EXCLUSIVE: Why Innovation is Key to Success for Suchef
Suchef, one of the newest QSR to hit the high street, talks to us about what makes them unique, why innovation matters, and how they plan to take a slice of the growing healthy fast food market.
QSR: Tell us about the Suchef brand. How did it come about? Who is its target market? Who are the people behind the brand?
Suchef is a restaurant quality eatery with five locations in the City of London serving delicious signature boxes, soups, hot pots, wraps, salads and breakfast, to eat in or take away. Our target market is the City’s office workers who are constantly looking for fresh and original food, served quickly.
Suchef is the brainchild of Anastasia Danilova, whose passion has been to create a destination for healthy, flavoursome and nutritious food on-the-go.
QSR: How do you differentiate yourself from your competition?
All the main proteins in our signature box dishes are cooked in a modernist way that uses technology (namely sous vide cooking) to seal in the flavour without damaging the nutritional element of the food. This results in the dishes that are super tender, flavoursome and healthy. We pride ourselves on being able to offer our customers healthily-portioned meals - our signature boxes are always being complimented on for their big size which fill you up and make you feel good once finished!
QSR: Does cooking sous vide pose any special challenges for food preparation vs regular cooking techniques? Do Suchef have a central kitchen or is food prepared on site?
All sous vide cooking is done directly at each location. We feel it's the best way to control quality.
QSR: What is your most popular dish?
Our Signature Box with Chicken & Quinoa Rice mix as well as with Coconut, Lemon & Coriander sauce are the best sellers, but with the summer now in full swing, the Roasted Vegetable and Suchef House Salads are very popular choices.
QSR: Who do you see as your competition?
London is full of exciting food outlets at every corner and we see our competition as any food operator that sells food, whether it be restaurants targeting lunch trade, street vendors or online delivery services. The key for us is to innovate at every opportunity and be constantly delivering great tasting food whilst ensuring a great Suchef experience in each of our stores. Everyone is doing great things with food nowadays, it’s simply inspiring to look at all the London–based food businesses pushing creativity boundaries! And we can definitely all learn from each other!
QSR: How many stores do you plan to open in the next year? How large do you see the brand becoming?
The key to our strategy at this time is not an aggressive expansion, but steady refinement of the existing estate. Now that we have five sites, we need to concentrate more on location selection and operations. We will grow organically and see how the brand develops.
QSR: Do you plan to open any stores outside of London?
Not at the moment. We are keen to perfect the offer to work in the City first, and only then look into what modifications need to be executed for it to be successful outside of M25.
QSR: What have been the most and least challenging aspects of establishing the brand?
We couldn't point to anything as being the least challenging aspect of what we have done to date- running a start up is a constant challenge. As for the most challenging aspect- opening five locations would probably top the list!
Suchef can be found at www.suchef.co.uk
