Speaker 1: Welcome to Chopping it Up. I'm your host, Mike Halon,
Speaker 1: the senior restaurant and food Service analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.
Speaker 1: So today we're joined by Joe Rank and the CEO
Speaker 1: of put Shack Tech infused mini golf Experience. Thanks for
Speaker 1: doing this, Joe.
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me. Mike happy to be here.
Speaker 1: Can you talk a little bit about your career prior
Speaker 1: to put shack and what attracted you to this opportunity?
Speaker 2: Sure, time fly. So for probably the past twenty five years,
Speaker 2: I've either been involved in sports, leisure, entertainment, social entertainment.
Speaker 2: I think the thing that it's most relevant to what
Speaker 2: we're building a Putchack. I was the CEO at a
Speaker 2: concept called top Golf earlier in my career and joined
Speaker 2: that when there was just one Top Golf location in
Speaker 2: the US and helped build the foundation and grow that
Speaker 2: which was a lot of fun and obviously it's done
Speaker 2: exceptionally well, continues to do exceptionally well. And the link
Speaker 2: really with putchak is the guys who invented the game
Speaker 2: of putchack are identical twin brothers out of London, Steve
Speaker 2: and Dave Joliffe. They were the same guys who invented
Speaker 2: the game at Top Golf. So I've known him for
Speaker 2: over fifteen years now, and you know, and they're incredible
Speaker 2: inventors and they're avid golfers. And so they stepped back
Speaker 2: one day and said, you know, miniature golf has been
Speaker 2: around for one hundred years and it hasn't changed in
Speaker 2: one hundred years. How can we reinvent this game? So
Speaker 2: they started taking a look at technology that didn't exist
Speaker 2: back when they had created Top Golf and started to
Speaker 2: look at, hey, how can we change this game around.
Speaker 2: So what they managed to do was put essentially a
Speaker 2: mini iPad inside the golf ball. So inside every golf
Speaker 2: ball is a computer processor. There's a battery system in there,
Speaker 2: it's GPS enabled, Bluetooth enabled. So what that created the
Speaker 2: ability to do was write the game so that you
Speaker 2: can track the ball on every inch of every hole.
Speaker 2: Created automatic scoring, so there's no more carrying around a
Speaker 2: pendulum paper, and of course there's also no more cheating
Speaker 2: because if you pick up the ball and move it,
Speaker 2: the system knows it and then really change the game.
Speaker 2: And so instead of getting trying to get the lowest
Speaker 2: score possible, you're trying to get the highest score possible.
Speaker 2: And the way they did that is you get bonus
Speaker 2: points if you get a hole in one, and then
Speaker 2: every hole has a way to either score bonus points
Speaker 2: or hazards where you can lose points. So, for example,
Speaker 2: there's a pop the question hole. It's a true false question,
Speaker 2: so you'll get a true false question. It comes up
Speaker 2: on your screen. If you think the answer is true,
Speaker 2: you put under a bridge. It says true. If you
Speaker 2: think it's false, you put under a bridge it says false.
Speaker 2: If you get it right, you get bonus points. If
Speaker 2: you get it wrong, you lose points. Right, and then
Speaker 2: they created all of the holes really around our core demographic.
Speaker 2: So our core demographic is twenty one to thirty nine
Speaker 2: year olds. So you'll have a beer pung hole, you'll
Speaker 2: have a roulette hole, you've got to pop the question hole,
Speaker 2: you've got to shoot the basket, which is a basketball hole.
Speaker 2: What you won't find at Putchack is things like pirate
Speaker 2: chips and windmills that were great when you grew up,
Speaker 2: but now as an adult, you want a different experience.
Speaker 1: Very cool. So are all the courses the same or
Speaker 1: does some of them have you know, different holes based
Speaker 1: on location or whatever it might do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we have our typical venue has four nine
Speaker 2: hole courses, so there's thirty six holes in every venue.
Speaker 2: I think at this point now we have over thirty
Speaker 2: unique holes. There's a handful that we repeat because they're
Speaker 2: guest favorites, and then the courses. You know, we we
Speaker 2: don't do ground up builds, or haven't up to this
Speaker 2: point in time. We've we've done adaptive reuse. So the
Speaker 2: space within each venue is slightly different based on what
Speaker 2: we're stepping into. So every you know, nine holes in
Speaker 2: Chicago may look different than nine holes in Boston, although you'll,
Speaker 2: you know, you'll end up over the thirty six holes
Speaker 2: using the same ones.
