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COVER STORY
www.foodserviceequipmentjournal.com22 | Foodservice Equipment Journal | August 2015
he Spur Corporation
certainly doesn’t lack pedigree.
Founded in 1967 when execu-
tive chairman Allen Ambor
opened the first Spur Steak
Ranches outlet in Cape Town, South Africa, the
business has mushroomed into a formidable
player on the international foodservice circuit.
Consisting of half a dozen restaurant brands
that between them account for more than
500 outlets globally, the group’s last available
financial figures reveal a business with sales up
12% to R3.2 billion (£165m) for the six months
ending December 2014. 19 new restaurants
opened during that period while dozens more
are planned both at home and abroad as the
chain looks to enhance its position in markets
where it spies room for further growth.
Spur restaurants are dotted all around Africa
and have spread to Mauritius, Australia and,
of course, the UK where it has existing outlets
in Aberdeen, Grays, Leicester, Staines and The
02 Arena. Yet while the UK casual dining and
eating-out market has skyrocketed in recent
years, leading many of its rivals to embark on
huge roll-out programmes, the group has been
left frustrated by its own position.
With its sites typically spanning up to
4,000 square feet and attracting the sort of
lofty occupancy, labour and service costs
you might expect of a footprint that size,
Spur has struggled to trade up against
other high street brands that have
crossed its path. Last year
it conceded that the
high set-up cost of
opening a full Spur Steak Ranch in the UK was
proving to be a “significant obstacle” to pursuing
the franchise model it is ultimately gunning for.
But it might just have found a way out of that
rut courtesy of a new high street model it has
created called ‘Spur RBW’. It holds the key to
turning around the company’s fortunes in the
UK and elevating the status of the brand to a
level that has previously proved out of reach.
Designed as a smaller, counter-service
concept that essentially offers ribs, burgers
and wings (hence the ‘RBW’ name), the model
allows for lower set-up costs, more manageable
occupancy costs and reduced labour provisions.
The man charged with executing this strategy
and all that comes with it is David Maich. While
he goes by the title of ‘director’, Maich effec-
tively oversees every element of the business,
from the flow of the kitchens and the purchas-
ing of new catering equipment to the develop-
ment of the menu and the interior design.
When FEJ catches up with him during lunch
service at the company’s restaurant in Corby —
the first new RBW site to open and very much
a test bed for the model overall — he is under-
standably excited about its prospects and the
ways in which it differs from the larger
Spur sites that UK customers have
only known up to now.
“Our existing brand coming from
South Africa was more of a copy
and paste, and to a certain extent
that hasn’t translated as well as
we would have expected. So
rather than rebrand the ex-
isting base we are looking
Spurred into action
As the company behind the Spur Steak and Grill outlets refreshes its UK store strategy with a smaller, counter-service, high street model, FEJ
editor Andrew Seymour finds out why it is turning its back on flame-heavy, gas-guzzling chargrills and pioneering a fully ventless kitchen
set-up built around the latest innovation in impinged air cooking.
T
Inside
RBW’s
new Corby
restaurant
and
(below)
David
Maich.
COVER STORY
www.foodserviceequipmentjournal.com August 2015 | Foodservice Equipment Journal | 23
“The Ovention runs either on con-
veyor or shuttle mode and guarantees
a consistent product,” explains Maich.
“We have inputted all our recipes,
belt speeds and temperatures so that
our core product will be consistent
throughout the estate, and we feel that
is the way forward. Innovation in the
kitchen assists with labour, it assists
with consistency and it ensures us of
delivering that experience every time.”
Maich came across Ovention by ac-
cident. He was at a trade show check-
ing out combination ovens when a
conversation led to him hearing about
the appliance. When he got the chance
to see it firsthand through the product’s
UK distributor Gamble Foodservice So-
lutions he could immediately see how it
would fit with RBW’s new vision.
“Obviously coming from a flame-
grilled background, it is a difficult
transition to move away from that
approach where you are transferring
that chargrilled flavour on the grill
and getting the grid lines, but what we
have found more often than not is that
there is a fine line between taking your
product to a ‘well done’ state as opposed
to ‘well prepared’. That inconsistency is
what we have tried to cut out.
He continues: “We have designed
a new burger, we have a high spec rib
that we pre-cook from scratch and
marinade for 24 hours, and we have
ring-fenced a specific prime wing,
which is 45 grams per, and that is
standard throughout our estate. All of
these changes are guaranteeing us the
delivery of a great product.”
forward to rolling out RBW to a critical
mass of 35 sites,” he explains, revealing
that his targets moving forward include
the launch of four sites a year until a
core mass of eight sites is reached, at
which point it will then explore the
viability of franchising and run both
revenue streams in tandem.
