From restaurant tables supermarket shelves: Supply chain and
partner-driven menu innovation at Hooters
Joel Pounds, Vice President of Supply Chain at Hooters on the partner ecosystem and supply chain strategy behind releasing an exciting new product line in US supermarkets.
tables to Hooters
Hooters of America, LLC (Hooters),
is the franchisor and operator of more than 367 Hooters restaurants in 36 US states and 18 countries globally.
Known for its world-famous Hooters Style chicken wings, the first Hooters opened its doors in 1983 in Clearwater, Florida.
Expectations were so modest at the time that the simple fact the doors opened was deemed worthy of a toast. Since then, millions have been liberated from the ordinary at Hooters while enjoying great food, fun and one-of-akind hospitality that can only be served up by the Hooters Girls.
Last month, Hooters embarked on an exciting new journey – taking an array of its beloved menu items and offering them for sale in supermarkets across the US. Here to tell us more about the partnership and supply chain strategies at the company and behind the release of the new products is Joel Pounds, Vice President of Supply Chain at Hooters.
Joel has been in the Hooters system for 23 years, working across all the supply chain and distribution aspects of the company.
Setting the scene for the release of guests’ favourite menu items in US supermarkets, Joel rewinds to the challenging circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic where the early inspiration for the project emerged.
“I think you have to look back to COVID-19, when people weren't able to get out of their homes, lacked the opportunity to have food delivered or couldn't go pick it up at Hooters,” explains Joel. “So we started brainstorming ideas for how we could share our great Hooters products, wings and appetisers with people who may not be able to go to our restaurants or receive them via delivery services.
“Through our brainstorming, we came up with the idea of exploring how we might offer some of our menu items in retailers. Keep in mind we've had certain products in retailers for years now – for example, some of our sauces and seasonings. But we wanted to offer a complete package.
“Nowadays, with the array of culinary options made possible by modern domestic kitchen appliances, you can have the same great products at home that you could in a restaurant. This realisation led the charge for our new product range.”
Joel describes the array of Hooters menu items now available to customers in their weekly grocery shop: “So along with being able to get our iconic wings, great burgers, delicious seafood and amazing appetisers, in our restaurants or ordered online delivered to your door – now we present customers the opportunity to enjoy some of our most popular menu items at home, by purchasing them in supermarkets.
“We partnered with Golden West Food Group out of California to make the products and they're using all Hootersspec items. They have products shipped from all of our vendors. It's exactly what you would get in our restaurants. We launched them in June at Publix Super Markets, which has almost 1,400 locations in the south-east US. From here, we will be going after other grocery chains as well in the near future.”
With the rollout of the new products underway, Joel emphasises the benefits of having an established, prominent brand behind the project.
“So the good thing about Hooters is it's an iconic brand,” says Joel. “Wherever you go in the world, everybody knows us. We’re famous for great wings, allaccess sports, a terrific hospitality
“In terms of a highly partner, we have a terrific Ferraro Foods who we north-eastern region
experience and of course the Hooters Girls. If you head into a supermarket, wander into the frozen food section and clock that unmistakable orange, the products will leap out at you. That brand awareness and the guests’ association with what we stand for are crucial to these new products.”
Both supply chain optimisation and a robust partnership ecosystem have been crucial to planning, developing and executing Hooters’ new supermarket product line. Joel explains how both these dynamics go hand in hand at the company.
“In my 23 years at Hooters, we've been able to build incredible partnerships
regarded distributor terrific relationship with we work with in the region of the US”
with all of our suppliers and distributors, to the point where they've gone beyond being partners – they’ve become friends and family,” says Joel. “Building strong relationships with all our partners has enabled us to go out and source the best products, ensuring that we maintain the highest specs in our restaurants and now on supermarket shelves.”
Here, quality assurance is of fundamental importance to Hooters.
“We have labs where we consistently test all of our products,” explains Joel. “We conduct regular inspections at all these labs. We also inspect all our vendor partners – arranging third-party
audits to make sure they're up to our standards. And by doing so, we've been able to secure all these top-ofthe-range products and share them globally with all of our franchisees, retail partners, other partners such as government food groups, and now out into the supermarkets as well.”
Emphasising the importance of these lab-based procedures, Joel adds that a crucial component within these internal and external quality assurance checks is ensuring products meet sustainability standards too.
