This is not a drill.
Supermac’s has become an integral part of Irish life, whether it’s a quick pit stop after a football game for post-match analysis or reconnecting with your friends on a night out, friends whom you had lost just three hours previous in the nightclub.
The glorious chips that we have come to know and love (and devour at an incredibly quick rate) from the famous Irish food chain are under the microscope and founder, Pat McDonagh, thinks now is the perfect time to change his chips.
Speaking to Nick Webb on this week’s edition of JOE’s business podcast, The Capital B, McDonagh admitted that the famous chip is being revamped and will copy the same style as other Supermac’s food.
“What we have done, we have gone down the fresh route on the meats and on the chicken and we will be going the fresh route on the chips in the not so distant future. That’s what people want,” McDonagh said.
The change from frozen chips to live potato peeling will not take place in every restaurant immediately but McDonagh states that they will taste better.
“You can’t beat anything that’s fresh,” McDonagh added.
“The chicken breast sandwich tastes so good because it’s a fresh product. Anything that you freeze loses some of its quality.
“Likewise with the fresh meats, there’s a better taste, better flavour, it’s better quality across the board, and we know this because we’re selling more of them.”
Telling the tale of Supermac’s huge success over the years, Nick Webb tells listeners that “the former school teacher and Gaelic footballer hadn’t enough money to set up a nightclub in his local town of Ballinasloe, so he opened a burger joint instead”.
That burger joint in the small town has expanded into a €120m a year business with 107 outlets in total. The shop in Ballinasloe was opened prior to the big annual horse fair and the next shop in Eyre Square opened its doors before race week. McDonagh believes that timing can be key.
“It’s always important to open, if it’s a business like that, at a reasonably busy time,” he said.
“So that it gives you confidence that the business works. It creates a bit of a talking factor.”
McDonagh admitted that curry chips and garlic chips are some late night sellers that wouldn’t sell as well during the day, adding that “people forget about their diets after a night out.”
On this week’s The Capital B podcast, presenter Nick Webb was joined in the studio by Dave O’Donoghue, CEO of healthy fast food restaurant Freshii and Liam Keenan, general manager of food delivery service, Deliveroo.
O’Donoghue and Keenan opened the show by talking about the fast food culture in Ireland and why it is so prominent. The pair explained that people are used to getting things on demand and that a world filled with fast downloads and fast content was being equally matched by fast food.
“Young people are all about fuel and energy and food is part of their capability to get through the day” said O’ Donoghue.
Keenan added: “It is very much a young person culture. They are used to Spotify, Netflix and podcasts on demand, so they want their food on demand also.
“People have less time, they are busy. If there’s a quicker option, they will take it.”
You can listen to the full interview with Pat McDonagh from 3.46 onwards below.
https://soundcloud.com/thecapitalbjoe/episode-14-the-fast-food-revolution-what-happens-when-we-want-our-food-faster-than-our-downloads
