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Sam Fox’s Flower Child performing better during Covid-19 than other restaurant brands

04 | 08 | 2020

While the market continues to be tough for restaurants, some were built to do better than others.

Article originally posted here.

Flower Child, part of the Valley-based Fox Restaurant Concepts group of eateries, appears to be doing better than the other brands in its company during the pandemic. FRC is now owned by California-based national chain the Cheesecake Factory (Nasdaq: CAKE) and company executives praised Flower Child’s performance during the second quarter of 2020.

“Flower Child is probably been outperforming a little bit relatively,” Cheesecake Factory CFO Matthew Clark said on a July 29 conference call with analysts. “Because it’s a fast casual and obviously had a bigger piece of off-premise going forward and we want to continue to grow that brand as well.”

During the second quarter, Flower Child brought in about $11.5 million in revenue. North Italia, a brand started by Sam Fox and being expanded quickly by Cheesecake, recorded $13.8 million in revenue for the quarter. All other FRC brands recorded a combined revenue of $12.2 million during the period.

While neither the Cheesecake Factory nor any of its restaurant brands were able to turn a profit for the quarter, Clark said Flower Child was performing a bit better than its sister restaurants.

Part of Flower Child’s success was based on how well it did with takeout and delivery orders. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the Cheesecake Factory and FRC prided themselves on offering experiential dining. But with calls for social distancing and restrictions on how many people can be seated in a restaurant, off-premise consumption has become a larger deal for these businesses.

“The FRC concepts began reopening in dining rooms in mid-May and also saw sales built throughout the second quarter, with continued strong contribution from off-premise,” Cheesecake Factory president David Gordon said on the July 29 phone call with analysts.

At the end of the first quarter, Cheesecake Factory leadership put all new restaurant expansions on hold. But the company appears to be letting some restaurants open, starting with FRC’s Flower Child and North Italia.

“We have a couple of Flower Child openings coming up potentially depending on the market conditions here and the back half of the third quarter and we continue to move forward with some of the North locations,” Clark said.

The Phoenix Business Journal’s affiliated publication in Houston reported Thursday that a new Flower Child location is set to open there on Aug. 4.

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