New Customer
Uniform Program
Barco Uniforms
Gardena , CA
 Barco
Uniforms, a UNIVATOR recipient last year, is again being
recognized for its innovative and clever restaurant apparel
designs. With over 900,000 locations and 12.2 million employees,
the restaurant industry is the largest employer in the
United States besides government. According to the National
Restaurant Association, industry sales were forecast to advance 4.9 percent
in 2005 and equal 4 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product. Every dollar
spent by consumers in restaurants generates an additional $1.98 spent in other
industries allied with the restaurant industry, and every additional $1 million
in restaurant sales generates an additional 42 jobs for the nation's economy.
In 2005, Barco developed a new uniform program for IHOP
Restaurants. The uniform program focuses on the server,
and includes a blue and white multistripe shirt and a second
stripe option of a blue, white and red shirt with black
pants.
Aprons, an integral part of any server‘s wardrobe,
have also been spruced up. A royal blue "convertible" apron
begins as a bib apron for breakfast, folds into a half
apron for lunch and transitions to a bistro apron for dinner.
The apron is accented with a 3D IHOP logo and namebadge.
The apron’s flexibility enables the server to move
into different segments of the day seamlessly, a stated
goal from the program’s outset.
The hostess who greets customers is in a coordinating
red shirt with patterned loop tie and black pants with
a namebadge. The combo (bus boy) position has a red polo
shirt with a blue and red stripe knit collar, namebadge,
blue and red baseball hat with logo and black pants.
In an email, Barco’s Kathy Taylor explained the
reasoning behind the program’s overhaul: “IHOP
was in the process of repositioning their brand from a
breakfast destination to a full-service, breakfast, lunch
and dinner restaurant. They wanted to update and upgrade
their image and draw a more diverse customer base.”
The benefits of the new program effectively and immediately
signaled the change to customers. “The colors and
design of the program present a higher quality image for
the brand while maintaining the brand heritage and family
experience,” notes Taylor. “The unique engineering
of the core apron piece meets the practical needs of the
server while signaling change and further enforcing the
corporate goals for the brand repositioning.”
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