Just Falafel (JF Street Food) — SME Case Study (UAE)

Just Falafel is known as a chain of restaurants. Just Falafel was founded in 2007 and the first store was opened in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The restaurant’s main expertise is providing the public with Mediterranean street food, which is why it is also known as JF Street Food. This case study will focus on the organizational structure of the company and would underline the strategies that the restaurant use in order to become profitable.

Just Falafel (JF Street Food) Figure 40: A Just Falafel Promotional Photo

Just Falafel’s mission statement is, “Selling delicious and nutritious falafel to reflect onto Arab and Lebanese culture in the region and beyond.” This shows how JF came up with this idea in order to preserve the Arab culture.

Vision Just Falafel’s vision is to become one of the largest falafel franchises around the globe.

Organizational Structure

The organization structure as mentioned below (Figure

• shows that Just Falafel has a wide span of control. It

shows that the organizational chart is wide rather than tall. This means the chain of command is narrow, but the span of control is pretty wide as there are almost five people/departments reporting to the chairman or the director. Under the chief executives, there are managers who later give tasks to employees that work under each one of them.

Board of Director Chairman Director Strategy Execution Manager Chief Financial Officer Managing Director Marketing Director Chief Business Offier and Chief Corporate Governance Officer Finance Manager Franchise Communicate icon Manager Supply Chain Manager Business Development Manager Human Resource Development Employees Figure 41: Just Falafel’s Organizational Structure Founders Just Falafel is considered to be the first gourmet shop that was opened in the UAE. Mohammad Bitar is the founder as well as the managing director at JF Street Food. The co-founder is Alia Al-Mazroui. Both of them came with this idea of selling falafels. The inspiration behind this idea was that both of them wanted to expose the world to the Arab culture by providing them with Arabian cuisine, hence falafel.

How the Pandemic Affected the Company There isn’t much information provided on how JF Street Food coped with the global pandemic. Just Falafel did not lay off any employees since it already has just 250 employees in total, plus now with so many branches opened, laying off employees was not a good decision.

Furthermore, Just Falafel’s revenues did not fall much as when the restaurants were closed, they were still providing its customers with pick up as well as delivery.

This allowed the customers to get the taste of their favorite food while sitting at home and being safe.

As mentioned above, Just Falafel specializes in selling falafels. The question here is what is falafel? Falafel is a traditional Mediterranean dish. This dish was founded by the ancient Egyptians. Falafel is basically a fried patty or it could be even made into a ball. This patty or ball is made up of grounded chickpeas or even fava beans and is served on flatbread. The patty is then topped with salad, pickled vegetables, sauce and sesame seeds for a much enhanced flavor.

The menu of JF Street Food is designed according to the busy lifestyle of its customers. They provide customers with custom made falafel sandwiches. Furthermore, it allows customers to choose their combinations themselves, if it turns out to be successful they will add the type of falafel on the menu. Just Falafel focuses on its food products being healthy and nutritious which is why it also charges a premium price as the meal contains the healthiest and best quality products. Furthermore, it also sells burgers and different types of drinks, such as a mint margarita. The sandwiches consist of a vast variety, in it you could find Greek falafel, Egyptian falafel, Indian falafel and even Japanese and Mexican Falafel. Furthermore, you could also find American and Italian unwrapped falafel. It provides customers with quesadillas as well as soup and kids meals.

Target Market The restaurant chain has a geographical approach in order to enter a market. Just Falafel has chosen the UAE to be its home base. This is because the UAE consists of a very diverse population and has local nationals and even different nationalities. Furthermore, since the UAE consists of large ethnicities, the product will undergo tastes of a very diverse population. This is pretty helpful for the JF Street Food in the future and allows it to come to a conclusion of which country it should open its company in. JF Street Food targets people of all ages. Furthermore, it opened outlets in places where it could be easily accessible by the target market such as shopping malls and in metropolitan areas. This is because people value convenience a lot.

Just Falafel has been using some pretty amazing strategies which has allowed it to gain recognition around the globe. Since the food industry is a pretty competitive industry, as there are many restaurants that sell the same food, it is very important that every new company sells something that is different from the other brands, only then the company will survive in an oligopoly industry. Just Falafel uses strategies that allow it to have a competitive advantage in the industry.

Competitive advantage means a strategy that allows you to have an edge over your competitors.

Competition nowadays is said to be a “war of movement” and in this success is dependable on the anticipating trends of the market as well as quick response to the changing customer demands. Just Falafel has embraced the significance of competitive maneuvering and has turned it into its own strategy. JF Street Food uses a dynamic approach and can also be described as competitive mobility. Competitive mobility can best be described as competing with emphasis on the customer.

This consists of direct customer contact and focuses on adaptability as well as speed. JF’s competitive mobility is based on four elements. These are: close relationship with customer, focused strategy, professional service and lastly, customer responsiveness.

Furthermore, its strategies also allowed it to open in different countries around the world and expand the business. Brand loyalty is of utmost priority so that potential customers would demand the product by the name.