While the contemporary décor,
carefully-constructed menu and
rapid service policy are likely to strike
a favourable chord with time-strapped,
hungry punters, it is the work that has
taken place back-of-house that best
illustrates the brave new direction the
chain is taking. At the heart of the set-
up is a fully ventless kitchen operation
that powers along without the noise,
odour and extraction issues normally
associated with the fast-casual market.
This has largely been achieved
through the deployment of two preci-
sion impingement conveyor ovens from
Ovention, the US-based company set up
by Phil McKee, inventor of the Turbo-
Chef oven, and now owned by foodser-
vice equipment manufacturer Hatco.
OUR EXISTING BRAND COMING FROM SOUTH AFRICA WAS MORE OF A COPY
AND PASTE, AND TO A CERTAIN EXTENT THAT HASN’T TRANSLATED AS WELL AS WE WOULD HAVE EXPECTED”
COVER STORY
www.foodserviceequipmentjournal.com24 | Foodservice Equipment Journal | August 2015
Maich admits it was a “massive
step” to put his faith in a product and
method of cooking that the chain
hadn’t previously encountered. “It
is nerve-wracking because you can
do as many trial product tests in a
controlled environment as you like,
but when you get a queue out the door
and you have to produce the goods it
puts a lot of pressure on the equipment
that you have effectively endorsed. We
have innovation as far as busy periods
and quiet periods go to ensure that the
product is maintained, and we feel that
it has served us well so far.”
Getting to this point in the first place
was the culmination of an eight-month
test period that saw an Ovention Shut-
tle installed at Spur’s existing site at the
02 Arena. Maich scrutinised how the
impingement process affected product
pre-cooked in a combi and the way in
which hot-hold equipment could be
best utilised. The tests also included
comprehensive product plate-up and
speccing through to how the end-
product would be served. The result is
that virtually the entire menu is built
around the Ovention.
“There is a lot that goes through it —
caramelised onions, bacon, hot dogs,
we even cook our cheesecake in it,” says
Maich. “There is a lot you can do with it
if you get the right programme, you just
have to spend a bit of time with it.”
The Corby site has space for around
90 covers so the secret to the kitchen
running smoothly during service is
all in the prep work. “As long as your
pre-cooking is done, you are limit-
less to what you can serve through the
Ovention,” comments Maich. “Yes, we
have paid a ball park of X amount per
week for that Ovention to cover — that
is why we have got a second one above
it, because it offers a buffer just in case
— but we will do most of our bespoke
products on Shuttle mode upstairs and
the chicken and the ribs downstairs.”
RBW’s next planned site is in Glas-
gow later this year and Ovention is on
the kitchen agenda. However, Maich
SOUS VIDE UNDER THE MICROSCOPE
WE HAVE INPUTTED ALL OUR RECIPES, BELT SPEEDS AND TEMPERATURES
SO THAT OUR CORE PRODUCT WILL BE CONSISTENT THROUGHOUT THE ESTATE, AND WE FEEL THAT IS THE WAY FORWARD”
Spur Corporation has gone back to the drawing board in creating a kitchen packed full of foodservice equiment innovation for the launch of its RBW high street concept.
But it has no intention of resting on its laurels. UK director David Maich’s next big catering equipment project involves examining the feasibility of introducing sous vide into the kitchen’s operational methods.
EHO regulations dictate that burgers are not allowed to be served under 75°C, which renders medium or medium-rare for a mince product totally out of the question. But using the sous vide process to kill the bacteria before it is put through the Ovention would allow RBW the novelty of being able to
offer a medium-rare burger without contravening food safety guidelines. With burgers representing around 30% to 40% of its sales mix, it is an opportunity too good not to explore.
Additionally, sous vide could have implications for the way it produces ribs. At the moment RBW follows on an hour-long steaming process, assisted by convection, to get the product to the right state before the marinade is applied. The next day the ribs are re-gened for 10 minutes on 100% steam to get up to temperature, held in warmers and cooked in the Ovention to order. However, the addition of sous vide potentially alters the game.