Speaker 1: I'd imagine using re readapted spaces helps your build costs.
Speaker 2: It does, And you know, we really focus on partnering
Speaker 2: with the landlords and our and our development partners. We
Speaker 2: are fortunate that we have you know, we have a
Speaker 2: guest demographic that is very attractive within our landlords, whether
Speaker 2: that's an outdoor lifestyle mall or a mixed use development.
Speaker 2: You know that twenty one to thirty nine year old
Speaker 2: is is kind of the demographic that everybody wants to
Speaker 2: get to and typically dry between three hundred and fifty
Speaker 2: and four hundred and twenty five thousand visitors per year
Speaker 2: per venue. So so the great part about that is,
Speaker 2: you know we'll partner with with that landlord and become
Speaker 2: in essence for existing location or an existing development, you know,
Speaker 2: that new anchor. So you know in the suburbs of Chicago,
Speaker 2: we took over a former Lord and Taylor space and
Speaker 2: put in a punt check there. In mid town Atlanta,
Speaker 2: it was a mixed use development and we anchor seventy
Speaker 2: five thousand score feet of retail with our twenty five
Speaker 2: thousand score feet. So it's more cost well, I would
Speaker 2: say it's more cost effective, but it depends on kind
Speaker 2: of what you're starting out with. But we do get
Speaker 2: really great support from from our development partners.
Speaker 1: All right, great about is twenty five thousand square feet?
Speaker 1: Is that the typical size and how much do they
Speaker 1: cost to build?
Speaker 2: Sure? It is. We do have some that have gone
Speaker 2: a bit larger. So our largest is in Dallas and
Speaker 2: Addison at thirty thousand, but twenty five thousand is our typical.
Speaker 2: It was a lot less costly to build kind of
Speaker 2: before the pandemic hit and construction costs have risen dramatically
Speaker 2: since then. But including all of our soft costs and
Speaker 2: opening costs, you know, we're in the thirteen to fourteen
Speaker 2: million dollar range, depending on where what market we're in.
Speaker 2: Part of what makes put check I think different than
Speaker 2: other concepts within our space is we do focus very
Speaker 2: much on investing in a high end build from you know,
Speaker 2: not only the technology and the course and everything around
Speaker 2: the game itself, but all of the you know what
Speaker 2: the restaurant side of our business, the bar side of
Speaker 2: the business, the food and beverage, it's you know, we
Speaker 2: all really focused on developed or delivering a brand experience
Speaker 2: that's really elevated in nature.
Speaker 1: Okay, so they're not cheap to build, but I know,
Speaker 1: yeah for some pretty strong AUVs. So so where where
Speaker 1: do they come in at? And what's the revenue split
Speaker 1: between games, food and drinks.
Speaker 2: Sure, so, you know, our average AUV is in the
Speaker 2: thirteen to fourteen million dollar range, and we do about
Speaker 2: forty two to forty percent of our revenue is generated
Speaker 2: by the game, which is is very profitable, which is great,
Speaker 2: but we do fifty eight percent of our business on
Speaker 2: the food and beverage side. So it's a standalone restaurant
Speaker 2: our our. You know, our venues are doing anywhere from
Speaker 2: seven and a half to our our strongest performing I
Speaker 2: use almost twelve million dollars of a standalone restaurant, which
Speaker 2: is a huge significant operation in and of itself. You know,
Speaker 2: on the restaurant side of the business, as we focus
Speaker 2: on it, were because of the gas and the fact
Speaker 2: that they can drink while they're playing the game. You know,
Speaker 2: we skew more than a typical restaurant would on the
Speaker 2: beverage side, and you know alcohol is a part of that.
Speaker 2: So you know, our economics are incredibly strong. It's one
Speaker 2: of the things that really drew me to the concept.
Speaker 2: You know, I think long term success within the social
Speaker 2: entertainment and dining space is really anchored on three things.
Speaker 2: It's anchored on a fun and engaging game that people
Speaker 2: want to come back and play time and time again.
Speaker 2: But then also has some intellectual property protection, right, so
Speaker 2: there's a barrier of entry, there's a moat that's created
Speaker 2: so people can't go, oh wow, that's a great concept.
