Basilic&Cothe pizza franchise created in 2007 by Laurent Bassi, now has 85 units. A distinctive offering of pizzas from France's terroirs, which promote PDO products sourced in the region. Fabrice Fruoco, who has just been appointed Managing Director, shares with us the challenges of industrializing processes to accelerate the brand's development. The goal is to have 100 restaurants by the end of 2025.
"We chose Inpulse to simplify operations for our franchisees. We automate all low value-added tasks."
Fabrice Fruoco
General Manager at Basilic&Co
The Basilic&Co experience meets consumer demand for product quality and traceability. Basilic&Co is constantly sourcing new local producers, so that every franchisee can add regional recipes to their menu. This emphasis on local produce is a real competitive advantage for the brand. Its commitment to local and organic produce, and to protecting its ecosystem, helps to make this chain a benchmark among franchises at Table service restaurants.
As rents rise and bills mount, how do you maintain your competitive edge? Fabrice Fruoco, Managing Director of Basilic&Co explains how Inpulse is helping him to industrialize his network's processes and better support his franchisees:
"At Basilic&Co, we have chosen to limit the impact of inflation by optimizing operations as much as possible: rationalizing purchases, saving time, reacting quickly.
No matter how much sales you make, if you don't control your losses and purchases, you won't build a sustainable business. Structuring yourself with a high-performance ordering tool is the sinews of war. What guided us in our choice was the desire to eliminate low value-added tasks so that our teams could concentrate on the customer experience.
We chose Inpulse to simplify the operations of each unit. We automate everything we need to: supplier orders, incoming goods control and loss analysis. It's not a question of over-digitization; for example, for the time being, we don't want to have digital kiosks in our restaurants, which mainly generate their sales "on the spot". We're a hybrid of fast food and traditional restaurants.
With Inpulse, franchisees benefit from AI-assisted order recommendation and can precisely control their margins. We're in the early stages of implementing Inpulse, and the AI forecasts are already very good. Up to 95%, depending on the store. It's a real decision-making tool: instead of spending 2 hours analyzing the figures, the manager can check and adjust. This has an impact on margins and meets our CSR commitments. We limit wastage and also our carbon footprint, since we favor carriage-paid orders. Finally, we measure our loss rate to be more vigilant and avoid unnecessary losses.
Thanks to Inpulse, we're also able to speed up our inventories, with our teams doing their daily, weekly and monthly inventories on the tablet, much faster than before. This time-saving is invaluable."
Basilic&Co is a brand whose DNA is rooted in local values, we had to find the best way to rationalize our purchasing and maintain our competitive edge in sourcing from local producers, when we looked at our supply chain and centralized price lists.
We stand out with our PDO products that make our local pizzas, but also with our drinks and non-industrial local desserts, which offer real added value for our customers. Over 40% of our sales are made on our local pizzas, hence the importance of local producers in our sourcing strategy.
With Inpulse, we give our franchisees access to regional price lists . For example, in Brittany, we have tested a quality brewer that we offer à la carte to all Basilic&Co restaurants in the region, and it is even possible to reference it nationally. Franchisees thus have a very wide choice of exceptional products, and benefit from negotiations carried out by head office.
With Inpulse, we're also able to analyze mercurial prices, so we're transparent with our franchisees, we put our cards on the table, and thanks to Inpulse we give them maximum information. "
Sometimes in foodtech, the product is well marketed and then there's no one to help you with project follow-up... At Inpulse, we're really well supported, the teams are experts and take the time to set up and respond to our needs. Inpulse listens to its customers, and it's a solution that will grow with us. I have nothing but praise for the support and the product.
The ergonomics of Inpulse are key: saving time thanks to an intuitive interface means saving money. This applies not only to the operational side of things, but also to the analysis of figures, so you can quickly see what's not working so well in your restaurant. On Inpulse, it's easy to access the key indicators, and there's a menu dedicated to analysis that enables us to see in detail and understand where the markdowns are coming from, what the problems are and what solutions to give them."
If you'd like to see a demonstration of Inpulse, ask for an appointment with an expert today to discover what Inpulse can do for you.
"Structuring ourselves with a high-performance ordering tool is the sinews of war, maintaining margins and limiting losses."
Fabrice Fruoco
General Manager at Basilic&Co