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“It became crystal clear to us that PAR was the best solution for us. What we were really looking for was who was going to drive the machine and who was going to be in that driver’s seat with us to grow the engine forward. We felt PAR was the best fit for Big Chicken and it has been a good partnership ever since.”
Josh Halpern, CEO of Big Chicken
Fast-Casual Challenges
- Finding a partner who would drive growth
- Lacking a POS with an open API and large integration ecosystem
- Needed real-time data and reporting on restaurant operations
Fast-Casual Solutions
- PAR Brink POS®
- PAR® Pay
- PAR Data Central®
- PAR® Hardware and Services
Shaquille O’Neal has really done it all. From an NBA superstar and on-air analyst to an actor and DJ, there really isn’t much this A-list celebrity hasn’t accomplished. However, in 2018, O’Neal took his expertise, image, and personality to the food-service industry by co-founding Big Chicken – a multi-national fast-casual restaurant with 18 locations and another 300+ under franchise development. Big Chicken fuses O’Neal’s home-cooked childhood favorites with today’s trending flavors to offer guests an inside look into the life and personality of the NBA legend.
Before the tip-off of their first location, Big Chicken was faced with the task of building an all-star caliber tech stack and choosing which vendor to be the centerpiece of their roster. Specifically, the brand was looking for a POS and back-of-house solution that would drive the highest degree of operational efficiency for their franchise units and a partner that would act as their point guard and position them for success and growth. According to Josh Halpern, CEO of Big Chicken, “It became crystal clear to us that PAR was the best solution for us. What we were really looking for was who was going to drive the machine and who was going to be in that driver’s seat with us to grow the engine forward. We felt PAR was the best fit for Big Chicken and it has been a good partnership ever since.”
“One of the bigger deciding factors on partnering with PAR was the open API and the open solutions. We consider the point-of-sale and PAR as the engine that drives order entry, and everything flows through it. We wanted an open solution that helps us partner with what makes sense to Big Chicken today and what could make sense tomorrow.”
Jason Mceachern, CIO of Big Chicken
The decision to partner with PAR was a layup for Big Chicken. The scouting report revealed the brand turned to PAR because of their ability to power growth, years of expertise, and dedication to customers. With plans on opening 300+ new franchise locations across the country, 50 being in Texas, the PAR partnership has positioned Big Chicken for the scalability and growth they were searching for. “We selected PAR because of PAR’s willingness to want to be that partner, PAR’s desire to grow with us, and quite honestly, just the amazing capability PAR has with its back-of-house solutions,” said Halpern. Since partnering with PAR Technology, Big Chicken has been leveraging PAR Brink POS, a fully configurable best-in-class restaurant cloud POS, the PAR Payment gateway, a subscription payment middleware application that is mobile and gift card friendly, and Data Central, the ultimate enterprise solution for streamlining restaurant operations and reporting. Brink POS ensures the brand has the efficiency, stability, and innovation needed to scale while Data Central provides them with a single source of truth. The PAR Payment Gateway provides Big Chicken with optimal security, simplicity, and reliability when it comes to payments as well as ensures they are always on the forefront of new payment methods.
Additionally, Brink POS enables the brand to bring enterprise administration, ordering and fulfillment, kitchen management, analytics, and more, together on one flexible platform. Data Central enables Big Chicken to focus on the metrics that truly matter, give employees the actionable insights and control needed to improve profit margins as well as optimize efficiency, and achieve financial goals and ROI quickly and consistently. The PAR Payment Gateway enables the brand to accept more payments on more channels with more processor choices and less complexity.
According to Jason Mceachern, CIO of Big Chicken, “One of the bigger deciding factors on partnering with PAR was the open API and the open solutions. We consider the point-of-sale and PAR as the engine that drives order entry, and everything flows through it. We wanted an open solution that helps us partner with what makes sense to Big Chicken today and what could make sense tomorrow.” With Brink’s open API and PAR’s vast integration ecosystem, Big Chicken has the luxury of choosing the third-party solutions they want to leverage without any special configurations or extra implications.
Partnering with PAR has had the same effect as drafting an NBA all-star point guard to Big Chicken. And the brand has never looked back. “Big Chicken and PAR are better together,” said Halpern. “We cannot get the scale we are trying to achieve without PAR’s help.” With plans on launching future locations, the PAR partnership has positioned Big Chicken for the scalability and growth they desire, no matter what the future holds.
