Julien Abras (Fritapapa) : "We drive repeat visits thanks to our products sourced differently"
- Philippe Beco
- 9 hours ago
- 3 min read
INTERVIEW – How do you carve out a place in a crowded market where customers are conservative? With over a million annual visits across its twenty points of sale, Fritapapa has clearly found the recipe to "dust off the fry shop." Co-founder Julien Abras, who will deliver a keynote at our Congress on April 2nd, presents his ingredients to anchor the brand in our cravings for a good cone of fries.
Gondola Foodservice : One might think that all fry shops sell the same products. How do you position a new brand?
Julien Abras: On the contrary, regular customers are very discerning and can quickly abandon a fry shop that disappoints them. We didn't seek to compete with premium burger chains, which are very good but also very expensive. We stayed in the fries niche, which we don't want to transform, but rather dust off and set in motion.
As such, we very quickly sought to source our products differently. Our beers are "custom-brewed" near Thorembais. Our "pure beef" meat from the Limousin breed comes from Mettet. Some of our sauces, also specially designed for us, are sold in supermarkets. And we are working on new versions that will be released soon.
Is it through this "product" dynamic that you increase the frequency of customer visits?
We are indeed trying to generate repeat visits by differentiating ourselves through products but also through offers. For example, by creating excitement around several temporary promotions per month or through slightly more elaborate seasonal burgers. The idea is to manage to renew the customer base without losing historical customers.
It must be admitted: the classic fry shop customer is conservative and will very often order the same thing at each visit. Furthermore, each region has its own fries culture, and you have to be sensitive to that. The top 5 sauces, for example, vary.
While ketchup and mayonnaise – and to a lesser extent andalouse and brazil – are found almost everywhere, you won't find tartare sauce in Charleroi, while "tomate grecque" is a huge hit there. In the Namur region, people love cheese-based sauces more than elsewhere. In Brabant, we often find sauces inspired by Joppie, a recipe of Dutch origin that Flemings are fond of.
If we bring in new products, we take care not to neglect any fry shop classics. Because a missing snack in your display case can quickly earn you dozens of negative comments on social media.
Is the digital channel important to you?
In addition to our online webshop, we have developed our own ordering app. We have also established very strong delivery partnerships, notably with Uber Eats, and installed ordering kiosks for customers visiting the points of sale.
All of this is part of the customer experience we want to generate. All things being equal, the goal is for our customers – just as they say "let's go to Quick or McDo" – to also say "let's go to Fritapapa" when they want to eat fries.
The Fritapapa adventure, its strategy to double its footprint by 2030, its "locked-down" franchise model, its locations based on geoconsulting... all these points are discussed with Julien Abras in his full interview, to be found in the Foodservice pages of the next Gondola magazine.
