can see it’s a base like a smoothie, but the texture is more like an icecream.”
Cody: “Kinda like a sorbet.”
Diana: “Then, we cover it with organic granola. This is a hint of flax seed granola. Then we add the bananas, so for us it’s kinda easy. Like that really nice.”
Joan: “It’s so pretty, the presentation.”
Diana: “And then fresh strawberries. It is just fresh ingredients, it’s just natural. We don’t add any fillers, no sugar, you don’t need it. No sugar, no ice, no yogurt. We call it like a transparent menu because it’s all-natural.”
Cody: “That is lovely!”
Diana: “We end it up with a drizzle of honey. Just a little drizzle.”
Joan: “Hey, honey.”
Cody: “I need a honey drizzler like that. My life would be a lot better if I had a drizzler like that.”
Joan: “Right?”
Cody: “That is beatiful! Where are you guys located, because we’ll let you make those.”
Diana: “So we are located at the Nut Tree Mall, and we have another franchisee in Roseville, in the Sacramento area. Today is a big day for us, it’s National Açaí Bowl Day, so we are having a big offer, it is our big day. It’s buy one get one, Nutty, Vitality, or Tropical Bowl for free. Yes, it’s our big day, for us it’s a very big day, April 6th is a day for us. I encourage you, or all of your viewers to download our app, our loyalty app. With that, they can get the offer today. They can tell us that they saw us on TV, because it’s supposed to be only for loyalty companies, but today we are offering for everyone to download the app and come to the store and come see us. We re-opened in February of this year, so we are very happy to have everyone back in our store.”
Cody: “Thank you so much for joining us! And I will be visiting the Roseville location.”
From Oliva Adriance, @olivia.adriance: “Vitality Bowls Eugene is celebrating National Açaí Bowl Day tomorrow 4/6 (as if your calendars weren’t already marked ) with a BOGO deal on their bowls!
I get the Detox Bowl with kale, spirulina, and goji berries and Kyle gets the Nutty Bowl with banana and peanut butter – a timeless combination that tastes even better at half price
Stop in tomorrow and bring a buy one to your get one, otherwise known as a friend!”
Vitality Bowls is leading the celebrations for superfood fans across the nation on Tuesday, April 6, otherwise known as National Açaí Bowl Day. To ring in the holiday, Vitality Bowls is offering customers a Buy One, Get One Free deal for açaí bowls on April 6.
To redeem the offer, customers can join the Vitality Bowls Loyalty Program by downloading the Vitality Bowls mobile app, available on the Apple App store and Google Play. Once customers are signed up for the Loyalty Program, they can visit any participating Vitality Bowls location on April 6 to redeem a free medium Nutty Bowl, Tropical Bowl or Vitality Bowl with the purchase of any medium or large açaí bowl.
“We are incredibly excited to host another year of celebrations for National Açaí Bowl Day,” says Tara Gilad, co-founder of Vitality Bowls. “Health and wellness remain top of mind for us all right now, and what better way to promote nutritious foods than with the help of small businesses like Vitality Bowls? Whichever way you choose to participate in National Açaí Bowl day—in store, online or ordering for delivery—we’re eager to share delicious and healthy açaí bowls with communities all over the nation on April 6.”
Adding to the excitement of BOGO bowls, Vitality Bowls will also be giving away more free bowls and goodies on the brand’s Instagram page starting on April 1, leading up to National Açaí Bowl Day. Fans can visit the page daily for details on how to enter to win prizes.
Over the last decade, Northern California-based Vitality Bowls has become a bonafide leader in the health food industry, selling well over 6 million açaí bowls since its inception. The sophisticated, dynamic cafés play perfectly into the unique collection of superfood menu items, all containing extraordinary ingredients packed with antioxidants and high nutritional values.
Vitality Bowls offers made-to-order healthy favorites for every meal of the day. Plus, all açaí bowls and smoothies are prepared without any ingredient fillers like ice, frozen yogurt, or artificial preservatives, giving the purest taste possible.
Guests can choose from a variety of delectable options, such as the Dragon Bowl (featuring pitaya, coconut milk and bananas) and their signature Vitality Bowl (with organic açaí, strawberries and honey). Plus, fresh juices, smoothies, soups, panini and salads are available in each café.
April 05, 2021 // Franchising.com // DANVILLE, Calif. – Vitality Bowls, the pioneer superfood café franchise, is leading the celebrations for superfood fans across the nation on Tuesday, April 6, otherwise known as National Açaí Bowl Day. To ring in the holiday, Vitality Bowls is offering customers a Buy One, Get One Free deal for açaí bowls on April 6.
To redeem the offer, customers can join the Vitality Bowls Loyalty Program by downloading the Vitality Bowls mobile app, available on the Apple App store and Google Play. Once customers are signed up for the Loyalty Program, they can visit any participating Vitality Bowls location on April 6 to redeem a free medium Nutty Bowl, Tropical Bowl or Vitality Bowl with the purchase of any medium or large açaí bowl.
“We are incredibly excited to host another year of celebrations for National Açaí Bowl Day,” said Tara Gilad, co-founder of Vitality Bowls. “Health and wellness remain top of mind for us all right now, and what better way to promote nutritious foods than with the help of small businesses like Vitality Bowls? Whichever way you choose to participate in National Açaí Bowl day – in store, online or ordering for delivery – we’re eager to share delicious and healthy açaí bowls with communities all over the nation on April 6.”
Adding to the excitement of BOGO bowls, Vitality Bowls will also be giving away more free bowls and goodies on the brand’s Instagram page starting on April 1, leading up to National Açaí Bowl Day. Fans can visit the page daily for details on how to enter to win prizes.
Over the last decade, Northern California-based Vitality Bowls has become a bonafide leader in the health food industry, selling well over 6 million açaí bowls since its inception. The sophisticated, dynamic cafés play perfectly into the unique collection of superfood menu items, all containing extraordinary ingredients packed with antioxidants and high nutritional values.
Vitality Bowls offers made-to-order healthy favorites for every meal of the day. Plus, all açaí bowls and smoothies are prepared without any ingredient fillers like ice, frozen yogurt, or artificial preservatives, giving the purest taste possible.
Guests can choose from a variety of delectable options, such as the Dragon Bowl (featuring pitaya, coconut milk and bananas) and their signature Vitality Bowl (with organic açaí, strawberries and honey). Plus, fresh juices, smoothies, soups, panini and salads are available in each café.
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