RAISING CANES CHICKEN FINGERS FRANCHISE IN THE MISSISSIPPI GULF COAST BILOXI AREA

Objective

This Raising Canes Chicken Fingers franchise would strive to fit the hungry needs of the nearby patrons at the targeted area of Biloxi near Biloxi Regional Hospital and Casinos. While doing this Raising Canes would be expected to give superior service to customers, fair prices, and to be involved in the community in a positive way. Providing a fun, exciting, challenging world career with tremendous growth potential to all employees.

Company History

The chicken fingers have been served in the deep south states of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana for many years, but not as the only item on the menu. The founder of the Raising Canes Chicken Fingers, Todd Graves, was a business student at Louisiana State University. During Graves’ college days, he learned how to cook chicken fingers and developed a wonderful sauce to complement the taste (Cater III, J., & Chadwick, Ken). In college course he was told by one of his professors, after submitting his business idea for what would be later be named Raising Canes, he was told that the business proposal would not work and gave him a very low C grade for the class (http://www.rasingcanes.com).

Graves went to financial institutions and other private investors with his business plan. Like his professor, they also told him the plan would not work saying “a restaurant serving only chicken finger meals will never make it” and “You have no prior restaurant experience and no money to invest in the business yourself… it won’t work” (http://www.rasingcanes.com). Graves then began working long hours at jobs where he was a boilermaker and a commercial Alaskan sockeye fisherman. After saving enough money, Graves started his first Raising Canes Chicken Fingers restaurant in 1996 located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, just outside the entrance to the Louisiana State University campus. Graves intended on naming the business sockeye after all the fish he caught in Alaska; but a friend suggested he name the franchise after his beloved yellow lab Raising Cane, it stuck. The Raising Canes logo was an imitation of an old bakery mural logo found painted on a wall while renovating the building. Graves decided to leave the mural visible and untouched on the wall (Cater III, J., & Chadwick, Ken). The first raising cane restaurant is to referred to the as the “Mother Ship” by Graves (http://www.rasingcanes.com).

Graves business plan was simple but unique on the amount of perfection needed to make the product to be a complete success. The menu is streamlined and made up of chicken fingers, Canes sauce, french fries, Texas toast, coleslaw, and beverages. Graves did this by having a single minded perseverance, that is characterized by the Raising Cane‘s motto “ONE LOVE” (Cater III, J., & Chadwick, Ken). Not to “cut corners” or clutter the menu with new products that do not fit the core menu offering. Graves does this by following an intense guideline that their chicken is fresh, never frozen. Raising Canes Chicken fingers has set the standards that are unmatched by any competition in the industry (http://www.rasingcanes.com).

Business Concept

Raising Canes goal is to provide fresh, never frozen chicken, friendly & fast service, and a clean dining environment (http://www.rasingcanes.com).

Business Cost

The total start-up investment cost of the business would be approximately $2.5 million dollars in initial funds. The cost of land would be approximately $1 million dollars. This cost of land price is comparable to other Raising Canes around the country. There are several different locations that could be utilized in the area. The size of land increases the further north the location is from the Gulf Coast. This would provide many options to make the owner and franchisors content. The cost of construction would be approximately $1 million dollars with four layouts to chose from. The cost for all the materials and equipment inside the business would be approximately $500,000 dollars. The franchise fee is $45,000 dollars and five percent of total profit of sales from the business (Tuennerman. P, October 13, 2011). The normal cost to train someone effectively is approximately $1,500 dollars. If a poor job is done on the training of management and employees, time and money will be wasted training others (Olds. A, October 11, 2011)

