D'Angelo takes wraps off new brand image

New Logo, More Comfortable Surroundings Aim to Attract More Dine-In and
Dinner Business While Creating a More Viable Growth Vehicle

D’Angelo Sandwich Shops, the New England-born chain popularized by its grilled to order submarine sandwiches, fresh salads and hearty soups, today officially took the wraps off a new strategic approach to competing in the quick-service dining category. The initiative includes an updated brand positioning heralded by a new name – D’Angelo Grilled Sandwiches – a more modern, welcoming facility design, and a comprehensive new branding program.

Designed in conjunction with Columbus, Ohio-based WD Partners, a leading branding and design firm, the new concept is intended to leverage D’Angelo’s point of distinction – sandwiches and salads featuring freshly grilled meat and poultry.

“ This is a major repositioning for us, a whole new brand experience that is more relevant to today’s and tomorrow’s consumer” says Michael McManama, Vice President of Marketing for the chain of more than 200 company and franchisee-operated restaurants. “We’ve adopted a new descriptor attached to our D’Angelo name, which focuses more attention on what our guests love most about us – menu items like our Steak & Cheese and No. 9 – and we’re offering guests a more inviting environment, featuring warmer tones, more comfortable furniture, an updated color palette and other attributes that invite them to dine with us more often.”

Editors: High-resolution images and interviews available upon request.

Securing a higher percentage of guests who stay on-site to dine will give D’Angelo restaurants more time to enhance the customer experience through personal interaction, sampling programs and other gestures that provide a generally pleasing environment and inspire frequent return visits. It also creates the opportunity for incremental sales to guests who purchase additional products that they may not have included in their original orders, and from groups who previously may have looked elsewhere.

“ We want our guests to come in more frequently and we want to get more dine-in business. It helps take our brand experience to another level if people feel equally comfortable dining on-premise as they do ordering food for take-out, and we’re hoping we can also expand our dinner business,” McManama explains.

Designs on Greater Profitability

Standard features of the new D’Angelo concept include a graphics package, interior and exterior signage, a bartop and stools offering single seating, a booth package featuring cloth and soft vinyl in warm color tones, exposed brick walls emblazoned with the new logo, an open, exposed ceiling with track lighting, wood floors, and other elements. The upscale positioning is rounded out with a comprehensive branding package that includes packaging, uniforms, menus, menu boards and other visual components.
D’Angelo’s new design also adopts a “food is theater” philosophy wherein guests are afforded clearer, closer views of their orders as they are being prepared. The visuals not only draw greater attention to the grill but also showcase the chain’s recent move to offering freshly tossed salads.

In refreshing the design, the 38-year-old chain set out to develop a format strategically equipped to achieve multiple financial goals. These financial objectives were among the main reasons that drew D’Angelo to WD Partners, McManama says, citing the firm’s “Strategic Restaurant Engineering” (SRE) division, which focuses on maximizing operational efficiency, as a key attribute that led to its selection.

“ WD applied its SRE process and helped us achieve a number of improved efficiencies,” says McManama. “We cut between 80 and 100 square feet from the back of the house. We reduced walking time. The sandwich-making process is now faster, and we have less wasted space.

“ We expect this to make a more attractive, economical proposition that will help make our corporate operations more profitable and add topline revenue to attract prospective franchisees.”

On A Roll with New Stores

D’Angelo began testing the new concept in several locations earlier this year. Most recently, a new D’Angelo Grilled Sandwiches restaurant opened in Westford, Mass., on May 19, following the debut of two locations in late February and early March, respectively, in Westborough and Newburyport, Mass. A remodeled unit also opened in the Boston Medical Center on May 17.
Early results from the initial locations have exceeded expectations.

“ We’ve surveyed consumers about their experience, and 98 percent of our guests who were surveyed rated us a 4 or 5 on a scale of 1 to 5 where 5 was best,” McManama says. “Team members in each location are ecstatic over the new, refreshed look and about the reaction of the guests who are coming in, and our franchisees love what they’ve seen thus far.”

D’Angelo will open its next new-format site in Enfield, Conn., this summer, and plans to have as many as 20 new-concept locations open by the end of February 2006. In addition to the new design, several of the new restaurants also are being used to test a variety of new products, McManama says. Among the menu items making their debut are a line of “Toasted Classics” sandwiches, as well as French fries, onion rings and pita chips.

About D’Angelo and D’Angelo Franchising Corp.

The D’Angelo brand was established in January 1973 by a former affiliate, D’Angelo, Inc., which operated corporately owned restaurants. There are currently over 200 D’Angelo Sandwich Shops in operation as standalone units and in tandem with Papa Gino’s, a sister company.

D’Angelo’s strategic growth plan calls for 200 new locations in the next five years. Franchise opportunities throughout the Eastern Seaboard are available to qualified investors with minimum net worths of $400,000 and liquid assets of at least $127,000.