WSW Establishes DC Presence for a National, Privately Held Quick Serve Restaurant Chain

In Brief

Established the company as an industry leader in food safety by organizing a high-level meeting with the head of the FDA’s Food Center, creating a direct channel to showcase innovative practices and influence future regulatory dialogue.
Built a robust Washington presence from the ground up, fostering key relationships through strategic engagement with the company’s home congressional delegation and seamless integration into influential industry trade associations.
Provides proactive strategic intelligence and counsel across a wide range of critical business issues—including trade, tax, and transportation—keeping the company ahead of the curve on emerging federal policy and regulatory challenges.

WSW has worked on behalf a large, privately held quick service restaurant chain since 2017. WSW helped the organization establish its presence in Washington and develop relationships with key regulators, identifying opportunities to exchange ideas and best practices around food safety, ingredient labeling, and other issues important to the company and to the industry. For example, WSW was able to organize a meeting for the company’s food safety with the head of the Food Center at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), where the company demonstrated some innovative approaches to washing produce. The FDA team was engaged and interested, and continued to keep in touch with the company as they considered regulations in this area.

As part of the company’s efforts to raise its profile, WSW helps organize lunch or breakfast for the members of the company’s home congressional delegation and their staffs every other year, providing food and hospitality and a place for the staff to spend time with company representatives and with each other.

WSW’s profile-raising strategy for the company also included making recommendations on which industry groups and trade associations the company should join. The WSW team provided background information, scheduled and staffed introductory meetings, assisted with follow-up, and in many cases, serves as the company’s representative with these trade associations.

In addition, WSW keeps the company ahead of the curve with intelligence and insight on what’s coming down the pike on a wide array of issues that impact the company, including trade and tariffs; taxes; trucking and transportation; and privacy issues.