Speaker 2: I'm just going to open one across the street and
Speaker 2: compete with you. So we own a global patent on
Speaker 2: automatic scoring a miniature golf. So with the technology that
Speaker 2: the inventors were able to create, they were able to
Speaker 2: secure a concept patent. And what that means is somebody
Speaker 2: else could look in and go, oh wow, I could put
Speaker 2: different technology inside the golf well and scored automatically. If
Speaker 2: it scores the game, it violates the concept patent that
Speaker 2: we own on a global basis, which creates a really
Speaker 2: nice barrier of entry. But that by itself today I
Speaker 2: think within the space that we're in, doesn't ensure long
Speaker 2: term success. We were really focused on saying, we have
Speaker 2: to deliver a food and beverage experience that is as
Speaker 2: good as any casual dining option that our guests can
Speaker 2: choose from, because really we're competing against those leisure and
Speaker 2: entertainment dollars, and whether that's movie theaters, whether that's casual dining,
Speaker 2: whether that's other social entertainment concepts, we have to be
Speaker 2: able to compete across the board. So it was really
Speaker 2: important for us when we were developing the F and
Speaker 2: B side, is it has to be as good and
Speaker 2: as strong as the game, because really that's the brand
Speaker 2: that we're creating. The third component with that is the
Speaker 2: guest service experience, which you know, in today's environment may
Speaker 2: be the hardest thing to actually deliver. You know, hospitality
Speaker 2: had a lot of people leave during the pandemic, and
Speaker 2: I think a lot of people are back, but you know,
Speaker 2: creating that guest service experience where we're linking the game,
Speaker 2: the food and beverage, tying it all together, where we
Speaker 2: can activate all the senses from site, sounds, smell, et cetera,
Speaker 2: and our associates really tying it together so people have
Speaker 2: great memories. That's the real strength and I think we
Speaker 2: see that within the economic model that we have our
Speaker 2: typical venues will do in the mid twenties. For site
Speaker 2: level Ebada, we've opened eighteen venues now for in the
Speaker 2: UK and fourteen in the US, including three the we've
Speaker 2: opened in the in the first quarter of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: Every venue that we've ever opened has been profitable in
Speaker 2: the first thirty days from opening the doors, so we
Speaker 2: actually the last venue we opened was in Louisville in
Speaker 2: the middle of March, and I was just looking at
Speaker 2: our March numbers. It was profitable after two weeks.
Speaker 1: Very impressive, all right, You spoke about a few things
Speaker 1: that we're going to circle back to. One follow up.
Speaker 1: What's the alcohol mix?
Speaker 2: A typical restaurant is like two thirds food one third beverage.
Speaker 2: We're about the opposite. We're about two thirds beverage one
Speaker 2: third food.
Speaker 1: Wow, all right, great, definitely helps margins. Are you willing
Speaker 1: to share any of the margin data and any other
Speaker 1: unit level economics?
Speaker 2: I mean, our the great part about the game is,
Speaker 2: you know, it's about ninety five percent gross margin. You know,
Speaker 2: we have the cost of the ball, we have the
Speaker 2: cost of hutters or our team that are game in
Speaker 2: bass to help with the guest game experience. And then
Speaker 2: on a blended basis, we operate at about eighty four
Speaker 2: to eighty six percent gross margins at the venue level
Speaker 2: and then operating costs, rent, et cetera. You know, we're
Speaker 2: in the you know, our best our highest revenue performing
Speaker 2: sites are a thirty percent plus site level Libada, and
Speaker 2: our average is, you know, kind of in the twenty
Speaker 2: two to twenty six percent range.
Speaker 1: Okay, strong, How many stores do you have and how
Speaker 1: fast are you opening new ones?
Speaker 2: Sure? So we have opened our eighteenth location. We have
Speaker 2: an additional eight more locations that we have in various
Speaker 2: stages of development from design, permitting to construction. So yeah,
Speaker 2: we have a you know, we'll we have at least
Speaker 2: twenty six locations that we that we've got committed to
Speaker 2: and and you know, obviously want to continue to grow.
Speaker 2: It's it's been amazing as I kind of step back
Speaker 2: and take a look at how quickly we've managed to
Speaker 2: kind of grow the business and open really across the
Speaker 2: country so far. But you know, of the last twelve
Speaker 2: US venues that we've opened, we've opened those twelve venues
Speaker 2: in twenty months.
Speaker 1: So you have some in the UK as well, right,
Speaker 1: what's the split?
Speaker 2: So we have four we have four in the Greater
Speaker 2: London area, so you know, the inventors of the game
Speaker 2: are from there, and the co the third founder is
Speaker 2: a gentleman by the name of Adam Breeden who's done
Speaker 2: a number of other social entertainment concepts. All three of
Speaker 2: them are from London. So the very first test location
Speaker 2: was in West London that opened in June of twenty eighteen.
