Native Foods is a fast-casual vegan restaurant chain that operates in California, Oregon, Colorado, and Illinois. Carin has held leadership positions at Red Robin, Applebee’s and Wendy’s. Dealing with an unpredictable supply chain is the biggest challenge for Native Foods Native Foods is careful to only use healthy ingredients and avoid ingredients found on many “do not eat” lists. Native Foods locations gravitate toward the coasts where vegan and plant-based trends are more popular. The Native Foods team tests ads targeted to vegans and ads targeted to flexitarians but marketing targeted to vegans still performs best in driving traffic. Quotes “Every organization out there – whether it’s plant-based or meat-based – is struggling with supply chain issues. One of the advantages for plant-based restaurants is that we can make anything (we need). We can make any of our products in-house.” (Carin) “One of the first things I did when I came onboard was reduce sodium levels by 25%. And honestly, they taste better!” (Carin) “One thing that I’ve been notably ignorant about is that veganism is huge in the African American community.” (Joseph) “Vegans are much more adventurous and willing to try new things on the menu.” (Carin) “Since you have such a plant-forward concept, the consistency of ingredients has to be a priority.” (Joseph) “The innovation that we’ve seen in our chicken substitutes (is amazing). We’ve had guests come across the counter and say ‘This is supposed to be a vegan restaurant! You are serving me real chicken!” (Carin) “When the pandemic hit, everyone in the restaurant industry started working well together.” (Carin) Transcript 00:00.00 vigorbranding Everyone today I'm joined by my friend Karen Stutz she's the president and Ceo of native foods and if you are not familiar with native foods yet you're about to get very familiar. It's an interesting concept and we're going to dive into that and so much more on today's episode before we do Karen say hello and give a little bit of backstory. 00:17.90 Carin Stutz Hey Joseph it's fun to spent a little time together and thanks for the opportunity to talk about native foods about the industry native foods. We always say we're kind of the og of vegan restaurants right? We we started back in 9094 long before anybody was really thinking about plant-based food. So. The brand has really stood the test of time we have 12 locations. We're in 3 states. We're in California Colorado in Illinois and it's just the boy what a time to be in plant based dining right now you know any kind of trend that you look you know at what's going on in the industry top trends top ideas. Plant based this if it's not number one. It's usually number 2 so we're having a lot of fun in this cute little innovative brand. 01:03.93 vigorbranding I love it. So speaking about you first a little bit here. Um you this isn't your first rodeo and I'm not very convinced that 1 rodeo would be enough to make you a pro anyway. Um, but you've held a number of leadership positions. You've been at the helm of red Robin Applebee's wendy's. 01:09.94 Carin Stutz Um, true. 01:14.38 Carin Stutz A. 01:21.70 vigorbranding How how do you make the transition from brands of that size to a brand that is scrappy growing and the size I think you said 12 Um, and then how do you make the shift from brands that are selling an um, omnivorous offering. 01:23.94 Carin Stutz No. 01:40.53 vigorbranding Um, basically over to a plant-based only offering how's that shift look. 01:43.67 Carin Stutz Yeah, 2 I mean 2 great questions. There. So first of all, let's just tackle tackle the size question look the the 1 big thing working for the big brands you have resources all right I mean I I have a lot of go to people and with Applebee's I was ah, basically cheap operating officer for almost 2000 locations so tons of resources tons of ah of marketing and media muscl