Entrevista a Michael Kark, Director de licencias globales de Shake Shack

Yeah, it's a great question. I think back for myself and my boss, we were actually in China back when Wuhan was shut down in January of 2020. It was so bizarre because we were there for the beginnings of the pandemic. We had seen the reports on the news, got to China, went ahead with our trip, and within a day it felt like the world had changed. We came back to our hotel one night and all of a sudden they had erected security, taking temperatures, everyone was in masks. It was a little alarming. Obviously we've been through a rollercoaster as everybody has in the restaurant business and across the world. For Shake Shack, Shake Shack is a very entrepreneurial company, and I think it really forced us to get back to our roots in terms of thinking about things from that perspective. Shake Shack is based on the idea of being a warm community gathering place, and all of a sudden we were told that gathering was not something we should be doing. It really shook Shake Shack to the core. So we've made some major adaptations, really trying to meet guests where they are, finding ways to do that in a way that's safe for the guests and allows them to still experience what we think is an amazing Shake Shack experience all over the world. We've done that by doing some considerable digital evolutions. We launched in Mexico with Rappi, so now we're doing delivery across Mexico City. We hope to even be doing that in Monterrey in the weeks to come. Beyond that, we launched an online ordering platform in Mexico. In the US, we've done all sorts of different things in terms of what we now call Shack Tracks, evolving the different formats of Shake Shack to truly meet guests where they are. We've added pickup windows, restaurants where you drive to them and we hand you your food out a window, which we call Drive To. Later on this year, we're actually going to launch our very first drive-through. So the Drive To, you would pre-order online on your app and then you would drive to the window and we would hand you your food. For the digital side, later on this year in the US, we'll launch our very first drive-through, which would be more of a traditional drive-through experience. We're working together with GRG to understand which of those formats, as we test them in the US, we're going to be bringing to Mexico in the months to come as well.

Yeah, it's a good question. At Shake Shack, since the very beginning, we've had a slogan: 'Stand for something good.' We think that holds true in the way we take care of our people, providing tremendous opportunity. One of the reasons we're so excited to be growing in Monterrey is the ability for us to start in a new place and continue to provide opportunity for people to come up through the organization. We're really proud of the work we do together with GRG because they actually have an institute that continues to teach people and further their education all the way through their master's if they want, very low cost, very high quality education, while continuing to support them in the growth of their career. We want people to be able to come into Shake Shack that might start as a dishwasher but learn different aspects of the job, maybe become a prep person, maybe become a cashier, maybe they want to work on their language skills, a second language. So many of our cashiers speak Spanish, some of them speak English as well. People want those things, and hopefully some of those folks even want to become a manager and move up through different levels in the organization. It's something we're really proud of.

Yeah, I always think back to one person in particular who's in Dubai. He actually started with us 10 years ago, started on the custard side, making the desserts. His name is Ryan, and he's continued to move up through the entire organization over 10 years. He's now an area director responsible for the whole area of Dubai. He's been through all the levels, was a general manager for several years, and continued to excel. When you get a chance to meet people that have gone through that journey, it's really inspiring to all the people they work with, because people look up to them and say, 'I was just like you, and I want to be the next level.' So it's something we're really proud of and really excited now to be bringing to Monterrey.

Yeah, I've been coming to Mexico now for a number of years, even before I had the opportunity to meet with GRG. A few things have always struck us about the Mexican consumer. One is there's obviously a close relationship between Mexico and the US. What comes of that is the Mexican consumer is quite sophisticated; they really understand quality and authenticity. So when we brought Shake Shack to Mexico and now for our first time in a new city in Monterrey, we really want to be able to bring the consumer the authentic experience from New York, and at the same time reflect back a little bit of the community we're coming into. Shake Shack should always feel like a reflection of the community we're entering. You'll never see two Shake Shacks that are exactly the same. We all have some different things, whether it's different products on the menu that we feature, and also the design should look very much like it's of its place, never like it's dropped out of it. We were so excited to come to Monterrey because after many years, it's a city we've been interested in for a long time. As you know, sometimes US brands actually launch in Monterrey first. For Shake Shack, it's critical for us to find the right real estate. When our partners at GRG told us about the site and that we could be near a park, it reminded us of our beginnings because our very first Shake Shack in New York is in a park.

Our teams spend a lot of time on that. When you think about even the artwork, which you may have seen at our site before we open, from the plasma, he designed that artwork and it's now inside the restaurant. We really take a lot of detail into it. I think you'll see some restaurant companies in the world where it's almost like you open a box and they can take the box and send it and it looks exactly the same everywhere. Shake Shack takes a different approach, and we really have a lot of people and a lot of time and effort that goes into trying to make our restaurants of their places.

Monterrey is one of the most important cities in Mexico, and like I said, it's one we've been excited to come to for a really long time because we have to find the right real estate, it takes time. But now that we're in Monterrey, we hope that we can contribute to the community and add more to the dialogue that exists between some of the US brands and the folks in Monterrey. We know that so many of the folks in Monterrey travel to the US frequently and will know the brand, but we also know there are a lot of people in Monterrey who maybe haven't had it until yesterday. We hope that we can bring them in, have them experience it, and have them be excited by what we're doing because we think it's quite different from what a lot of other folks do.

Mexico for us was a really critical market for a lot of reasons. First, it's our first foray into Latin America. So many potential partners all over the world, certainly in the Latin American space, look to how well the brand will do in Mexico. So we hope to have at least 30 restaurants in Mexico by 2028. We have six today in Mexico City, and of course tomorrow will be the seventh in our first city outside of Mexico City, in Monterrey. But we really focus on growing one burger at a time. We want to make sure those experiences are excellent. Our eye on the prize is to have more restaurants over time, but the way you have more restaurants is by paying attention to the details, doing things right, and making sure every guest gets a consistent and excellent experience. So we're really excited to finally have a chance to bring our version of hospitality to Monterrey and to be able to share it with you and hopefully your colleagues, your friends, your family.

Yeah, it's a good question. Going back to this idea of authenticity, so many guests, especially in Mexico, have had Shake Shack back in the States, and we want to make sure we bring that level of authenticity. So when you're having a burger in Monterrey, you're having beef from the US, our no hormone, no antibiotic, never ever beef. It's really top quality beef, something you would more typically find at a fine dining restaurant, not at a casual restaurant where you can get a Shack Burger for under 100 pesos. In addition to those classics, back to this idea of reflecting our community, our culinary director spends a lot of time going and spending time making some items. We actually have the Gloria shake. I don't know if you had a chance to try it last night. We're trying to take a classic Monterrey candy that people from Monterrey would really know and integrate it with a milkshake from Shake Shack.

Yeah, exactly. As you see other parts of our menu, we try to have a lot of fun with this part. It's one of the things that the folks on our team absolutely love about their jobs. They get to come down and try all sorts of different local foods, and then they try to meet with local vendors and really understand the way they see the world. So you'll see in other parts of our dessert area, in the concrete section, we use products from places like... things of that nature that we include to again have that reflection of the bases: Shake Shack from New York, but the reflection of the local community.

Nothing else that I have for you necessarily. If there are any other questions, I'm happy to answer them. But I really appreciate you making the time to do this, and I'm mostly so excited you got a chance to visit Shake Shack last night. I hope you come back and see us often.

Oh, we're so thankful. Thanks to Players for giving us a chance to meet with you guys today and to get a chance to talk with you. I can't wait to see the article that you guys write and put together. So thank you, and thank you for giving us this time.