Inspire Brands’ quality management solution goes global with CMX1

32,000 Restaurants  |  60+ Countries  |  $27B+ in Global Sales

With a burgeoning brand portfolio that boasts some of the world’s best known fast-casual restaurant chains including Arby’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, SONIC Drive-In, Rusty Taco, and Jimmy John’s - Inspire Brands is now the second-largest restaurant company in the United States in terms of system sales and locations, thanks to their acquisition of Dunkin Donuts and Baskin Robbins in late 2020. 

Inspire’s tagline is a ‘restaurant company unlike any other’ and their purpose is to “ignite and nourish flavorful experiences”. With their industry-admired commitment to quality and customer experience, they do this across nearly 32,000 locations in over 60 countries, and in all 50 US states. 

Inspire’s Global Quality Assurance Team is investing in the company's future with CMX’s Supply Chain Quality Management Software that will support their OneInspire ecosystem - now, and into the future.

opportunity

Quality, consistency, and a customer experience that people rave about isn’t easy even for one brand. Scale up to multiple brands, 31,600+ locations across the globe, mix in 3,200 franchisees and over 650,000 team members - and you’re likely to encounter some big challenges. But for Inspire, this is their recipe for success, “bringing together differentiated yet complementary brands and making them stronger than they would be on their own”.

They do this by investing in best-in-class Centers of Excellence across a suite of shared services to enable efficient operations and drive competitive advantage for each of their brands. 

Enter CMX1 solutions.

In October of 2020, CMX announced that Inspire Brands had selected the CMX1 platform as their global solution for supply chain quality management for their brands, with the rollout already underway and set to continue through to 2022.

action

The CMX1 platform is helping Inspire with increased visibility and control of their supply chain, empowering them to consistently deliver quality products, and ensuring compliance with regulations and guidelines. In short, it is designed to give them an easier, more efficient way to deliver on their brand promises.

The use of CMX1 will be an important part to the successful move toward a more integrated approach across all our brands. With its unique ability to manage and bring visibility across multiple brands, CMX1 is designed to do the heavy lifting by centralizing data, decreasing paper, and enabling automation to ensure our suppliers are meeting our expectations and standards as we scale.

Byron Theodore

Senior Director, Global Quality Assurance for Inspire Brands

Senior Director, Global Quality Assurance for Inspire Brands

Across Inspire’s global brand portfolio, multiple CMX1 modules are lined up to bring a unified approach and automation for:

• Supplier evaluations, onboarding, and product commercialization approvals
• Managing supplier compliance with regard to FSMA requirements, HACCP controls, process flows, food safety, sustainability, and animal welfare practices when applicable
• Product specification authoring and approvals including internal collaboration with R&D and suppliers
• Ongoing quality management and monitoring through product testing, evaluations, and inspections
• Collecting GFSI audits and conducting onsite and virtual process control audits at supplier production facilities
• Supply chain traceability, including the resolution of product quality incidents, and executing product withdrawals and recalls
• Enterprise reporting and supplier scorecards

Delighting both customers and franchisees

“OneInspire” is the idea that restaurants can help other restaurants and brands can help other brands within the Inspire ecosystem. It’s a cultural ideal that CEO Paul Brown believes in, and one that CMX1 will play a key role in at the heart of Inspire’s global Quality Management platform.

Brown’s goal is to become “The Preferred Franchisor,” a goal that relies on technology to proactively manage a diverse menu at tens of thousands of locations. A more cooperative, smarter, and technologically advanced organization is one that is more attractive to the franchisees who will fuel Inspire’s growth.  As Brown puts it, “At Inspire, we see and hear the motivation of the team and the alignment around this OneInspire approach. And I’ve never been more confident in this organization than I am now.”

outcomes

Inspire Brand’s growth is powered by a strategy that dates back several years and a leadership team with a clear vision as to how that strategy will come to life. And, CMX is proud to be a key part of the technology strategy that is enabling Inspire’s growth while delivering on its brand values and promise, all at a rapid rate of growth.

CMX has the great privilege to work with Inspire Brands on many fronts including:

• Sonic Drive-In had been a long time customer of CMX prior to being acquired by Inspire Brands. They were an early adopter of CMX’1 Recalls and Withdrawals solution, and also our Product Inspection module. Check out our Sonic Drive-In Client Success Story to learn more.
• Buffalo Wild Wings leverages CMX’s ActivitiesX1 solution to digitally manage their operating procedures and protocols, and execute audits, self-assessments, and checklists all designed to ensure food safety, guest and employee health and safety, quality control, and compliance across more than 1,200 locations. Check out our Buffalo Wild Wings Client Success Story to learn more.

about CMX1

CMX’s Enterprise Quality Management Software (EQMS) helps highly regulated organizations manage supply chain partners, ensure product and service quality, and improve operational execution. Some of the world’s best known brands including Burger King, Hasbro, Arby’s, and Taco Bell choose to partner with CMX.

For more information,   contact us here or call 1-858-866-8888.