A&W: Making Green In the Great White North

A&W is Canada’s original hamburger chain, opening their first location in Winnipeg in 1956. Since then, A&W has continued to grow, expanding into over 700 locations from Vancouver Island to Newfoundland. At the heart of that growth is the fact that, while so much of our world has changed, the simple things that made A&W so popular in its early days are the same today. Visit www.aw.ca

Business Situation As part of their ongoing strategy to deliver the best tasting burger, A&W Canada was developing a new larger patty to compliment its existing menu. Simultaneously, operations managers had been assessing their cooking process with food safety always being top of mind.

The Challenge A&W was looking for a way to ensure that cooking procedures were followed precisely on every batch for all their products, thereby ensuring the best-tasting burger was delivered every time. Additionally, A&W recognized they were no exception to the reality the QSR industry has a high turnover rate and needed the ability to quickly train new staff. Striving for a high quality niche product and the ability to train staff quickly meant A&W needed an updated cooking system.

The Solution A&W approached Kitchen Brains and other potential suppliers before ultimately choosing Kitchen Brains for its innovative solutions backed by superior customer support. “Kitchen Brains was ready and willing to customize a solution for us. After further review of the Kitchen Brains product line, we were pleased to find that the standard TRACKER Timers could achieve 98% of our original design specifications,” stated Jeremy Banning, A&W Canada’s Manager of Equipment Services. Today Kitchen Brains’ TRACKER timers reside at the grill cook station and monitor the multi-stage cook process, which includes alerts for sear and flip. Its alphanumeric status display and audible tone alerts prompt crews for the right action at the right time.

Business Results By installing a staged timer program that included a SEAR and FLIP alarm, A&W found the rate of staff compliance to their cooking process became virtually perfect. The one multistage cook cycle with action alerts simplified training and enabled the staff to be successful and enjoy a less stressful environment.

• Precisely time any combination of products
• Avoid food-borne illness by automatically monitoring cook and hold times
• Easily programmable count up or down product keys
• Intuitive words for product name and action alarm message
• 3 separate timing cycles per product
• 6 unique alarm sounds with 3 volume levels
• Large green LED displays are easy to read from across the kitchen
• 4 selectable day part menus
• Peer to Peer Communications for automatically transferring time from one TRACKER to another with Master and Satellite pairing
• Brackets for mounting equipment, holding stations, or walls
• Smart Commercial Kitchen® network ready