“As far as being sustainable goes, our products are always meeting top-level specifications and we're never cutting any corners,” insists Joel. “Sustainability is of paramount importance to us – we see it as an obligation to be responsible as a company. For instance, right now we're looking at our suppliers of chicken wings for 2025. Who will we get them from? What volumes are we going to allow? Because it shifts every year based on bird size. We strive towards sustainability by working closely with our partners and treating them as friends and family, rather than just business associates.”
According to Joel, Hooters’ robust partnership ecosystem is essential to the company’s supply chain and entire operational success.
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, many restaurant companies out there were closing because they were unable to serve all of their products,” recalls Joel. “Because of our terrific partnership
Serving Success with Authentic Italian Excellence and Family Values
Unmatched Excellence: Top-Tier Logistics Solutions
Extensive Coverage
Serving a wide geographic area to meet diverse customer needs.
Temperature-Controlled Units
Ensuring product freshness and quality during transit.
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Advanced GPS systems for accurate delivery status updates.
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125
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With almost 1 million square feet of warehouse space across our eight locations on the East Coast and Indiana, Ferraro Foods offers expansive storage capacity to accommodate a diverse range of products. Our strategically located facilities are positioned to efficiently serve a broad customer base, utilising advanced inventory management systems for optimal stock control. Temperature-controlled environments ensure product quality, while rapid distribution capabilities facilitate quick and efficient order fulfillment. Our scalable operations are designed to meet the growing demands of our customers, with top-tier security measures in place to protect inventory. Managed by skilled professionals, our warehouses embody excellence in logistics.
ecosystem, Hooters never ran out of any products. We stayed consistent. Our close partner relationships and the innovation embedded at the core of our systems, allowed us to track inventory, keep up with our partners and distributors, see what they have –anticipating and adapting if they were going to run short.”
Broadly speaking, Joel divides the Hooters partnership ecosystem into two main categories.
“Here at Hooters, there are two main types of partners: suppliers and distributors,” summarises Joel. “One example of a valued supplier partner is Pacific Coral. They're our largest seafood supplier. They sort our shrimp, fish sandwiches and our fish and chips. They consistently come to us with new menu innovations, making sure the specifications are 100% where we want them to be, or suggesting new specs if it makes sense. If prices escalate,
they bring us alternative options. They always have ideas for us to reinvigorate and innovate our menu and they are absolutely solid when it comes to consistently delivering the products that we order. In my 23 years at Hooters, we've never been short of seafood from Pacific Coral – they always take care of us.
“In terms of a highly regarded distributor partner, we have a terrific relationship with Ferraro Foods who we work with in the north-eastern region of the US. Even when we've had bad weather up there, Ferraro Foods has always delivered to our restaurants: ensuring driver safety and partner safety first and foremost, of course. But they consistently deliver everything we need, when we need it. If there's ever a time when they feel they might run short, they call us, let us know and present us their recovery plan to make sure we receive our orders before the day is out.”
“In my 23 years at Hooters, we've never been short of seafood from Pacific Coral –they always take care of us”
But Joel describes how Hooters’ partnerships extend beyond supply and distribution into the realm of innovating the company’s products and menus.
“We always try to involve our partners in collaborative menu development,” says Joel. “We have what's called a Product Development Committee (PDC), where we invite our partners’ chefs to come in and ideate on Hooters-specific items that fit our wheelhouse. We welcome them to our kitchen here in the Restaurant Support Centre or we can go to a Hooters location and meet them. Pacific Coral, for instance, came up with a shrimp and spinach salad limited time offer for us over the past few years. They also created a hoagie for us, what’s called a po-boy.
“We offer three main desserts that we've had on our menu close to 40 years now. But we just launched another one, which is funnel fries. These are based on carnival funnel cakes, but with a fries twist, to create a shareable dessert. We offered them
as a limited time offer but they took off so well that we added them to our current menu.
“We consistently turn to our partners for menu innovation, through their chefs and fresh ideation, to help us grow our offering to guests.”
So what does the future hold at Hooters for the rest of 2024 and beyond?
According to Joel, expansion is key.
“We are always eager to expand our presence, and we recently opened a restaurant in Corpus Christi, Texas,” shares Joel. “We're consistently looking at new places to open restaurants, while also growing our franchise partners in fresh locations. Whether it's globally or domestically, we are always looking for great new partners for franchises and ideal locations to open new venues.”
Wrapping up our conversation and reflecting on his 23 years at Hooters, Joel celebrates the culture and community contribution at the core of the company.
