When the elder brother succeeded in productively selling his chickens to the abattoir, his seven brothers followed in his footsteps. In the quad of a few years, the Bennys established themselves as major poultry farmers in Lanaudière. They then moved from farming to the construction of a texture mill so they could control the feed they were giving their chicks. Next they constructed their own hatchery and abattoir in order to process their chickens and deliver them fresh to markets themselves .
It was Yves Benny ’ randomness beget, a machine hustler by deal and the youngest of the eight brothers, who got the estimate to create an oven that could slowly roast their chickens without burning them. “ After doing a few tests with the whole class, the three-hour process was unanimously approved, ” affirms Yves Benny. Their first rotisserie saw the light of day in Joliette in 1960. A few years late, the brothers ended up dropping poultry production to devote themselves to the restaurant business, opening more rotisseries across Quebec .
“ The second gear coevals, which included Yves and myself adenine well as our cousins, didn ’ t waste a set of time getting into the syndicate business, given that we frequently lived on the floor above our restaurants, ” explains Jean Benny, the CEO of Benny & Co. “ As soon as we were big enough to use the stairs, we were big enough to help out in the restaurant ! ”
A unifying brand
Their foremost restaurants were founded with good intentions, but without an actual structure. Basically, the brothers bought the restaurants together, then shared their recipes amongst them. While they all used one logo, each brother would slightly vary “ the sauce ” when it came to the name, thus the chain did occupation under Benny, Ti-Coq, Au Coq, Coq Rapid, Coq Roti and Shawinigan B.B.Q. The brothers were operating about a twelve rotisseries when they gradually started handing over the reins to the second genesis in the 1970s and 80s .
In 2006, Jean Benny and his brothers Yves and Vincent created the Benny & Co. brand. “ We felt we needed to unify the family to take advantage of our greater purchasing power and better commercialize might, ” underscore Jean Benny. Furthermore, “ a ball-shaped post besides enabled us to offer all the services and advantages of a franchisor, such as an mastermind department to facilitate the orifice of fresh restaurants, equally well as fiscal management, ” mentions Yves Benny .
Over prison term and with the multiplication of restaurants, the brand besides allowed them to standardize their recipes and processes and to ensure the transmission of their family ’ mho values. The first gear five brand changes were made before 2010. The remainder of the cousins followed lawsuit with their own establishments from 2011 to 2014. “ New restaurants opened subsequently were under the Benny & Co. brand, ” explains Elisabeth Benny, vice-president of selling and public relations for the chain equally well as the daughter of Jean Benny and a extremity of the third genesis at the company .
As of 2020, Benny & Co. had 64 restaurants. Under the management of members of the second and one-third generations of the Benny family, the chain ’ second revenues have increased by 670 percentage from 2009 to 2019 .
A new generation deals with adversity
For around a decade, the second generation of Bennys have been following their elders ’ example and making more room for their descendants. “ They besides grew up in the kitchen, and many came on board after finishing school, ” explains Jean Benny .
The diaphanous number of syndicate members that make up the third base generation would be the envy of any kin occupation : these 24 successors occupy a variety of positions based on their experience and field of interest. “ We tied have a unseasoned penis of the one-fourth generation who merely started working at one of our restaurants, ” mentions Yves Benny. The trust accorded to the energetic generation paid murder at the beginning of the pandemic. “ even though we ’ re silent running the commercial enterprise, they actually proved their extraordinary leadership skills, ” states Jean Benny .
All of the caller ’ second services needed to review their operations. “ We established a COVID-19 committee, which became the executive committee, ” explains Elisabeth Benny. “ We cursorily changed our messaging to redirect customers to our drive-through and rescue services, and adapted our operations based on government announcements, which changed practically every day. ” Amongst the numerous measures undertaken was the addition of a delivery service to restaurants that did not even offer one, a well as an increase in the geographic range covered by other establishments that were already offering delivery .
Before the pandemic, the company had 1,800 employees. “ While our employees were temporarily suspended at the startle of the crisis, we had promptly called most of them back before the increase in demand, ” adds the vice-president of marketing and populace relations. In fact, the chain ’ s popularity necessitated the lease and train of new manner of speaking people .
The unfold of five new restaurants besides contributed to the creation of jobs during this period. “ The chain was already in a good position, but the following coevals, who quickly made some well choices and continued the execution of our increase plan, despite construction delays, they made all the difference, ” underscore Jean Benny .
It should be said that the chain ’ sulfur rescue service and on-line order were already among its strengths. “ The on-line service became an authoritative channel, which saw major increase compared to the same time end year, ” adds Elisabeth Benny .
Sales through the manner of speaking service represented 35 percentage of their tax income in 2020, compared to 27 percentage during the same menstruation of the previous year. And the proportion of sales made by the delivery serve besides grew, increasing from 23 percentage of revenues in 2019 to 35 percentage in 2020. This tendency will credibly continue, according to Elisabeth.
A greener future for the red rooster
The add chain besides became more complex during the crisis. While all the chicken for Benny & Co. comes from Quebec, that wasn ’ t the case for the vegetables. The team of third-generation Bennys had already started negotiating with suppliers in February, and the pandemic only accelerated the summons. The chain now gets its supply of Boston lettuce from Hydroserre. “ The tomatoes and cucumbers besides come from Quebec, and the peppers should soon follow, ” emphasizes Elizabeth. As for the boodle, which plays a boastfully role in the range ’ s menu, it ’ sulfur already comes from La Belle Province .
“ Today, 80 percentage of our foods come from Quebec, and 10 percentage from Canada, for a sum of 90 percentage, ” states Yves Benny proudly .
What ’ s more, Benny & Co. has become a partner of AecopaQ, which specializes in the invention and production of biodegradable packaging. At the start of 2021, this Joliette company supplied the rotisserie chain with its first wood-fibre containers created specially for them .
“ We ’ re besides revising the interior and exterior design of our three new restaurants in Montreal, which will late be used elsewhere in Quebec and Ontario, ” says Elisabeth. “ In these three establishments, the ordering stations will be replaced with a solution enabling orders to be submitted by cellular telephone directly from the postpone, but which will not be replacing the human contact provided by the person serving the table. ” Smart digital menu may besides be tested out .
In 2021, Benny & Co. plans to invest $ 16 million, in particular to open between seven and ten new restaurants, which should create around 200 jobs .
Benny & Co. in Numbers
64 : total number of Benny & Co. outlets as of November 2020
200% : increase in on-line orders since the originate of the pandemic until December 2020, compared to the same period in 2019
$16M : measure to be invested to open new restaurants in 2021
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Main photograph ( from left to right ) : Yves Benny, Jean Benny and Vincent Benny .
second base photograph ( from left to right ) : Marc-Antoine Benny, Jérôme Benny, Elisabeth Benny and Jean-Christophe Benny .
