Puck in a Box

By JULIETTE ROSSANT It seems Wolfgang Puck has taken the plunge into boxed takeaway in one of his recently opened Wolfgang Puck Express units in Cool Springs, TN, run by the legendary Tom Moats. Karen Emerson-McPeak of Williamson County, TN, Review Appeal quotes Moats as saying, "Wolfgang Puck Express in Cool Springs now offers box lunches, catering and delivery." Furthermore, according to Moats, “Wolfgang Puck personally selected the choices for these box lunches." What does this mean? Well, for one thing, it means some serious competition within Puck's empire, since Wolfgang Puck Catering has the dibs on catered food. In Super Chef (pp. 43-44), I described the problems which Carl Schuster, President of Wolfgang Puck Catering, had with the catering deal which Wolfgang Puck Worldwide struck with LSG Sky Chefs of January 2003. At that time, Schuster feared that catering by the Wolfgang Puck Worldwide division at lower price points would undermine the name established by Wolfgang Puck Catering, which is part of Puck's Fine Dining Group. In January 2004, Schuster signed a partnership between Wolfgang Puck Catering and his old employer Compass Group (see press release). Now, Schuster has a problem even larger than LSG Sky Chefs to deal with -- because if someone like Tom Moats, one of the most respected major franchisees in the fast casual industry, starts a successful trend in catering at the lower end, he puts Schuster's division at even greater risk should such catering become standard in the Wolfgang Puck Express concept -- whose outlets are scheduled to reach 300 units in the US alone by year-end 2005.