“As our CEO Sal Melilli puts it, Hooters is in the people business,” says Joel. “You can go to other restaurants, have dinner and break bread – but our philosophy goes far beyond this. Approaching our enterprise as a people business starts not only with taking care of our guests, but also looking after all our people: front and back of house in the restaurants, but also behind the scenes supporting the whole organisation.”
Joel explains how serving the community is closely connected to the concept of being in the people business at Hooters.
“We feel it's our duty to give back to our communities,” says Joel. “In the
first four months of 2024, we donated over 40,000lbs of food which has been translated into 33,000 meals distributed at local food banks.
“Hooters, with the generous support of its restaurant staff teams and guests during the annual ‘Give a Hoot’ fundraising campaign in October, successfully raised $786,000 in 2023 in support of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, bringing the grand total raised by the campaign to an impressive $9.4m. The efforts culminated in a presentation of funds to the V Foundation for Cancer Research during the 2023 Men’s Jimmy V Basketball Classic at Madison Square Garden in New York City on December 5, 2023.
“For over nine years (this October will be the tenth year), the annual Give A Hoot campaign has directly benefitted the V Foundation for Cancer Research, one of the nation’s leading cancer research funding organisations, as well as other local beneficiaries through the Kelly Jo Dowd Breast Cancer Research Fund. Part of the Hooters Community Endowment Fund (HOO.C.E.F.), the Kelly Jo Dowd Breast Cancer Research Fund was established in honour of the late Kelly Jo Dowd, an original Hooters Girl and the 1995 Hooters Calendar Cover Girl.
“In addition, we coordinate a golf tournament every year where all the money is donated to the V Foundation. At a grassroots level, we do a lot of local events supporting charities and militaries. We have also shipped care
packages overseas to the US military, sending them our iconic Hooters sauces and merchandise since, unfortunately, shipping out our iconic wings isn’t feasible!”
But Joel emphasises how Hooters matches serving external communities with efforts to support its internal community as well. Joel explains this incorporates a comprehensive programme from facilitating training and professional development for staff to sharing valuable resources for holistic wellbeing.
“For example, something we started this year is distributing a book called Training for a Healthy Life companywide,” says Joel. “It helps readers with their goals related to diet, exercise and wellness. As a company, we do all we can to ensure that our colleagues are staying healthy and living the best life they can.
“I bleed orange. I love this brand. I love this company and the people directing us at the helm. Being a leader at Hooters is a privilege and gives me the opportunity to help people grow. I like to think of it as servant leadership. I will do whatever I need to do to make my team successful and add value to the business. As a company, Hooters and the entire leadership team do whatever we need to do to make sure we're successful at all levels of the organisation.”
To learn more, visit hooters.com.
Turn over for Added Value with Joel.
Conference:
“Every year, some of the members of my team and I go to the Market Vision conferences,” says Joel. “It’s a terrific event series for getting the low down on what’s going on in the supply chain within the field of food service. Here we can spend time with our peers and exchange ideas, providing inspiration to bring back with us to benefit Hooters.”
Exercise:
“I train GRACIE® Jiu Jitsu at American Black Belt Academy in Athens, Georgia two to three nights a week,” says Joel. “I train under retired Special Forces Master Sergeant Sensei Randy McElwee and his son Sensei Ryan McElwee. I have been doing that for about eight years now. It gives me a sense of humbleness, awareness and respect for not only myself – but everyone around me too.”
Event:
“Here at Hooters, every year we host the Miss Hooters International Pageant,” says Joel. “The event started back in 1997, and we bring in Hooters Girls from around the world to compete for the title of Miss Hooters International. This event provides these women with scholarships and avenues to pursue other goals in their life, whether it be acting, journalism, medicine, government or whatever their aspirations may be. We've had several of our Hooters Girls go on to great things after competing in the pageant. One of the former Hooters Girls I'm particularly fond of is my wife, Jessicah Pounds, who has entered the Hooters Girls Hall of Fame after her service to the company in a variety of roles. She is now the Vice President, Training and Leadership Development at GoTo Foods. Hooters gave Jessicah an opportunity to grow, and there are countless other women for whom Hooters paved the way to be a success across industries.”
Order up:
When asked what his favourite Hooters meal combo would be, Joel doesn’t miss a beat before answering:
“I would pick the Daytona Beach® style chicken wings because it's a sauce that you can't get anywhere else, along with our hot seasoned curly fries, a side of classic ranch dressing and an icecold Mountain Dew.”
Connect with Joel Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto
“There is nothing outside of yourself that can ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter. Everything is within”
Musashi.