Itsu founder and group CEO Julian Metcalfe has admitted that he would rather have a “small basket and a happy customer” than be pushing customers to purchase more, as he has revealed that the food-to-go chain had not experienced an uplift in its average basket size.
Speaking at the Lunch! food-to-go show today (24 September), Metcalfe said: “We were told the basket size would go up, it didn’t at all.
“We don’t upsell very much,” he explained. “The more times you push, ’do you want this, do you want that?’, personally, I find that really irritating. That’s why the basket hasn’t got bigger.”
Itsu is also rethinking the use of in-store technology. The restaurant chain began rolling out digital self-service screens five years ago. However, Metcalfe admitted that Itsu “overdid it – we put in too many screens.”
As of this February, each restaurant had just one manned till alongside a number of self-service checkouts.
“After Brexit, there was a real fear that labour costs in the country were going to go to £20 an hour. In fact they haven’t for many of us but clearly the cost of labour is going up,” he explained.
Earlier this year, Metcalfe told the Financial Times that Itsu would be scaling back on the technology in stores. He reiterated this today, as he said that Itsu would be “taking many out” and plans to instead offer a mix of “half screens and half tills”.
However, one area in which Metcalfe remains confident is the brand’s product offering. “Our gyoza are better than some of the best restaurants in London, where you’re paying 10 times the price”, he claimed.
He puts this down to the “authenticity” of the products, which Itsu has built on via its grocery division. In the UK, turnover leapt 20% to £57m in its grocery wing in 2024.
“We tend to go to source, that’s what made Itsu grocery so extraordinarily successful,” he said. “We go all the way to the various countries, and we work very closely with everybody there. I’ve been to Japan five times in a year.
“We’re trying to create East Asian food that people can afford, which is UPF and additive-free. It’s harder than it sounds, but it’s great when it goes well,” Metcalfe added.
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