Fans of the National Football League gather in downtown Tampa before the LV Super Bowl during the January 30, 2021 COVID-19 pandemic in Tampa, Florida.
Octavio Jones | Getty Images
Super Bowl Sunday is a great day for football – and restaurants.
But the chains that will benefit most from feeding the hungry fans have already seen their sales increase during the coronavirus pandemic.
Thanksgiving Day alone is Super Bowl Sunday as the biggest holiday, according to the US Department of Agriculture. The big game attracted over 100 million viewers last year. Fans outside of football award the NFL Championship for exciting commercials, a fun show at the break, and food spread at watch parties.
For Pizza Hut in Yum Brands, Super Bowl Sunday is the busiest day of the year. Domino’s Pizza usually delivers about 2 million pies that day, up 30% from a typical Sunday. Fat Brands, which owns Hurricane Grill & Wings, Buffalo’s Cafe and Buffalo’s Express, sells half a million chicken wings in the Super Bowl on Sunday. For Wingstop, it ranks among the top five sales days annually.
Throughout the pandemic, pizza and chicken wings were essential elements of the Americans’ quarantine diet. Both are known to travel well, and the biggest players in the categories have been working for years to make their food more convenient.
In the fourth quarter, Pizza Hut saw an increase in sales in the same store by 8% in the US. Domino’s saw an increase in sales at the same store in the US, which reached double figures in the second and third quarters. And Wingstop, which was already outpacing the rest of the industry’s pre-crisis sales growth, reported that its sales in the same store rose 25 percent in the third quarter.
“If what we’ve just experienced in the last 12 months is an indication – the defeat of the industry in sales – we expect it to continue this Sunday,” said Brian Gies, global marketing director at Church’s Chicken.
Church’s Chicken, which serves chicken and boneless wings, launched its Texas Tenders’ N Shrimp table for the Super Bowl early this year to capitalize on that demand. The menu item was created to attract customers who respect Lent, which only starts on February 17.
Wingstop CEO Charlie Morrison said in a spokesman that the company is still expecting strong sales for the big game. Compared to previous years, however, the chicken wing chain may receive more orders and a smaller average check due to the small size of the assemblies. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended minimizing guest lists for party parties and organizing outdoor or practical holidays.
“I think it’s going to be a great weekend for us and I think sales will be out of the charts,” said Andy Wiederhorn, CEO of Fat Brands.
Pressure supply chains
The pandemic has also led to supply chain challenges for restaurant companies waiting for a busy Super Bowl. Prices for mozzarella cheese have risen, which will reach the profits of pizza chains. In the first week of February, wholesale prices in Wisconsin for a kilogram of mozzarella cheese rose to $ 2.70, according to a report released Wednesday by the US Department of Agriculture. In February 2019, mozzarella prices averaged about $ 2.15 per kilogram.
Chicken wing chains are under even more pressure. Wholesale prices have risen and restaurant operators are reporting shortages.
Wiederhorn said the company usually sees a limited supply at this time of year anyway.
“The only time there wasn’t a battle was when McDonald’s got into the chicken wing business, like seven or eight years ago, and failed miserably. They threw all the wings on the market because they had to get rid of them,” he said. Wiederhorn.
As a result, Fat Brands begins planning its orders for Super Bowl wings a year in advance. But the supply problem is particularly bad this year, due to outbreaks at meat processing plants and higher demand for chicken wings, driven by high sales of delivery for this category. Fat Brands brings some frozen chicken wings to supplement the regular supply of fresh wings.