W
herever he’s gone, Kevin Hochman has found success by listening
to the people around him. While a marketing director at Procter & Gamble — one of many roles during his 18 years with the consumer goods company — he was part of the team that upended Old Spice’s longtime marketing approach and led to the creation of the now iconic, single-shot “Man Your Man Could Smell Like” commercial and the ensuing “surround the Super Bowl” ad strategy in 2010. That success led him to Yum! Brands in 2014, where guest feedback prompted the return of Colonel Sanders, modern designs for KFC restaurants and a bigger focus on drive-thru business. Those changes helped KFC realize eight consecutive years of positive same- store sales growth and achieve its fi rst net growth in total locations in 17 years.
Between Old Spice and KFC, Hochman developed a reputation for responding to consumers and employees to reenergize longstanding brands. It’s why he was chosen in June 2022 to lead Brinker International, owner, operator and franchisor for more than 1,600 Chili’s Grill & Bar and Maggiano’s Little Italy restaurants in 29 countries. Shortly after taking over as president and CEO of Brinker and president of Chili’s
By Tim O’Connor Associate Editor and Communications Manager
tim@feda.com
“We want to hear your ideas on how to accelerate our business. Whether it’s to grow the top line or make it easier to run a restaurant, we are open for business for great ideas that will drive our strategy and impact results.”
— Kevin Hochman CEO
Brinker International
last year, Hochman embarked on a system-wide listening tour of the company’s operators and team members. The lessons he learned have served as the backbone of the company’s new strategy.
Now comes an additional stage of that listening process: hearing from equipment and supplies dealers.
As the keynote speaker at the 2023 FEDA Annual Conference, Hochman will cover how operators are managing the current business environment, the economic uncertainty on everyone’s minds and how he sees the foodservice industry changing in the coming years. But he believes he has as much to learn from the audience. “We want to hear your ideas on how to accelerate our business,” he says. “Whether it’s to grow the top line or make it easier to run a restaurant, we are open for business for great ideas that will drive our strategy and impact results.”
Assessing the Situation Hochman’s upcoming appearance
at the FEDA Annual Conference comes as operators have turned
the corner on the past three years of the COVID-19 pandemic but fi nd themselves faced with new challenges. Historic levels of infl ation have resulted in higher operating costs, with 93 percent of operators saying their total food costs are higher now than in 2019 and 92 percent calling it a “signifi cant issue,” according to the National Restaurant Association’s 2023 State of the Restaurant Industry Report. Further, only 1 in 10 operators in the report believed recruiting and retaining employees would be easier in 2023 than in 2022 and 47 percent expected competition to be more intense this year.
Although the industry has largely
recovered from the pandemic, the economy remains a sticking point for many operators. The sudden boom that occurred as lockdowns lifted has since settled and many restaurants are now operating with increased caution in anticipation of a recession, or at least an economic softening. The National Restaurant Association’s monthly Restaurant Performance Index for April found that only 12 percent of operators
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