How Long John Silver’s prepares for its busiest season

Long John Silver's
Mar 4, 2016
1 min read

For Long John Silver’s, the Lenten season is longer than 40 days.

The Louisville-based fast-food seafood chain started preparing nine months ago for the beginning of its busiest season. Long John Silver’s executives have hosted regional meetings, set up special online training for employees, and created television and newspaper advertisements, as well as a social media plan ahead of next Wednesday, said company CEO James O’Reilly.

For those who don’t know, Lent is a period where Catholics, Lutherans, Methodists, Anglicans, Eastern Orthodox and Calvinists mark the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Lent starts this year on Feb. 10 with Ash Wednesday and concludes on March 26 with Holy Saturday.

Per tradition, some religious observers give up eating meat — everything but fish — for the duration of Lent, while others forgo meat on Fridays only. That is where Long John Silver’s has chiseled out a niche in the fast-food market.

Throughout Lent, Long John Silver’s serves nearly 22 million pieces of fish at its 1,100 stores nationwide, and customers use 81,000 gallons of tartar sauce, according to figures provided by the company.

On Ash Wednesday alone, Long John Silver’s sales rise 75 percent compared to a typical Wednesday. The company sells almost 450,000 shrimp on Ash Wednesday and 500,000 hushpuppies, according to the company.

Multiplying its seafood orders ahead of Lent isn’t a problem for the company’s suppliers, who’ve dealt with the tidal wave of business for decades now, O’Reilly said.

“We are advertising this beautiful looking cod, and customers are going to come in and ask for that of course, and we’ll be ready for them,” he said.