CHUCK E. CHEESE CONTINUED...
LEADERSHIP
and other family attractions, “it’s a food-forward concept,” with most of its revenues coming from food and beverage sales rather than arcade attrac- tions, or the reverse of Chuck E. Cheese’s model. It also appeals to a broader demographic—not just families with young kids, but teens and single adults. Peter Piper’s unit sales tend to be higher than the intake of a Chuck E. Cheese. “In our townhall meetings, I like to call it our secret weapon,” says McKillips.
EVOLUTION, OR REVOLUTION? McKillips foresees a slew of future opportunities to leverage the ap- peal of the Chuck E. Cheese char- acter (its robotic incarnation was scrapped, but a human in a Chuck E. Cheese suit sweeps through play and dining areas every hour. “It’s like Taylor Swift making an appear- ance—the kids lose their minds,” says McKillips.) He cites the momentum from deals like the one CEC struck last year with Hendrick Motorsports to adorn a car from the racing team’s garage with images of Chuck E. Cheese and get it on the track during NASCAR events. With the pizza chain’s pint-sized core patrons usually falling within a bracket of 3 to 8 years old, the brand is being exposed through the Hendricks col- laboration to an older age cohort, not to mention the younger kids’ parents. Equally or more important, ac- cording to McKIllips, is the market- ing afterglow: “People are starting to see Chuck E. Cheese as an en- tertainment character rather than a mascot.” He adds that the mouse already enjoys a Q Score among youngsters that’s right up there with the ratings for media mega-stars like Bluey the cartoon dog and Spi- der Man. “We are in the very early innings of licensing,” the CEO says. PETER PIPER’S PEPPERY POTENTIAL While striving to right the Chuck E. Cheese brand, McKillips and his team simultaneously prepped CEC’s secondary brand for expan- sion. Unlike its mousey older sister, now undoubtedly an international brand, Peter Piper Pizza is more of a regional domestic powerhouse, with a strong following concentrat- ed in the Southwest. Although it, too, features games
PHOTO: ENVATO
The brand is now expanding through franchising beyond its Arizona roots, into markets like Texas. CEC has opened a fast-casual version of the brand, Peter Piper Pizza Ex- press, whose three current branches offer pizza solely for takeout and deliv- ery. The two Peter Piper expansion vehicles are in addition to the riffs on the Chuck E. Cheese format CEC is either already testing or plans to. “We are testing smaller units, larger units, arcade-only units,” says McK- illips. Domestically, “there’s still white space available” for the Chuck E. Cheese brand, he continues. “We will open eight or nine units this year.” But the big growth opportunity for the brand, and the one CEC is most aggressively pursuing, lies outside the U.S. “There is tremendous white space in Asia and Eastern and Western European markets,” the CEO says. “It’s a long-term strategic aim.” He knows those markets well, having set up Six Flags family entertain- ment centers in those regions as part of his deep immersion in the leisure market before joining CEC.
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RESTAURANT BUSINESS OCTOBER 2024
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