Meet the New QSR Concept Set to Shake Up the Healthy Food Market
With nearly two decades of experience in the restaurant and bar industry, Ed Martin has now set his sights on the QSR sector with the Asian inspired Yum Som set to open in the city of London later this month.
We sat down with the food entrepreneur to learn more about his new concept, and how it will carve a niche in a competitive marketplace.
QSR: Tell us more about the Yum Som concept?
The inspiration for Yum Som came from my travels through Asia and Australia. We’d been interested in the QSR market for some time, having had a lot of experience operating gastro pubs but it wasn’t until seeing the offering in that region that I came up with an idea that I knew would set us apart and would work.
Specifically I was struck by how fresh and healthy their QSR concepts are. Many of the offerings combine Western and Asian flavours. This got me to thinking that salads don’t just have to be a box in a fridge, but can be beautifully created, fresh to order and come with amazing dressings. Normally these things don’t go together or can’t be made very quickly. I wanted to change that. There’s no reason why you can’t serve freshly made to order food in a QSR environment. So from this basis, we started developing the idea further, and considering things we didn’t consider for our other venues.
QSR: Your first store is set to open in the City of London. Why did you choose to open here first?
It made sense for a number of reasons. First of all because I work in London and know it well. It is the biggest market in the UK and in fact in Europe. From my other businesses I understand the patterns of trade too, so it made the most sense. Within London it then came down to the cost and availability of property. This led us to the City, but we’d love to open in the West End once we have our City store up and running with a proven concept that we know works.
QSR: What tweaks did you have to make to adapt the concept for the London market?
A lot of the places that I got inspiration from were great but one dimensional. They tended to just specialise in one thing. What I’ve done with Yum Som is bring all these ‘best in class’ elements together to make an attractive offering at all times of day. London isn’t cheap to operate in, so we need to make the outlet work throughout the day. We’ll be open from 7am-7pm.
QSR: Where will you sit price point wise?
We anticipate the average spend should be around £5.50-£6 which will make us competitive with other similar offers.
QSR: When is your opening planned for?
We plan to open soon, most likely at the end of the month.
QSR: Do you have plans to open more Yum Som outlets?
We’re going to focus on this store for a while, to make sure we’ve got it right, before considering how many more we can open. Like any concept, we’d like to open as many as we can, but it would be pre-emptive to put a number on the size the brand can grow to. Its about getting the offering right and building a loyal customer base before growing.
QSR: Who do you see as your competition?
We’ll ultimately be competing against all QSRs in central London. But Tossed, Chop’d and Pod are probably our most direct competitors and we’ll be challenging them at their strengths.
QSR: What is your competitive advantage?
A lot of QSRs offer too much choice which creates confusion. What I want to deliver is a simple choice between really tasty, well thought out dishes so the customers choice is an easy one. I think this will deliver clarity and the quality of our freshness will stand us out from the crowd. So simplicity and clarity of choice will make it a great customer experience. What I don’t like is the customer having to try too hard to come up with their own dish- I think easier is better. The menu will be evolving all the time too and the menu board will be flexible to keep it fresh and up to date.