Speaker 2: I joined the organization in January nineteen. There were a
Speaker 2: few more that were committed it in the UK, and
Speaker 2: really though the main focus since twenty twenty one has
Speaker 2: been growth in the US.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so let's get back to the menu. It's elevated.
Speaker 1: I haven't had the opportunity to get to one yet,
Speaker 1: but you know, I checked out the menu online and
Speaker 1: it's not what you'd expect at a miniature golf.
Speaker 2: Joint, you know.
Speaker 1: So if you could talk a little bit about that
Speaker 1: menu and do you have customers that come in just
Speaker 1: to eat and not even play play the games?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So the answer is we do have people to
Speaker 2: come in to do that, and oftentimes it's not because
Speaker 2: they're not wanting to play the game, but it more
Speaker 2: often the case that we're fully booked for the evening,
Speaker 2: but they came in just to eat and drink anyway,
Speaker 2: and the environment and the ambiance that that's created. So
Speaker 2: our goal are. Vice president of Food and Beverage is
Speaker 2: a guy by the name of Mark Boynton. Mark's a
Speaker 2: French trained executive chef. I have known him for over
Speaker 2: a decade and when we got together, you know, we said, okay,
Speaker 2: how do we really elevate the food and beverage experience? Right?
Speaker 2: Mark is a huge believer in presentation that you know,
Speaker 2: people eat with their eyes eat with their eyes first,
Speaker 2: drink this in the same way, we created a globally
Speaker 2: inspired menu. We have a lot of shareables because people
Speaker 2: tend to come in groups, right, but you would not
Speaker 2: expect to go to a miniature golf location and get
Speaker 2: you know, wood fire Thai octopus, right, But that's the
Speaker 2: menu and it's amazing them. By the way. You know,
Speaker 2: we have Mediterranean lamb skewers, Persian chicken skewers, so there's
Speaker 2: a whole variety. And we have a lot of offerings
Speaker 2: as well, for you know, that are vegetarian, vegan, gluten free,
Speaker 2: so you know, just as a as a vegan option.
Speaker 2: For example, we have nine dishes that are available as
Speaker 2: a vegan option, so it's not like we threw one
Speaker 2: or two together and go okay, great, that's it. But
Speaker 2: then we also have you know, we have terrific flatbreads.
Speaker 2: We have handheld So the important part and I think
Speaker 2: what people people who are really into the the restaurant
Speaker 2: space would probably be able to relate to. But one
Speaker 2: of the gifts that Mark has is not only in
Speaker 2: creating you know, fantastic menu and with that we have
Speaker 2: over one hundred housemaid recipes that go into our dishes.
Speaker 2: But on a on a Saturday during you know, throughout
Speaker 2: the day, we could have twenty two to twenty five
Speaker 2: hundred people come through the door. Right, So, putting together
Speaker 2: a menu that is elevated to tastes really good that
Speaker 2: you can deliver and have the presentation consistently when you
Speaker 2: have that kind of volume, that's really hard to do, right.
Speaker 2: I mean it's you know, you look at the dish,
Speaker 2: you go, okay, great, you know, it's really nice. But
Speaker 2: actually being able to deliver that in the quality of
Speaker 2: the presentation is a is a it's a credible gift
Speaker 2: that he has in doing that. He's what's interesting in
Speaker 2: today's environment. You know, fifteen years ago doing this you
Speaker 2: could just say okay, we've got you know, we've got
Speaker 2: you know, casual dining menu and a full service bar.
Speaker 2: Today there is such a huge focus on what your
Speaker 2: signature cocktails are, you know, how are they different from
Speaker 2: where you can go and get you know, from someplace else.