Business Location

The location for a Raising Canes is critical to the financial success of the franchise. Being near a highly traveled roadway and having easy access to that roadway is necessary. The business being visible from highly traveled roadways is also preferred. Several other Raising Canes franchises have decided to also build near major Universities attracting hungry students to their location (http://www.rasingcanes.com). The Mississippi Gulf Coast area lacks large college universities, making that not a option. The location that suites this is the Biloxi area near Biloxi Regional hospital and casinos. The roadway of choice would be Caillavet Street north of Highway 90 and south of Bayview Avenue which encompasses most of Caillavet Street. This location provides no direct competitors in the near by area. Raising Canes franchise is very adamant about not placing a new location near a direct competitor (Olds. A, October 11, 2011). The pros to the area of choice is the expectation that many hungry travelers frequent this area. It is located near a major interstate and along the Gulf Coast beaches. Surrounded by many casinos and local business, it may open opportunity for those individuals to enjoy a fresh, never frozen meal, quickly. Biloxi Regional Medical Center may also provide a large amount of customers. Employees who are tiresome of the food provided at the hospital will be an easy market. The guests who are visiting loved ones may also want to get away from the environment of the hospital and enjoy a quickly prepared meal and to sit and talk with their group. The surrounding area provides minimum competition versus our quality fast food concept, leaving a strong portion of the market left to target.

Casino guest who are visiting the area who feel limited to the high cost and low in quality food choices would also provide a great market. Guests who don’t want to eat at a buffet style dining or a high class dining experience and want a good meal would be targeted. During the day the meals at the casino change frequently we would provide a constant service ready when they see fit. Sunday through Thursday most of the surrounding casino close early. The casinos limit their choices and continue with the high cost foods. The surrounding area provides very limited late night dining options. This will provide a time to stay open late to be able lure those customers into our doors and make them life long customers.

There are residents that frequent the area to travel to everyday locations. A digital sign is needed to be able to easily be read from the roadway by passing customers. The digital sign can be used to update the public on what we are doing inside the four walls of the business and outside. The sign should not be distracting to the passers bys.

The Product

The secret behind Graves business plan is a simple focused goal on a perfected food product. The product is directed towards a customer who will pay a slight increase in cost for food to receive great quality fast food. The chicken is purchased from Tyson’s Chicken Company and is delivered fresh three days a week. The bread is delivered by Flower Food Company five days a week and cooked fresh daily and brushed with butter (Olds. A, October 11, 2011). The Canes sauce is a secret recipe that Graves came up with while attending college and he does not want the recipe made public. The secret sauce is what helps drive customers into the doors of Raising Canes, its unique flavor and quality is not matched at any other fast food level (http://www.rasingcanes.com). The cooking oil for the chicken fingers is a soybean and canola mix. Canes soybean and canola mix oil is a healthy choice. Cane will not use any types of peanut oils to ensure people with an allergy to peanuts are not effected. This oil is changes twice daily to ensure quality of taste (Olds. A, October 11, 2011).

The Canes “One Love” attitude toward cooking great chicken fingers and its pleasant atmosphere is a product of its own. To speed up services, the cook keeps a close eye on every guest that enters the door of the restaurant. Each time a guest enters the cook immediately drops chicken fingers in the fryer to be cooked. Attention to detail does not stop at the food. Cane restaurants are employed with an upbeat crew who have fun at what they do during work hours. The standards for the working area and dining atmosphere is attempted to be done at an above standards level (Olds. A, October 11, 2011).

With all of the combos consisting of at least chicken fingers this is an effective but simple way to produce fresh chicken finger meals and a continued quick service. The simple menu consist of five main ingredients. The simplicity of the menu is hard to match by any other contending fast food restaurants. Those that do contend with the simplicity of the product cannot match the quality. This provides a enormous advantage to attract consumers (http://www.rasingcanes.com).

