Pokawa ensures smooth and structured expansion with Easilys f&b

Pokawa is a young brand founded in 2017 by Samuel Carré and Maxime Buhler. They were inspired by poké bowls and wanted to export and diversify this healthy dish.

The product gradually started to gain more visibility and the founders opened their first restaurant in Paris. Their dishes grew in popularity, and they began opening more stores. They soon warmed to the concept of franchising which took them from 15 to 78 restaurants by 2021, however the founders were concerned about maintaining consistency between owned and franchised sites.

Today, with a strong presence in Luxembourg and Belgium, the thriving brand now plans to open 40 new restaurants in 2022 in Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Germany, Reunion Islands and Martinique.

While the company has grown exponentially, it hasn’t come without its challenges. They needed a solution that would enable them to structure their operational processes while maintaining a high level of service across all sites.

Harnessing and managing growth in a multi-site restaurant business

A growing restaurant brands requires a structured approach to production: everything is made onsite at Pokawa, from receiving the raw ingredients to creation of instant pokés.

Pokawa’s Purchasing Manager, Bertrand Claquin, recalls that “the company was looking for a tool to support its growth, manage stocks and inventories and create recipes while also calculating food costs. Easilys f&b perfectly matched the brand’s needs, was seamless and easy to use.

Easilys f&b enables Pokawa to integrate its suppliers into one easy system and ensure optimal delivery to all sites, which Bertrand Claquin believes align with Pokawa’s two mantras “Preparation and foresight”.

The company was looking for a tool to support its growth, manage stocks and inventories and create recipes while also calculating food costs. Easilys f&b perfectly matched the brand’s needs, was seamless and easy to use.

Bertrand Claquin, directeur des achats chez Pokawa

Easilys f&b: a single platform ensuring consistent service across all Pokawa sites

Maintaining service standards is crucial in a growing company: Pokawa has succeeded in developing its franchise model while guaranteeing the same high quality at every site.

The software has helped Pokawa ensure consistency of service. Easilys f&b recipe cards, for example, enable the brand to establish standard recipes that can be replicated across all stores.

“At Pokawa, each site manager checks that packaging meets approved standards. The same goes for our recipes: we ensure that dishes are correctly prepared, whether the restaurant is owned or a franchise.”

Health is also top priority, and the Easilys f&b traceability module enables brands to assign batch numbers and labels to all ingredients.