Sometime in the 1970s, Old El Paso made their North American integration into our supermarkets. We’ve all had their hard-shell taco kits and used the tasty, fun Tex-Mex seasoning. In 1981 Taco Bell made its appearance in Canada. Although it had success in its initial years, it has had spotty longevity in its stand-alone locations.
Today’s Canadian restaurant versions are ample and widespread. They range from traditional Mexican tacos to fusion variations that have the texture and taste of a soft tortilla and a combination of fresh, layered ingredients. It has been an exciting trend development that has presented itself in the last decade or so.
Tacos have been popular in an abundance of new restaurant taqueria creations, food truck concepts, taco events, and have a constant menu presence, and had dominated in social media with foodie enthusiasts. For my American friends, it is like when the poutine as a dish dominated in NYC around 2005–2009. Every restaurant had a poutine during that time. Our French-Canadian Quebec flair had headed south and was appreciated on a rising scale as a great new format. Although photoed a lot less due to the times.
Taste of Business
Over the years I have built businesses, brands, and products and had to work with existing businesses, brands, and products both in mid-sized and large enterprises. For a spell, under the umbrella of hospitality, I had sold my fair share of food and beverage in the range of about $13 million dollars over a handful of years.
The food service business and these other previous operations all had growth opportunities in quality services, products, acquisitions, unpacking and rebundling like products or rounding out turnkey solutions. And there have been a few disrupters.
Disrupters are loosely defined as a development that displaces an existing market status quo or established industry and introduces something new, more efficient, and worthwhile. For example, in an earlier venture, I had the pleasure of being first in bringing Walt Disney licensed products into the disrupting dollar store/value chain market. Growth was at about 5000 percent, we sold about 50,000,000 units, and we had in turn acquired licenses for Nickelodeon, Fox, Marvel and several others.
Micro-disrupters also exist and are amazing to be a part of and/or even observe. That brings me to the Canadian taco.
Three Unique Things About the Taco in Canada
In business, often you can end up with a margin mix that doesn’t support the business, because the timing of growth or the timing of the surrounding market conditions are not aligned, or possibly a trend has changed. This new take on the taco in Canada has certainly seen some natural business benefits.
1. Tacos Were a Disrupter
The migration of the taco to Canada in a non-fast-food fashion was a micro-disrupter. It has not only come to Canada as a trend in offering but then revealed a real gap in a market that never had been properly offered before. The timing with the consumer movement for fresh ingredients matched to this Mexican super dish was an obvious success.
2. Product Strength in Staying Status
Tacos came and they are here to stay. Like many great dishes that have come to a staple existence in our lives, tacos are an evergreen. So, if you came to it early as a business, you may have enjoyed the long drag of its upward trend and the related spend in sales to the now strong evergreen position the taco has in Canada.
3. Manageable to Great Margins
Unlike below the southern border, tacos here have a large opportunity for margins. People will pay for them and they typically don’t come with a side dish like other items on a menu like a burger, a wrap or even a true main course like a steak. You don’t have to be heavy on the ingredients either for it to be a great eating experience. The business numbers can be anywhere from 13% to 25% in food cost. Additionally, like a daily soup, you can also use tacos for items with shelf life in your business. Yesterday’s entrée can be tomorrow’s creative, and still amazing taco special.
Fun Facts in Summary
Now this is just an opinion coming from personal and timing experience, known business models and a few supporting facts, discussing what I know about tacos and why they had a great Canadian business product mix.
At the time of our hospitality venture, we had just created a multi-location brand based on a “Farm” undertone model. It was not country and not Tex-Mex, as that had already been done. There was an executive decision by me to keep a hard line to keep it that way. We used a strong percentage of farm and local products; we had our own craft beer sold in growlers and we organized for strategic paced growth.
This was the time the taco made it’s appearance. After close to a decade of our dip in this marketing place and since selling, closing and folding the other restaurant locations; due to personally having small babies and an unfavorable business climate, I sometimes wonder if, had we been an early adopter of the Mexican taco, could our well-positioned early brand, in adaptation, have seen opportunity for true scale.
This was the second time I have participated in an up-close look at a disruption. Micro and macro. I am looking forward to the next time I get to witness a disruptions business bloom in all it’s glory. I hope to be on the right side of it next time around.
Right now, I’m hungry for a shawarma…but I still love tacos.
Author Keith H Loiselle
www. intheproduction.com – Specialized in Digital and Traditional Design, Branding & Marketing, Licensed Consumer Products and Business Strategy.