The Menu

The Raising Canes menu consists of five combo meals and a child combo:

Childs Combo (with two chicken fingers, french fries, one Canes sauce, 12oz drink, and a prize),
3 Finger Combo (three chicken fingers, french fries, 1 Canes sauce, Texas toast, and a regular 21oz drink ),
The Box Combo (four chicken fingers, french fries, coleslaw, 2 Canes sauce, Texas toast, and regular 21oz drink ),
The Caniac combo (six chicken fingers, french fries, coleslaw, two Canes sauce, Texas toast, and a large 32oz drink)
The Sandwich (three chicken fingers, Canes sauce, lettuce, Kaiser roll, french fries, and regular 21oz drink ).
Tailgate Boxes with 25, 50, 75, and 100 chickens fingers boxes with Cane Sauce
Coca-Cola fountain drink beverages are offered in three sizes along with, ice tea, and seasonal fresh lemonade.
There are T-shirts and Base Ball hats in a variety of colors for sale for the “Caniac” (http://www.rasingcanes.com).

Dining Atmosphere

Managements desire to create a fun work environment for their employees to work and for them to be able to feel passionate at what they are doing. In tradition with Louisiana Mardi Gras tradition, employees at Raising Canes are called crew members. Crew members are trained to treat the customers courteously in a party like atmosphere. With the origins of Raising Cane coming from a college town it specializes in late night dining (Cater III, J., & Chadwick, Ken). A large padded sectional seating area is commonly placed in front of the counter where orders are taken. This provides a place for people to relax and socialize while waiting on their food. The walls of the restaurant are covered with Raising Canes related articles, posters related to the surrounding area, and new and old memorabilia. Guest are greeted while entering the door with a polite shut from employees “Hi welcome to Raising Canes” (Olds. A, October 11, 2011).

Interaction with the Community

Raising Canes believes that the way the business should interact with the community is in a positive way. Each franchise is required to donate at least 1.5 percent of its gross sales to charitable cause in the community. Raising Canes only donates to no kill animal shelters due to the company’s logo close connection with animals. All of the donations are carefully analyzed to ensure there are no obvious conflicts with the community. Raising Canes has donated large sums of money to several places to help for or start a dog park in their communities. Coat and food drives are located at Raising Canes restaurants for the Community. Select nights are scheduled for local schools to raise money by every person who mentions that schools name a percent of that sale goes directly to that school as a donation.

After hurricane Katrina Raising Canes was the first new construction in the New Orleans area after Hurricane Katrina (Cater III, J., & Chadwick, Ken). This store had great success after opening and filled the nearby parking lots with customers. This brought the areas businesses hope continuing business. Raising Canes cares about its community and will not hesitate to shut down its store so its employee have sufficient time to evacuate the area (Cater III, J., & Chadwick, Ken).

A new way of giving back to the community would be a summer reading program for children. This would ensure that students continued the education process through out the summer. Each student that visits Raising Canes would be given a form to take home. On this form children would need to name ten books that they have read during the summer break. Once the form is completely filled out and a parents signature is present, the child would then receive a free meal. This would be done for children kindergarten to 12th grade and would begin the day school ends through the first day of the following school year

Another way of giving back would be involving the local soup kitchens. Three times a year Raising Canes would donate a meal to a local soup kitchen that feeds the homeless or needy families and individuals on the coast.

Marketing

The general manager is the primary person responsible in providing the correct marketing for the Raising Canes brand. Advertising billboards are commonly used with a picture of the local general mangers on the billboard promoting the brand. Fundraisers with schools are often scheduled on slower business days and for every person who mentions that schools name 15 percent of that sale goes directly to that school fundraiser. School sporting events are targeted, if the sporting event admission ticket is present a special offer is awarded to that customer. A similar strategy is done at Mississippi Surge games awarding the fan for attending the games. A prize package is given to the players of the week at the local high school football team. A shirt with the Raising Canes logo on it given to the player to wear at school and around town with player of the week on it. A hero discount is given to all uniform diners or our military or any type of first responder. All of these marketing ideas are done at low cost to the company but very affective at sending a positive message about the business (Olds. A, October 11, 2011).