Rivalry Among Existing Compotitors Bargaining Power of Buyers Threat of New Entrants Bargaining Power of Supplier Threat Substitute Products or Services The Five Forces That Shape Industry Competition Source: Porter (2008) Figure 42: Forces that Shape the Food Industry Competition

The operational strategies of Just Falafel are that it operates on medium scale and tends to provide its customers with the best products, focusing on the quality of goods used in making the food. Its products tend to be full of nutrition. Hence, it could be eaten by everyone whether diabetic, athletes, health conscious, children, and even teenagers and adults that just want good food. Moreover, it keeps adding new products to the menu. For example, it started with just falafels and then added burgers and drinks. The sandwiches consist of a vast variety that keeps on adding to the menu.

Furthermore, it now also sells desserts. Hence, it tends to focus on customer demand and what it requires from customers so that customers feel that their say is valued.

Furthermore, JF Street Food has well-trained staff and is located in optimal places. The staff is efficient and effective, hence the company is one of the most successful fast food restaurants in the UAE. It has been said that the JF beats McDonald’s and Hardee’s in the UAE.

Just Falafel’s marketing strategy is mainly word-of- mouth. JF Street Food provides customers with different delicacies and whenever something new comes out, it would flourish it through social networking sites such as Facebook and Instagram. Hence, this allows the advertisement costs to be reduced and the exposure relies on global outreach. Market research also plays a great role in the marketing strategies. JF Street Food enhances its product according to what the customer is demanding. It gives out samples to customers to try and then if it’s approved by the majority, it would be available on the menu. JF’s market research also consists of consumer surveys and coupons. This is so that the public stays interested as well as for rejuvenation of the dish.

Also I will talk about the four P for JF, which is price, product, place, and promotion. We start with the product. JF has fresh and delicious products (food) and it doesn’t add any product to the menu only when it makes a survey and takes the approval of customers.

Second, we will talk about the place. JF is located in a good place, and it has more than one branch in Dubai and Sharjah, different places like the Dubai mall, marina, and qasba. JF has chosen the best location in those places because it always has more customers. Third, we will talk about the prices at JF. The price is normal and easy for all customers to get food from JF in luxurious places in Dubai and Sharjah. Finally, we will talk about promotion.

For promotion, JF makes a lot of promotions, especially on the weekend or national event, for example, the last national day, it makes any two dish with 49 AED only and also it uses social media to get more customers.

PRODUCT 4ps of Marketing Mix PROMOTION PLACE PRICE Figure 43: The 4 P’s of Marketing Challenges Some of the business challenges that JF Street Food faced was to keep its costs low in the start and find suppliers that would provide it with good quality products.

Secondly, competing in such a competitive industry of fast food, it was very difficult for the restaurant, since there are many renowned fast food chains operating in the UAE such as McDonalds’, Hardee’s, and Burger King (exhibit 3). Moreover, in the initial stage, marketing was also very difficult and Just Falafel couldn’t decide on which marketing channel to use in order to attract the most customers. Now since JF Street Food has its branches around the world, it has been pretty hard to manage.

Solution to Challenges The first challenge of keeping costs low can be solved by reducing expenses such as using marketing strategies that would minimize the cost, for example, digital marketing. Furthermore, using efficient production results in reduced wastage, hence, less cost to the company. To solve the problem of good suppliers, Just Falafel can use renowned suppliers and this is where economies of scale come in. It could be bought in bulk, which would also reduce costs as well. As of today, JF Street Food has become a very renowned chain of fast food and now it markets via word-of-mouth on social media. JF has now sold its franchise around the world, which is why it is pretty hard to manage.

Successful Best Practices

JF started when the market was downhill, however, the owners of the restaurant took this as their own advantage and used this time to market and recognize that real estate was going down. Hence, this attracted business owners to open new stores because the malls decreased their prices to occupy empty stores (2011).

This led to JF opening in 2007 locally, which then went global. According to Mr. Malas, the CEO of JF believed, “Franchising in the quick-service industry is the liquidity factor that is attached to it,” (The National Newspaper).

There weren’t as many failed practices or else the company wouldn’t have been where it is today.

The company now operates in 12 countries and has a total of 46 stores around the globe. These countries are the UAE, Qatar, Canada, Australia, USA, Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, United Kingdom, Oman and Turkey. In 2010, JF generated revenue of AED 2.6 million and in 2011, it increased AED 7 million. This is why Just Falafel was motivated to open its franchises and use the franchising strategy to reach the maximum number of customers. Furthermore, it has opened around 75 stores in the UAE.

Just Falafel could increase its marketing in order to attract more customers. It could use billboards and advertisements on social media or even flyers.

Furthermore, JF Street Food can add more types of Arabian dishes into the menu. This would allow customers to have a variety of sandwiches and would make JF’s product portfolio even better. JF can also focus on having a friendly environment. Lastly, because of such increased demand, it should think of opening in countries such as China, Pakistan, India, etc.

Lesson Learned ¡ No matter how competitive the industry is, never give up hope.

¡ Nutritious food could also lead companies to be one of the biggest.

¡ Start small, but focus on expansion.

¡ Customer needs should be satisfied.

¡ Brand loyalty can lead to wonders.

JF Street Food is known to be one of the most successful fast food chains in the United Arab Emirates. It specializes in providing falafels to customers and comes up with various flavors to satisfy such a diverse population. It differentiates its products according to every culture.

This has allowed the company to expand and has allowed it to enjoy high profits. It has adapted the concept of selling its products in a very healthy environment.