Food-software business continues growth despite downturn:
Exit41 continues growth despite recession

(Eagle-Tribune (North Andover, MA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Sep. 13--ANDOVER -- Even in a recession, people have to eat.

hat's good for some in the food business, like Exit41, a high-tech company that makes software and runs a local call center for restaurant chains that offer catering, take-out and delivery service in addition to traditional, sit-down dining.

Joe Gagnon, CEO of the company located in a converted mill building at Three Dundee Park in Andover, is bullish about the business, if not the economy.

"We are fitting right into how the future is going to be in ordering food," said Gagnon, who took over the top spot from the founder about three years ago. Since then, the company has retooled and refocused its efforts on restaurants that offer catering. In the past year, the company has added 20 new clients, he said.

"The challenge was doing this in the recession," he said. "Some of the rollouts are going slower than you'd like." Exit41 started out offering its services to fast-food drive-through restaurants. Under the old company, Exit41 provided software and call-center services so that when a customer in New Hampshire, for example, drove up to order at a Wendy's, they were actually speaking to someone in Delaware, who would take the order and flash it on a screen at the local restaurant.

Gagnon found that the technology worked, but too well, overwhelming the restaurants with orders. It has now branched out into other avenues, and is even getting ready to launch an iPhone application this month that will enable customers to find a local restaurant easily, order online, and then have the food delivered or ready for pick-up as needed. Discount coupons may even be attached as part of the application.

"You come out of the Green Line and want to find a local restaurant, you can find it on your iPhone," he said. One of the restaurants that will benefit from the new app is Qdoba Mexican Grill, which Exit41 has a contract with for 200 of its restaurants around the country, including several local franchises.

"We see the future through the eyes of youth," he said. "It's how they live, work and play. We make tools that fit within the lifestyle that is becoming the norm." Other restaurants using the company's online services include Blockhead Burritos in New York City, Fig & Olive, which has stores all over the country, and Wow Bao, which is located in Chicago.

But Gagnon reports that one of its biggest growth areas is internationally.

He said Exit41 has teamed up with the American Group, which operates more than 1,000 restaurants in the Middle East, and another company that offers fast-food delivery in South, Central and Latin America.

Gagnon said the company has found that traffic is so horrible in some of those countries, and labor so cheap, that it's quicker and less expensive for people to call, or go online, order and wait for the food to be delivered than it is to go and get it themselves.

As the company has grown, so has the number of employees. Now, about 65 people work in the call center, in addition to another 35 or 40 in administrative and software development. Gagnon expects the company will have about 300 employees by the end of next year.

"There's a huge growth opportunity here," he said.

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