CSN EXCLUSIVE: The Demise & Resurrection of Foxtrot
CHICAGO — The shutdown of Foxtrot Café & Market in April of this year came as a shock to many observers of the convenience store industry and of the chain in particular.
Just a few months earlier, the company had looked like it was solidifying its place in the retail sector. Foxtrot completed an acquisition of Dom's Kitchen & Market in late 2023, creating a new umbrella entity, Outfox Hospitality, to operate both sides of the business. Placer.ai subsequently named Foxtrot one of its Top 10 Brands to Watch in 2024, specifically citing the company's recent growth and upscale offerings as reasons to expect major developments from the c-store operator.
Behind the scenes, however, things were not quite so rosy. Foxtrot/Outfox went through two CEOs in less than a year, with Liz Williams serving in the position for eight months before leaving shortly after the Dom's merger, and Rob Twyman only coming onboard in the last two months before the abrupt closures. According to Modern Retail, the company was also struggling with an identity crisis, moving away from its focus on local and artisanal goods into more typical national brands.
With frontline staff caught off guard by the store closings and Outfox declaring bankruptcy, it appeared the company's future would most likely involve years of litigation to sort out creditors and owed severance packages; the brand destined to fade away.
But then, what a difference a single summer can make.
A Second Life
According to Mike LaVitola, Foxtrot cofounder and chairman, an investor was able to enter in the wake of the bankruptcy and pick up several of the retailer's assets, including intellectual property and physical locations.
"[The investor] wanted to reboot it, but there was a lot of thinking to be done, such as conversations with former employees and vendors to gauge how they were feeling about everything and their … appetite for coming back," he told Convenience Store News. "And despite how things ended … Foxtrot was a company that was willing to take risks on new brands and give them a shot. And I think that reputation ultimately gave us the opportunity to have a second chance."
Given this opportunity, LaVitola wanted to bring the company back to its roots. Though he had run Foxtrot for nearly a decade, he had been out of leadership for the last year and a half. He wasn't the only former management employee hoping to revive the brand; both his cofounder and the company's former head of operations came onboard to usher in the new Foxtrot, alongside numerous other company veterans.
The management team additionally made a point of reaching out to store staff and offering them positions in the new company.
"There's a lot of continuity with the previous team," LaVitola said. "We wanted to make sure that we gave former team members first priority, as well as time and space to come back if they wanted to."
In fact, Foxtrot's second first new store — which reopened Sept. 5 in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood — has a team of mostly returning employees to welcome in customers. And as this site served as a Foxtrot in its first incarnation, the company used the opportunity to build off what was already there, such as updating the café menu and shortening turnaround times for food orders.
The company is also working on a back-to-basics approach when it comes to grocery offerings. "In my opinion, we were way overstocked over the last year or two, so we're back to about 2,500 SKUs, which is kind of how we had run in the past and simplifies things on the operations side," LaVitola said. "It also allows us to spend a lot more time with the vendors that we do carry to make sure that their products are showing up right and that we're able to tell their stories in-store."
Storytelling will return as a key selling point, with frontline staff given opportunities for greater product education, wine tastings and vendor meet-and-greets.
"[We want team members] to kind of fall in love with these products as well, so when customers ask, 'what's your favorite?' or 'what are you into?' our store teams can confidently recommend their favorite stuff," he added.
All the while, LaVitola plans to learn from mistakes of the past. While there are several locations already slated to reopen through next year in both Chicago and Dallas, a more deliberate approach is being deployed now, with less focus on continuous growth and more focus on creating the best plan for store operations.
"Even the way the backline is set up matters," he said. "We need to be operationally set up and prepared for it."
On the question of future expansion, LaVitola demurred. While the new Foxtrot has access to about 12 locations it can work on over the next two years, there are no plans to reenter Washington, D.C., nor to examine any other additional markets for now.
"We are really focused on reopening the stores we were able to get back and to operate those at the highest level," he said. "That right there is a really, really solid base to work from. … We want to make sure that we get these stores right, because they're the neighborhoods that we know, they're the stores that we know, and that seems like plenty for the next little bit."
Foxtrot Café & Market is now serving customers at 23 West Maple in Chicago. The company's Old Town store in Chicago is slated to reopen in the next few weeks.
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