Speaker 2: How is the theater around that, and how is that
Speaker 2: presented so that your guests like get a wow factor
Speaker 2: that's out of it. Right, And and Mark on the
Speaker 2: mixology side probably spends as much time putting together our
Speaker 2: signature cocktails as he does the signature dishes. So, you know,
Speaker 2: we've got a breaking bad pisco punch right that that
Speaker 2: comes out, you know, it's a mescal tequila and it
Speaker 2: comes out in a in a treasure chest with hemp
Speaker 2: smoke to it, and you know it's kind of all
Speaker 2: part of that breaking bad, you know, serious theme. We've
Speaker 2: got a you know, margarita's are are going to be,
Speaker 2: you know, seemingly a staple no matter what. But we
Speaker 2: have a spice pineapple mezcal martarita right where there's a
Speaker 2: Holopeni infused popsicle. And and as that it melts within
Speaker 2: the drink, it changes the flavor profile as you're drinking
Speaker 2: the cocktail. So there's just a lot of fun and
Speaker 2: unique things that go along with the beverage and the
Speaker 2: food side. And you know, for me, I think as
Speaker 2: we try to get the you know that those three
Speaker 2: key things right, what I really like is when I'm
Speaker 2: talking with you know, somebody who's been to Putchek for
Speaker 2: the first time, and I ask them, you know, okay,
Speaker 2: tell me the good, tell me the bad, you know,
Speaker 2: give me all the feedback and and two things I
Speaker 2: really like. One is when they say, you know, the
Speaker 2: game was great, which you know, I quite frankly really
Speaker 2: expect them to say. But it's when they say, oh
Speaker 2: my god, the food was so good. I really didn't
Speaker 2: expect the food to be that good. And and to
Speaker 2: your point, where they go, I come back just to
Speaker 2: eat and drink here, right. And then the other part
Speaker 2: is really that third component is when they'll go and
Speaker 2: you know, you know, and I've gotten this kind of
Speaker 2: a couple of times from people that use this exact phrase.
Speaker 2: Your associates just exude joy. And I'm like, Okay, if
Speaker 2: we can do those three things, then we're creating exactly
Speaker 2: what our brand is aspiring to be. And really have
Speaker 2: a fun environment where people come in and create memories.
Speaker 1: That's really cool. And you're making me want to have
Speaker 1: a cocktail as well. But I got way too much work.
Speaker 1: You have way too much work to do today and tomorrow.
Speaker 2: But it's five o'clock somewhere for sure. All right.
Speaker 1: That's that's interesting what you mentioned in terms of of
Speaker 1: the hospitality aspect and the ethos and how do you think,
Speaker 1: how do you what's enabling you to achieve that because
Speaker 1: that's that's hard to achieve.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's a huge focus that we spend.
Speaker 2: I think a lot of it comes down to early on,
Speaker 2: we really focused on what's our what are our core values,
Speaker 2: what's our brand? What do we stand for? Right? Because
Speaker 2: if you know what you stand for, if you set
Speaker 2: your core values, then you can build all your training
Speaker 2: programs around it. Because at the core I think of
Speaker 2: having engaged associates, it's the training part, and the training
Speaker 2: part comes down to, well, what is it that you
Speaker 2: believe in and who are you for us? That came
Speaker 2: down to four. We distilled that to four things. Bring
Speaker 2: your A game, lead the way, own the fund, and
Speaker 2: care deeply what we call block Okay, so we ask
Speaker 2: our associates to bring their a game every day, make
Speaker 2: sure that they are engaged with our guests in creating
Speaker 2: the fund memories. We also ask them to lead the way,
Speaker 2: which means to take some risks. Right. If we're going
Speaker 2: to be an exceptional brand, you can't do that by
Speaker 2: being conservative and not risk taking. Right. So you know,
Speaker 2: we don't want them to do stupid things, but we
Speaker 2: want them to lead the way and that means taking
Speaker 2: risks and as part of that. That also means that
Speaker 2: we will fail at times, right, it's inevitable, and encourage
Speaker 2: people to take the risk. But then learning from any
Speaker 2: failures and not punishing is what I think will help
Speaker 2: drive continue to drive the brand forward. Own the fun
Speaker 2: is really you know, people come into Puncheck because they
Speaker 2: want to have fun. All the squirrels that are running
Speaker 2: around in their head throughout the day, they just wanted
Speaker 2: to stop for a couple hours and enjoy the time
Speaker 2: with the people they're with. You know, when the DJs
Speaker 2: are playing, you know, the music's going, the lighting, and
Speaker 2: you know it in the evening. We're an adult only venue, right,
Speaker 2: so it's it turns into an upscale night club feel right,
Speaker 2: And we want people to have fun, and we want
Speaker 2: our associates to own that fun as well. And then
Speaker 2: the fourth one is care deeply care about our guests,
Speaker 2: care about our associates, and care about the communities that
Speaker 2: we're part of. So you know, one of the things
Speaker 2: that we do, we have a signature menu that mark
Speaker 2: Tailor's to every market called the Tailpipes, which is a
Speaker 2: spring roll. A dollar of every one of those goes
Speaker 2: back to a local charity and it's not a charity
Speaker 2: that I pick, or anybody on the central team picks.