Maich explains: “If we pre-cook ribs and it is a sous vide product we can cook the marinade in there and it will fuse with the meat so that the meat tastes amazing. We can lightly crisp it up through the Ovention and when it is dipped in basting sauce it literally falls off the bone. What you don’t want is this ‘boil in the bag’ situation where the bones almost disintegrate into your mouth — that is not what we are looking at, we are looking at a proper rack of ribs where sous vide is used to inject the marinade and to increase the flavour of the product. It is not in place yet, but it is something that we are investigating. We have sent our core products to a company to test for us and I am going along to do a workshop with them later this month.”
COVER STORY
www.foodserviceequipmentjournal.com August 2015 | Foodservice Equipment Journal | 25
stresses that the technology in opera-
tion at the maiden Corby site is still
very much under review. “I am not say-
ing I will not go gas moving forward, it
depends if I find a site that has an exist-
ing infrastructure, like a restaurant that
is maybe distressed. If it has gas supply
and I take over that infrastructure
then we will adapt the model accord-
ingly. But ideally this ventless model
is cleaner and the catalytic converter
above the Ovention is doing its job very
well. It is still early days, we are going to
take the first three months and see how
it is and then make the call on what we
are doing in Glasgow.”
The evidence certainly suggests the
model is conducive to future expansion
and without the need for extraction
canopies and gas appliances the chain
is theoretically better placed to navigate
the sort of red tape associated with
installing commercial kitchens in A1
premises. It also opens it up to airport
sites, while the savings associated with
running the kitchen at a lower tem-
perature and reduced fire and safety re-
quirements bring obvious cost benefits.
RBW’s kitchen in Corby is relatively
small for the level of output it expects
to do, but the selection and placement
of equipment is designed to ensure the
operation functions seamlessly at even
the busiest of times. Other products
that the company has deployed include
a combi steamer from Falcon, a Lincat
triple basket fryer with built-in Britan-
nia ventilation, Hatco holding units,
Alto-Shaam heated drawer warmers
and Foster refrigeration cabinets. The
company has also moved some items of
equipment across from other sites.
The only thing that Maich wishes
was better is the scullery section as its
size has proved prohibitive in terms of
managing the flow of dirties. However,
that is being fixed and will be a factor
that is taken into full consideration for
future restaurant openings.
Most significantly, though, the bill
for putting together the kitchen is
dramatically less than what it would be
for a traditionally-sized site, thereby
complementing the lower-cost operat-
ing model that is so intrinsic to the new
strategy. Past UK kitchen installations
have been known to cost as much as
£150,000. The kitchen in Corby was cre-
ated for around £50,000.
If the company can achieve an ROI
on its set-up costs within 18 months and
create a practical template for future
openings then it is adamant the model
will become a viable franchise option.
It is already in talks with one poten-
tial franchisee in Kent, but first it has
to make Corby and the next few sites
work. As well as Glasgow it is eyeing up
locations in Edinburgh, Dundee and
Manchester, while Maich is keen on
the idea of opening in Northampton,
Cambridge and Milton Keynes to create
an ‘M1 corridor’ that would bring huge
benefits from an operational and brand
association point of view.
Spur has undergone some monumen-
tal changes in the four years that Maich
has been with the UK business, but with
Corby now up and trading the chain has
got the bit firmly between its teeth.
“I have been driving this for a long
time, since I have arrived really, and it is
finally here, so I am really excited about
it and we definitely think it has legs. We
are certainly happy with the reception
we have got from customers so far.”
The Spur Corporation might be an
old hand at the restaurant game, but
this latest venture represents the start
of a thrilling new journey in the UK.
RBW’s Corby kitchen is set
to serve as a template for
future store roll-outs. Spur (SA) 72%
Panarottis (SA) 8%
John Dory’s 5%
Captain DoRegos (SA) 3%
Hussar Grill 1%
International 11%
SPUR CORPORATION RESTAURANT SALES
A sample of what you can find on RBW’s menu:
RBW Classic burger 7oz prime beef, with baby gem lettuce, tomato, red onion, pickles and RBW mayo (£5.95)
Smoked burger 7oz prime beef with smoked Applewood cheddar, smoked bacon and chipotle mayo (£7.50)
9oz ribs With bourbon apple sour glaze (£4.95)
35oz ribs With St. Louis dry rub (£16.95)
8 chicken wings With ‘suicide’ sauce (£6.95)
Slumdog gourmet hot dogSmoked dog, curry sauce, coriander and coconut yoghurt (£7.95)
Cheescake in a jar Digestive biscuit base topped with home-made smooth vanilla panna cotta cheesecake. Served in a jar with strawberry compote (£4.95)
FROM THE MENU
Source: Spur Corporation Annual Report 2014