The first months of the companies opening is referred to as the honeymoon period for a store. During this time its very important to take advantage of the influx of customers trying the product. The Raising Canes brand recognition is not 100 percent known for great service, but has to be done to encourage repeat customers. Advertising will be done by putting coupons in local newspapers to drive people through the door to take advantage of the grand opening discount (Olds. A, October 11, 2011). While customers are in the business make them more aware of the Canes loyalty programs such as Canes Challenges, Canaic Club, Football Frenzy, Superbowl giveaways and many more.

Proposal Of Simple Additions To Company

A few simple ideas to add to this Raising Canes Chicken Fingers restaurant to meet the needs of the local customers. The simple menu does not provide any deserts to be purchased, leaving customers to go elsewhere to fulfill that want. Selling hand scooped ice cream, which would be built into part of the counter where orders are taken. This would be an ideal location for the ice cream to be viewable by all customers. The frozen yogurt would offer a healthier option for the customer to have for dessert. Both of these are a low cost expense to the franchise. The hot summers on the Biloxi Gulf Coast will encourage customers to purchase the cold desserts. Warm brownies, apple pie, and cherry pie can be sold to go along with the ice cream or frozen yogurt.

Several fast food competitors in the surrounding are have several free activities inside their restaurant to entertain children during a families dining experience. To attract customers who want their children to have a fun meal, this would be helpful advantage. A clean and safe play area is essential for the idea to work. Plastic slides and a fun play area or different free video games for the children to choose from. This will open up the possibility of families becoming repeat customers. It would also encourage the children, twelve and under, to ask adults to dine at a Raising Canes.

Providing a delivery option to businesses and residences in the surrounding area could prove to be profitable. A flat rate delivery charge could be added to each order and if the order amount is high enough for that delivery the delivery rate can be deducted. The guests at the nearby casinos who are unable or don’t want to leave the casino would provide a large market for delivery. The employees and guests at the Biloxi Regional Hospital who are unable to leave. Deliver to residential areas would be possible, but the range would have to be limited. Advertising catering prices to business and group events would provide large profits. This will also provide a way to make contact with some customers that are not familiar with our brand name. This would allow us to employ additional crew members and allow the deliverers to make tip income incentives. Raising Canes does not want to put any crew member in danger therefore strict policies would have to be introduced. No more than twenty five dollars on their person would be allowed. Deliveries to residences would be possible, but deliveries may take place only to businesses or casino due to safety of the delivery person.

Summary

Thank you for allowing me this chance to provide you this Proposal. I am confident that a Raising Canes Chicken Fingers would be very profitable in the Biloxi Gulf Coast area. The location of the business is key to the amount of profit to business makes. This selected area provides a wide range to different customers and what makes this franchise so special it ability fulfill all there wants.

The surrounding area provides very limited to completion by plenty of traffic flow.
The fresh quality fast food from Raising Canes will be to hard match by competitors. With all of these advantages I feel the start of a Raising Canes Chicken Fingers at this location would be very low risk.

References

Todd Graves Chicken Fingers. Retrieved October 11 2011, from http://www.raisingcanes.com

Cater III, J., & Chadwick, Ken. After Hurricane Katrina: A Conversation with Todd Graves of Raising Canes Chicken Fingers, allBusiness. Retrieved November 3, 2011, from http://www.allbusiness.com/education-training/education-systems-institutions/13482294-1.html (A. Olds, personal communication, October 11, 2011)

(P. Tuennerman, personal communication, October 13, 2009)

Executive Summary

The attached proposal is a recommendations for opening a Raising Cane Chicken Fingers franchise in the Biloxi Gulf Coast area on Caillavet Street.

The number resources used in preparing this proposal were hard to find and limited. Interviews with businesspersons from Raising Canes were vital for the information in this proposal.

The Biloxi Gulf Coast area provides a great setting for Raising Canes Chicken Fingers. Raising Canes simplicity in its products make it a great fit for the wide range of cultures that pass through the area. The lack of competition in the area will make it easy for the brand name of Raising Canes to spread through the area.

This proposal will provide you with the details on why a Raising Canes Chicken Fingers would be a profitable success at this location.