Speaker 2: The managers at the venue pick a charity that's important
Speaker 2: within the local community, and then they give back to
Speaker 2: that And each one of those tailpipes is kind of
Speaker 2: custom made for the venue. So in Chicago, not surprising,
Speaker 2: it's a hot beef spring roll which ardnare in it.
Speaker 2: In Boston it's lobster maca cheese, right. But you know,
Speaker 2: in the first year in the suburbs of Chicago, we
Speaker 2: sold over ten thousand of those tailpipes that we were
Speaker 2: able to give back in that market. It's to a
Speaker 2: local food bank, right. So I think for us, if
Speaker 2: you demonstrate that, if you do those things, and if
Speaker 2: you show with our associates that we care about them,
Speaker 2: then it makes it easier for them to take the
Speaker 2: step of really caring about our guests.
Speaker 1: That's great in terms of the tailpipes and letting your
Speaker 1: managers pick the charity. And you know, I'd imagine that
Speaker 1: definitely helps create engaged employees and customers too, right. I mean,
Speaker 1: people especially in your core demographic, want to be associated
Speaker 1: with brands that that do good. So that's that's some
Speaker 1: really cool stuff and you also mentioned the freedom to
Speaker 1: take risks. I know I appreciate that in my job,
Speaker 1: so I'm sure your employees and you know, appreciate that
Speaker 1: as well. Do you have any turnover metrics that you'd
Speaker 1: like to share. I'd imagine it sounds like it'd probably
Speaker 1: be pretty good compared to you know, competitors in the
Speaker 1: restaurant space.
Speaker 2: It is, you know, I would say, it's still it's
Speaker 2: one of those things that we build that builds over time,
Speaker 2: all right. So it's kind of evolved a bit with
Speaker 2: you know, I mean the first venue we opened was
Speaker 2: in the middle the pandemic and hiring anybody who was
Speaker 2: like virtually impossible, right, So, and the people that you
Speaker 2: want to hire when you're a new brand and establishing yourselves,
Speaker 2: you know, like when you want to hire the best bartenders,
Speaker 2: the best bartenders already have a job, so they want
Speaker 2: to know, hey, is this really going to work before
Speaker 2: I quit my other job and come over to put shack.
Speaker 2: So what we learned, like any industry, every industry is small,
Speaker 2: and work gets around quickly. And the other thing that
Speaker 2: I've learned over my career is good people know other
Speaker 2: good people. Right, So as we open for example, we
Speaker 2: opened in Philadelphia last month, Yeah, in February. Sorry, when
Speaker 2: we opened our portal to bring on associates, we had
Speaker 2: hundreds more people apply. Then we had spaces to fill,
Speaker 2: which is great, which is was not the case at
Speaker 2: the first venues when you know, people wanted to see, hey,
Speaker 2: is it really going to work? So, you know, I
Speaker 2: think we're very fortunate that we have a great concept,
Speaker 2: we have people who truly believe in, you know, in
Speaker 2: our core values. And I think, you know, we also
Speaker 2: have the opportunity because we're growing, that we can create
Speaker 2: a career path for people. Right We've had people at
Speaker 2: our at our earlier you know, at our oldest venues
Speaker 2: and I say our oldest venues in the US, they
Speaker 2: are like two and a half years old, right, So,
Speaker 2: but they started as hourly associates, maybe as a bartender,
Speaker 2: as a server, and then you know became you know,
Speaker 2: shift managers and salaried managers and and our goal is
Speaker 2: to really continue to create a culture where we can
Speaker 2: develop people within and then promote them into or and
Speaker 2: better opportunities within the organization.
Speaker 1: Col And are you are you transferring a lot of
Speaker 1: your current gms into the new stores.
Speaker 2: We are, we're I mean, we have a number of
Speaker 2: What we tend to have is we have kind of
Speaker 2: our GM, which we call ADO director of Operations, and
Speaker 2: then we have a hospitality director and a beverage director
Speaker 2: and ideally we're taking and then hospitality and beverage managers.
Speaker 2: We're training the managers to become directors, and then those
Speaker 2: two right hand people then are the ideal people that
Speaker 2: we want to promote to become a DOO when we're
Speaker 2: opening up a new venue in a new market.
Speaker 1: Gotcha awesome? What's the challenge Hall?
