JUNGLE JIM’S
www.junglejims.ca
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FOOD & DRINK • Jungle Jim’s
Jungle Jim
Eat, Drink and Ha
m’s
ave Fun!
APRIL 2011 • The Canadian Business Journal
CB
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FOOD & DRINK
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Take one step into Jungle Jim’s and you know
you are in for an extraordinary experience. The
Atlantic-Canadian restaurant chain, one of the
region’s longest-running successful chains of its
kind, has been exceeding guest expectation of a
family restaurant for two decades.
APRIL 2011 • The Canadian Business Journal
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FOOD & DRINK • Jungle Jim’s
When starting the original location on Torbay
People come to Jungle Jim’s for the atmo-
Road in St. John’s, N.L., in 1991, Stephen Pike
sphere and stay for the food. Generous helpings
and his partners Barry Walsh and Sean Brake
and a focus on sharing platters—one called the
recognized there was an auspicious gap in the
Kitchen Sink served in, you guessed it, a repli-
restaurant market between fast food and high
cated kitchen sink, is a fan favourite—insanity
end, and the market lacked something afford-
wings, ribs, hamburgers, stir fry, to name a few,
able and appealing to multi-generations. And so
the menu is designed to have something special
Jungle Jim’s was born: a high energy restaurant
for everyone, a strategy that fares well for the
with a broad menu served in a tropical setting
smaller markets Jungle Jim’s serves.
that appeals to the young and the young at heart.
The idea, says Pike, “took off like a house on
fire.” Within the first few years, more Jungle Jim’s
locations opened up across the island, then in New
Brunswick, Alberta and even Williamsburg, Va. Approaching the 20th anniversary, I ask Pike what the
secret to Jungle Jim’s success has been.
“We decided early on we weren’t in the business of just feeding people, we are in the business of making guests happy,” he says. In fact,
“making guests happy” are the first three words
“We didn’t want to pigeonhole
ourselves,” explains Pike. “The
Jungle Jim’s concept is very
accessible and appeals to a broad
cross section, a place where you
can have fun whether you are
entertaining business guests at
lunch, coming in with the family on
Friday, or Wild Wacky Wing Night
on Wednesday.”
in the job description of everyone involved in
Jungle Jim’s, from franchisee, to guest servers to
Although there is certainly an older crowd on
kitchen team members. It’s also, one suspects,
weekend nights, Jungle Jim’s guest base is about
something to do with the ambiance and the way
50 per cent family-based. “We try to focus on the
you feel when you walk through the doors. “As
family and one of the ways we do that is through
the name suggests, it’s a bit of an escape from
“Jungle Family Values, and that means making
the ordinary in Atlantic Canada. It has very tropi-
our restaurants very family friendly, and a very
cal, colourful decor, a lot of eye candy and a high
broad Safari Kids’ program.
energy environment.”
“We just keep a very strong focus on value
APRIL 2011 • The Canadian Business Journal
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FOOD & DRINK • Jungle Jim’s
so that when a guest leaves they remember the
value of their night. We want a certain share-ofmind and that share is a place where you can
expect strong value and have a lot of fun.”
Currently in the middle of our most successful annual promotional campaign called Envelope
of Fortune, guests receive a sealed envelope at
the end of their visit to be opened only on a return visit. You might win an app, a dessert, or up
to $50 cash, and it has a positive impact on increased repeat patronage. It’s ideas like this that
reward existing guests and a focus on delicious
foods that keep Jungle Jim’s at the front of the
list when it comes time to go out for some grub.
Jungle Jim’s extends its mission statement
“Keeping Guests Happy” to its franchisees, trusted business owners who bring the Jungle Jim’s
excitement to their region. With a transparent
business model, unique to the industry, Jungle
Jim’s passes on all possible purchasing power to
its Franchise Operators.
“We charge no upfront franchise fee and no
markup on the initial construction of a restaurant, and employ our own construction team,
yielding what we feel is the lowest entry cost in
the industry. These areas are profit centres for
many restaurant chains,” says Pike.
“We want to give an operator every shot at
making it when he or she decides to put down
APRIL 2011 • The Canadian Business Journal
their hard-earned money,” says Pike. “Also we
return product rebates to our operators. Fran-
value and making guests happy.
“People come to Jungle Jim’s to celebrate,”
chise buying power is able to command certain
says Pike. “It’s a place where people come to
rebates and we believe that one of the reasons
gather and eat, drink and have fun!” CB
why you would sign up with a franchise is to
take advantage of buying power and we believe
our operators should receive every advantage
we can deliver.”
Pike, Brake, Walsh and the franchisee team
have created one of Atlantic Canada’s most
successful restaurant chains by knowing and
serving its core client base; by understanding
the dynamics of the size of the communities it
serves and through an unwavering dedication to
www.junglejims.ca
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AS SEEN IN THE APRIL 2011 ISSUE
OF THE CANADIAN BUSINESS JOURNAL