Culver’s CEO Julie Fussner knows the brand’s long-awaited loyalty reveal is going to be greeted with an emphasis on the “long-awaited” part. But the notion Culver’s was late to the game is one that requires context.
If you go back to the COVID stretch, and leading up, technology was simply not a space the 1984-brand invested in. There was no online ordering. Or delivery. This wasn’t a reflection of Culver’s lagging peers, though—it was a core tenet of its personality. As co-founder Craig Culver told QSR in 2022, “I am a face-to-face kind of person, and that’s who I want Culver’s to be as well.”
Record sales in 2020 and 2021, however, as drive-thru rocketed to 90 percent of the business during pandemic depths, led Culver’s to another place it was familiar with: consumer feedback. Guests continually asked for digital access and the brand needed to open the valve to widen capacity.
