TGI Fridays expands C3 partnership with new virtual brands

Dive Brief:

TGI Fridays is expanding its partnership with C3 to include Stonie Bowls, a new virtual brand from C3. The casual dining chain is also adding more Krispy Rice locations and C3’s Kumi concept to its digital kitchens, according to a press release emailed to Restaurant Dive.
The causal chain initially featured C3’s Krispy Rice in select locations in Orange County, California, and Maryland, with sales nearly doubling after the first week. At least 14 TGI Fridays markets in California, New York and New Jersey will add these digital concepts to their kitchens.
The TGI Fridays and C3’s partnership began in August 2021, when TGI Fridays parent company TriArtisan Capital Advisors invested $10 million in the company. The investment was part of a broader $80 million funding round to grow C3’s virtual brand footprint.

Dive Insight:

Following the early success with Krispy Rice, TGI Fridays is willing to take a chance on the new Stonie Bowls, which features signature rice, salads and poke bowls. TGI Fridays’ initial partnership with C3 generated up to an additional $1 million per location, according to the press release. This brand could help draw younger consumers, as Stonie Bowls was created in partnership with YouTube personality Matt Stonie.

C3 has an entire division focused on developing new virtual restaurant brands with popular digital creators with the objective of reaching Gen Z consumers. The company expects the division to reach about $1 billion in revenue by 2025.

Leveraging a well-known brand like TGI Fridays could help with this goal. While the partnership is slowly expanding to new locations, C3 could potentially expand through TGI Fridays’ system of over 700 restaurants across 54 countries.

TGI Fridays isn’t the only catalyst for this growth, however. C3 currently has over 800 virtual restaurants across the U.S., with plans to reach 12,000. C3, which has more than 45 virtual brands, is also targeting hotels and stadiums, and opened its first physical location last fall. The company plans to launch a 24,000-square-foot food hall in Atlanta this year and similar locations in Miami, Seattle, Chicago, Philadelphia and California in the future. Further, Reef Technology plans to serve C3’s brands from about 800 of its kitchens by 2025.