Speaker 2: The challenge Hall is, so, you know, the great thing
Speaker 2: about what we are is, at the heart of it,
Speaker 2: we're a technology company. So we're continuously always looking at, hey,
Speaker 2: how can we continue to improve either the kind of
Speaker 2: exist game through the technology and software development. And at
Speaker 2: one point we said, you know, what we'd really like
Speaker 2: to do is create a game where right now you
Speaker 2: can play and you can drink, but it's not really
Speaker 2: conducive to eating. So is there a way that we
Speaker 2: can create another game or another way to play the game,
Speaker 2: or you can eat, drink and play all at the
Speaker 2: same time. So that was kind of the thought process
Speaker 2: behind the Challenge Hole, which we launched in December and
Speaker 2: are opening in Addison, just outside of Dallas. So the
Speaker 2: Challenge Hole is a single standalone hole, So think about
Speaker 2: it like a bowling alley or a bay a top
Speaker 2: golf type of scenario. So you can sit, eat, drink
Speaker 2: and play. And then you have a sixty five inch
Speaker 2: monitor at the top of the hole, so there's just
Speaker 2: one hole instead of instead of putting into a single hole,
Speaker 2: there's twenty two slots at the top. And then there's
Speaker 2: six games that we play. So if you think about
Speaker 2: putting the ball up this ramp and into the various slots,
Speaker 2: and then think about the game duck Hunt right where
Speaker 2: the ducks are coming across the screen and you're putting
Speaker 2: the golf ball and you're knocking the ducks out and
Speaker 2: you're scoring points. And then there's ducks that come across
Speaker 2: where you can lose points. So we have six different
Speaker 2: games that people can play. It is ideally suited for
Speaker 2: groups of called six to twelve. You know, our traditional
Speaker 2: game is perfect for date night groups of four six.
Speaker 2: If you get eight people on a single hole, it
Speaker 2: can get a little It starts to get a little
Speaker 2: bit crowded, and so the Challenge Hole really addresses that.
Speaker 2: The guests have absolutely loved it so far. The great
Speaker 2: thing is again because at the heart of it, we're
Speaker 2: really a technology company. We're getting real time feedback and
Speaker 2: other games that they want to see, and so we've
Speaker 2: already got a lot of games that we're continuing to
Speaker 2: develop in the background as well. So we'll be including
Speaker 2: the Challenge Hole in all of the venues that we
Speaker 2: open really starting in the second half of this year.
Speaker 1: All right, great, and is there any other potential for this,
Speaker 1: you know, in terms of maybe being retrofited, retrofitted to
Speaker 1: existing locations, or maybe even a smaller unit that maybe
Speaker 1: only has these challenge Hole bays and uh you know
Speaker 1: bar kitchen type area.
Speaker 2: Yep. Yeah, So I think part of what we're thinking
Speaker 2: through now from strategically, you know, what can we do
Speaker 2: with this, We're you know, we're just we're just scratching
Speaker 2: the surface, and I think all the opportunity so the
Speaker 2: Challenge Hole is great as kind of a standalone product,
Speaker 2: which we we might actually partner with people to put
Speaker 2: in into other kind of concepts, but we can all
Speaker 2: also potentially do it into more smaller markets that might
Speaker 2: not be able to support a full size punchback location.
Speaker 2: So whether that's fewer number of traditional courses or maybe
Speaker 2: even a smaller venue footprint that has just the challenge holes,
Speaker 2: smaller kitchen footprint that we can then get into markets
Speaker 2: that allows us, you know, a much bigger tam for
Speaker 2: the overall business. So yeah, we're excited about where it
Speaker 2: fits within our traditional kind of buildouts, and we're equally
Speaker 2: excited about I think the opportunities that we're just starting
Speaker 2: to take a look at now as far as you know,
Speaker 2: what can we do in a smaller venue footprint? Awesome?
Speaker 1: And can you talk a little bit about marketing. I
Speaker 1: saw your Ace Putman videos.
Speaker 2: They're funny.
Speaker 1: I saw them on YouTube. So if you can talk
Speaker 1: a little bit about some of that strategy, I'd imagine
Speaker 1: social media is probably pretty big.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So for us, social media is absolutely key to
Speaker 2: the marketing that we do. Ace Putman is a marketing
Speaker 2: program that initiative that we launched about six weeks ago now,
Speaker 2: and we thought it was just a really fun, engaging
Speaker 2: way to educate people about how putchack is different. There's
Speaker 2: only one place in the world that you can play it,
Speaker 2: and that is at a punchack. There may be other
Speaker 2: places that you could play miniature golf, but it just
Speaker 2: doesn't compare. And they're they're really good thirty second kind
Speaker 2: of snippets that really kind of help educate the marketplace
Speaker 2: as far as what it is. And you know, the
Speaker 2: great thing about how social marketing works today, you know,
Speaker 2: miniature golf in general and punchack at you know, it's
Speaker 2: a multi generational game, right. You can play it at
Speaker 2: seven years old, you can play it at seventy seven
Speaker 2: years old. And while our core demographic is that twenty
Speaker 2: one to thirty nine and we're built only in the evening.
