EzCater, a nationwide marketplace for business catering, announced a partnership with P.F. Chang’s, the full-service Asian restaurant industry leader, adding all 212 of its U.S. locations to ezCater’s online platform. P.F. Chang’s joins more than 150 restaurant chains that increasingly rely on ezCater to help increase off-premises revenue through business catering.
Off-premises dining and catering have been a growth area for the restaurant industry, which overall has experienced negative month-to-month same-store sales for the better part of the past two years, according to the Restaurant Industry Snapshot from Black Box Intelligence. In contrast, business spending on catering has grown more than 30 percent in the past three years to become a $22 billion market, according to data from foodservice research firm Technomic.
Restaurant industry veteran Jim Rand has spent more than a decade building catering operations for national brands and recently joined P.F. Chang’s as VP of off-premises dining to lead the company’s catering and off-premises strategy.
“Partnering with ezCater is an easy and effective way to grow catering revenue,” says Rand. “ezCater quickly added all of our U.S. locations to its platform and we began receiving orders immediately. In the last three months we’ve seen meaningful growth in our catering revenue through ezCater. The ezCater platform has allowed us to quickly reach a large corporate customer base over a broad geographic area, which would have taken longer had we done it on our own.”
Over 60,000 restaurants and caterers partner with ezCater to reach a nationwide customer base of businesspeople, including customers from more than 90 percent of the Fortune 500. California Pizza Kitchen, Potbelly Sandwich Shop, and Fazoli’s are among other brands that recently joined ezCater as partners, adding 300 Potbelly Sandwich Shops, 200 California Pizza Kitchen locations, and 100 Fazoli’s restaurants to ezCater’s nationwide network. These restaurants join longtime chain partners like Firehouse Subs, Dickey’s Barbeque Pit, and Honeybaked Ham, who were attracted to ezCater for high average order values, increased visibility in their target markets, and growth in off-peak revenue.
“We’re thrilled to be adding such notable brands like P.F. Chang’s to our partner network,” says Victoria Brady, VP of caterer partnerships at ezCater. “We take pride in building good relationships with all of our restaurant partners and love that we can help them grow their business. ezCater’s unparalleled national reach makes our platform particularly ideal for any brand looking to drive business across all locations.”
