Tossed punches above its weight in fast food battle
100% brand overhaul turns healthy fast food chain into a ‘challenger’ against market leaders Pret A Manger, winning them a DBA Award and £1.7m sales in just four years.
We worked on: Strategy | Branding | Retail Environment | Website | Marketing Communications
Sales increased by 447%, from £311,000 to £1.7m over a four-year period (overall group turnover including franchises grew 939% in the same period).
Average customer spend increased by 285% or £1.38, footfall increased by 11% (9,072 customers), and sales of hot salads grew by 815% over four years.
Tossed opened their first store in Paddington Station on a shoestring budget. Their founder, Vincent McKevitt, came to us and asked us to overhaul the brand identity, marketing communications, interior design, and packaging. His vision was to create a national mass-market fast food service brand to lead the healthy fast food movement, so it was important that the brand had a friendly ‘local’ feel but could still be scaled up quickly and rolled out as a franchise.
The demand for takeout lunches was huge, representing about one quarter of the ‘eating out’ market. Research suggested that around 56% of consumers were now eating salad all year round because they “love it” and want to embrace a healthier lifestyle. We found that around 27% of these consumers wanted to eat more healthily, and were attracted to premium, organic, low-fat, and functional lunches.
Fast food chains like McDonalds were experiencing resistance from consumers, and brands like Pret A Manger and Chop’d were fast gaining ground. Consumers were becoming increasingly aware of sustainability, environmental impact, and a search for genuine quality. For Tossed to succeed, they needed to become a category killing brand appealing to both males and females, office workers and builders.
The main communication channel at this early stage was the brand and the store, so we created a store design that reflected the brand identity of being fun and dynamic – one that positioned Tossed as an urban oasis for the health-conscious lunchtime market. The new image won Tossed a concession at Monsoon HQ (personally requested by the founder, Peter Simon), which was followed by a concession at Harrods ‘102’ store and several other corporate accounts, growing corporate accounts by 715% over a four-year period.
The brand became so successful that it attracted interest from a dozen franchises and allowed Tossed to accelerate their store roll out programme. Tossed soon started picking up awards and the spotlight was turned on Vincent as he won Observer Courvoisier Future 500 (‘One to Watch’), Growing Business Magazine “young gun” 2008 (top 30 entrepreneurs under 30), Hotel & Caterer’s Acorn Award 2009 (top people in food under 30).
“We at Tossed were staggered to see the impact effective design had on our bottom line with sales up 447% in four years. The re-brand and design are the single biggest contributing factors to the growth of our sales, profit, footfall, corporate accounts and overall awareness.”
“Honey’s commercial and creative approach to building the Tossed brand has enabled the business to punch above its weight delivering exceptional growth and ROI! The design has paid for itself 100 times over!