Speaker 2: In the daytime, we do a lot of corporate events,
Speaker 2: we have a lot of families, particularly on the weekends
Speaker 2: and then but marketing programs like Ace Popman, which is
Speaker 2: really geared towards our core demographic, right, those that twenty
Speaker 2: eight year old that'll that'll come on a Saturday night.
Speaker 2: We'll have no idea that a twelve year old was
Speaker 2: there at two o'clock in the afternoon, right, which is
Speaker 2: exactly the way we want. And yeah, it's a you know,
Speaker 2: our marketing team did a great job in putting that
Speaker 2: together because it's a really fun campaign.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's funny and I imagine that and the venues
Speaker 1: are pretty instagrammable, so I'm sure that helps too.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, we have you know, we have this sign that
Speaker 2: that's in the venues. Actually we started moving it into
Speaker 2: the core of the venues, but we had it in
Speaker 2: the It's in all of our bathrooms as well. It
Speaker 2: says stop quit looking at my putt. And there are
Speaker 2: so many people who photograph that with you know, sticking
Speaker 2: their butts out and instagramming that out, which is you know,
Speaker 2: it's it's amazing how you know what things people get,
Speaker 2: you know, get get picked up and then and then
Speaker 2: fired out all over the place. And I think you
Speaker 2: know that's and really the food and beverage side as well,
Speaker 2: is you know, it's just you know, when when you're
Speaker 2: opening up a drink that's smoking, like, people immediately want
Speaker 2: to instagram that out and and show everybody, which you know,
Speaker 2: there's nothing better than when your guests are are doing
Speaker 2: some of the marketing for you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely, Man, Where's where's the closest put shack?
Speaker 2: To me?
Speaker 1: What do I have to go to Philly?
Speaker 2: What's what's the Philip Philly would be the closest. We
Speaker 2: have two now in Boston, one in Seaport, and one
Speaker 2: in the suburbs in Natick in Pittsburgh. Those are kind
Speaker 2: of the ones closest to New Jersey. I'd love to
Speaker 2: be in New Jersey as soon as we can find
Speaker 2: the right the right deal in the right location. Very cool.
Speaker 1: I have to hit one up while I'm on the
Speaker 1: road or check out Philly one of these days. But
Speaker 1: thanks for doing this, man. It's a it's a great story.
Speaker 1: I look forward to to following it, you know, going forward,
Speaker 1: where can the audience go to find their nearest put schack?
Speaker 2: So if you go to putchak dot com, will you
Speaker 2: can pick your location because we're everywhere from east coast, midwest,
Speaker 2: south north and uh and west out and as far
Speaker 2: west as Denver and Scottsdale.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I guess one more one last question too.
Speaker 1: You know you they're kind of scattered around the US.
Speaker 1: But you notice that that when some of your customers travel,
Speaker 1: they'll go to a puts shack in another city, right
Speaker 1: they will.
Speaker 2: It's a you know, try as much as I travel
Speaker 2: now and oftentimes I'm wearing a branded shirt or something.
Speaker 2: When I get on a plane, you know, like I'll
Speaker 2: get out. Well, we were at ICR actually when when
Speaker 2: we uh last talked, which was in Orlando, right, there's
Speaker 2: an event there and the bartender was like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: you're with Putchak. I was just in Pittsburgh playing there.
Speaker 2: I told all my family they have to go. It's
Speaker 2: the best thing I've ever had, you know. And then
Speaker 2: I get on a plane and there's another guy from
Speaker 2: a different city, and yeah, it's you know, it's great
Speaker 2: when you know, you when people start coming up to
Speaker 2: you and not asking, hey, what's Putchak? But I've been there,
Speaker 2: and I'm checking it out in a different city, or
Speaker 2: I'm telling all of my family and friends that live
Speaker 2: in different cities to go. So yeah, that's you know,
Speaker 2: it's it's a fun part of the job.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's very cool, man, very cool. I'm looking forward
Speaker 1: to checking it out. I also want to thank the
Speaker 1: audience for tuning in. If you liked the episode, please
Speaker 1: share it with your friends and colleagues. Check back soon
Speaker 1: for a discussion with Matt Tucker, the CEO of talk
Speaker 2: FO