Partner promotional rematch on track to move $2.3 million worth of ranch meals through August

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (July 18, 2006) - A second, beef checkoff-funded foodservice promotional partnership with the nation’s largest full-service travel center chain has gone off like a rocket, selling nearly 40,000 Ranch Steak meals nationally in the first 20 days of the campaign.  

During a 90-day “From the Road to the Ranch” promotion, Travelcenters of America (TA) is featuring new breakfast, lunch and dinner menu items using the Ranch Steak, one of the increasingly popular Beef Value Cuts. Orders for the “Rise’n’ Shine Ranch Steak Breakfast ($7.99), the Cowboy Ranch Steak Dinner ($9.99) and the Cowboy Ranch ‘n’ Scampi ($11.99) have averaged about 24 a day at the chain’s 130 U.S. roadside restaurants, according to Tina Facca, director of TA restaurant marketing.   

The promotion is on track to sell $2.3 million Ranch Steak meals by August, and has already accounted for 15 percent of total TA sales this summer. Typical promotions usually average a 7- to 8-percent bump, Facca said. A previous checkoff-funded foodservice partnership with TA in spring 2005 sold more than 57,700 Flat Iron Steak and Egg Breakfasts, she added.   

Beef Board member Laurie Bryant, chairman of the beef checkoff’s Joint Foodservice Committee, said the checkoff allocated almost $2 million to foodservice partnerships such as this between 2001 and 2005, while restaurant partners invested nearly $123 million in these promotions. The TA partnership is another good example of leveraging checkoff dollars for big impact, he added.  

The Ranch Steak is the result of checkoff-funded efforts to research and develop better ways to use the chuck shoulder, which increases the total value of the beef carcass.