SAVE OUR FRIES: A Simpull Story
28 February 2023
A popular quick service restaurant chain needs a solution to their frozen fries dilemma.
In a fast-paced workplace, and restricted from using knives, staff find a quick way to open a box of frozen fries is to bash the side to pull off the tape. However, this breaks the fragile fries into shorter lengths, requiring a larger amount of the product to fill their customers’ pack - effectively giving their fries away for free!
Short broken fries: extra needed to fill customer's pack
Full length fries: no extra fries needed
A small change.
The solution is Simpull. Our patented Simpull opening system is a clever perforation formation applied to the end of a taped-up cardboard box that allows it to be opened without a knife, and with just one hand.
It's quick and easy, yet safe and gentle to open, and does not damage the frozen fries.
The small change over to our Simpull Box will make a big impact for the quick service restaurant chain, saving the company significant dollars every year, while improving operations for their employees.
The big impact.
So, let’s compare the numbers.
The frozen fries are supplied to the Australian QSR in 12kg boxes which, after fried and portioned into customers’ packs, averages around AUD $250 in total sales for each box. An average of 5% ($12.50) in lost sales per box is due to the fragile frozen fries being inadvertently broken into shorter lengths.
A comparison of time taken to open a standard box versus our Simpull Box is based on starting and ending with the user’s hands on the box and assumes the user already has a knife handy (we gave up measuring how long it takes to first find a knife in a busy QSR and decided to skip this extra overhead). The results show a standard box takes an average of 20 seconds to open compared to our Simpull Box at just one second.
Standard Box of Frozen Fries
20 Seconds to open
Employee rate of $8.00 per hour
= $0.044 per box
2-8% Fries Given Away
Avg 5% of $250 of product
= $12.50 lost sales per box
Costs of Knife Injuries
Downtime
Reduced efficiency
Reporting costs
= ?
Standard box usage cost:
$1,254,000+
(per 100,000 boxes)
Simpull Box of Frozen Fries
1 Second to open
Employee rate of $8.00 per hour
= $0.002 per box
Zero Fries Given Away
0% of $250 of product
= Zero lost sales per box
No Knives
No downtime
No reduced efficiency
No reporting costs
= Zero
Simpull Box usage cost:
$200
(per 100,000 boxes)
As you can see from the numbers above, the potential savings are significant to say the least. Even without including other costs like wasted labour or OH&S costs from sharp injuries, the money saved could be well worth the switch to Simpull.
Are you a packaging manufacturer wanting better packaging options for your clients, or a QSR looking to improve efficiencies in-store? Order a license for our patented Simpull opening system today.