Hard times in catering | St-Hubert reviews its prices

Due to increasingly high bills, consumers are fleeing restaurants, and St-Hubert is no exception. To bring customers back to the dining room, the king of roast chicken has decided to review its menu by freezing the prices of main courses and reducing the prices of salads, soups and desserts so that those who sit down do not have to worry. not satisfied with a quarter of chicken breast with fries.

Many consumers complain that eating out has become an expensive outing. “We hear it,” admitted Richard Scofield, president of the St-Hubert Group, during an interview with The Press. “ Catering has become more difficult in recent years. I won’t say we’re an exception. »

Refusing to reveal his figures, Mr. Scofield nevertheless admits that the chain’s dining rooms have recorded a drop in traffic of “in the double digits.” And with the arrival of Uber Eats and DoorDash, competition in the delivery field has also increased.

With this in mind, he and his team could no longer sit idly by. They decided to act by making one of the “biggest shifts in the menu in the history of St-Hubert,” according to the big boss. At a time when consumers are faced with re-inflation in restaurants and grocery stores, a phenomenon that causes the size of a box of biscuits or a portion of spaghetti with tomato sauce, for example, to decrease. but its price remains intact, Richard Scofield assures for his part that the reduction of plates was not one of the options considered.

“What can we do to ensure that the customer has the most value possible to encourage them to come back to us and ensure that St-Hubert is still part of their life? “, they asked themselves.

“We had to stop doing things the way we always did them,” says Richard Scofield lucidly. We took a step back. We looked at the menu line by line, item by item. We saw that there were much fewer purchases of starters and desserts. People were depriving themselves. »

According to the big boss, “every Quebecer ate at St-Hubert four to five times a year.” Today, there is more choice, he treats himself to a chicken meal two or three times a year, observes Mr. Scofield.

The “turn” of St-Hubert

Customers who have been sitting at the rotisseries since October 8 are therefore entitled to a revised offer, while still finding the classics such as thighs and breasts. On the new menu, illustrated with a slightly redefined logo with more modern lettering, consumers will not have to pay more for their club sandwich or their plate of crispy breast fillets, since the price needle for main courses does not didn’t move.

On the other hand, to encourage those with a sweet tooth to be tempted by a starter of cheese sticks or chicken wings, the chain has reduced the price of foods going “around the plate. »: drinks, alcohol, desserts, starters. Richard Scofield speaks of an average drop of around 11%. For lunch, we are also offering four new dishes starting at $12.

“We have to remain accessible,” insists Mr. Scofield to justify the changes made to the menu. With the adjustments made, “it is possible for a family of four, on a Tuesday evening with a bottle of wine, to eat for less than $70 at St-Hubert.”

Wearing multiple hats

But according to Richard Scofield, the big difficulty for St-Hubert lies in the fact that the rotisserie with the famous rooster logo wears several hats by being the restaurant for all occasions. “The challenge we have is that we are the restaurant for families with children, the place for happy hours on Thursday evenings, the place for office parties, the establishment to which we turn for delivery. Almost all needs must be met. You have to be good at everything. You can’t be perfect at every level. »