Alumni Magazine - Fall 2008 - (Page 52) “There are people who still want speed, but they want interesting food. Then you have people who are squeezed with the economy who are trading down from casual dining and fine dining. Those trends have allowed the fast-casual segment to grow rapidly in the restaurant industry.” Rubio’s Fresh Mexican Grill now serves Bajastyle tacos, burritos, enchiladas, quesadillas and salads at more than 180 locations in California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and Utah. “The chain has primarily been in California and Arizona, but we are looking to expand. We will make it to the East Coast. The research that we’ve done shows there’s a growing demand for Mexican food in the fast-casual segment. Fast casual is the fastest-growing segment of the restaurant industry — $15 [billion], $16 billion a year right now and growing,” Pittard says. Rubio’s competitors include Moe’s Southwest Grill, Chipotle, Qdoba, Baja Fresh and La Salsa. “Our distinction is about half of our sales are seafood. We sell lobster burritos and tacos. We do a lot with shrimp, mahi mahi and salmon,” Pittard says. “While we have steak and chicken and vegetarian items, we have a much broader selection of seafood.” Rubio’s isn’t on its way to the East Coast just yet. Pittard is monitoring the economy and keeping expansion plans in check. “It’s probably in the two- to four-year time frame,” he says. “The biggest impact for us has been the subprime mortgage problem. California, Arizona and Nevada are three of the hardest-hit states. “We’re confident that we’ll ride it out. It won’t be a boom time during this period, but we think we’ll be well positioned when the economy turns. We will open a total of 17 restaurants this year,” Pittard says. “For the first time in years, sales in groceries grew more than sales in restaurants last year. That’s just people eating at home more rather than eating out.” Still, in the second quarter of 2008, Rubio’s revenues increased 4.9 percent over the same quarter the previous year to $45.1 million. “There are people who still want speed, but they want interesting food. Then you have people who are squeezed with the economy who are trading down from casual dining and fine dining. Those trends have allowed the fast-casual segment to grow rapidly in the restaurant industry,” he says. Pittard talks with Rubio himself several times a week. “He likes creating new dishes so he works with our food and beverage team coming up with new food items for us. We’ve introduced probably a dozen new items over the last two years. We probably came up with a couple of hundred ideas.” The latest addition is the grilled gourmet taco, available with shrimp, steak, chicken or portobello mushroom on a corn tortilla, topped with toasted cheeses, habanero citrus salsa, Cotija cheese and chipotle picante sauce. “For each one, we have unique sauces we’ve developed. We finish off with slices of avocado,” Pittard says. “The response has been very strong. We spent a year developing them.” Pittard has experience with product introduction. While the senior vice president and general manager for new ventures for Frito-Lay, he was responsible for introducing the Taco Bell brand in grocery stores. His resume also includes tenure as senior vice president of operations for PepsiCo Foods International. (PepsiCo owns Frito-Lay.) He was a group vice president with Amoco Corp. and a partner at McKinsey & Co. Pittard never worked at a taco stand. “I don’t remember us eating Mexican at all” at Tech, says Pittard, who went on to earn a Harvard MBA. “When I was living in Boston, a friend of mine who was Hispanic took me to a 52 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Fall 2008
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