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The ‘Beyoncé Bounce’: Red Lobster sales spike 33% after restaurant named in new ‘Formation’ song

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Beyonce's new song "Formation", which was released over the weekend, sent customers streaming into Red Lobster on Super Bowl Sunday, which is typically a slow day for the company, the restaurant chain's CEO said.

Red Lobster says it’s feeling the “Beyonc Bounce.”

Red Lobster Ceo Kim Lopdrup said sales jumped 33 percent on Sunday and increased “well into the double digits” on Monday after pop star Beyonc mentioned the seafood chain in her new song, “Formation.”

The song, that was released over the past weekend and says she took a man to Red Lobster after sex, sent customers streaming into Red Lobster on Super Bowl Sunday, that is typically a slow day for that company, Lopdrup said in an interview with Bloomberg News. He declined to give a particular figure for the double- digit increase on Monday, which compares using the year-earlier day.

“It has been a remarkable week — we never likely to be such a hot conversation starter,” he explained. “We were happy to learn that Beyonc and her fans loved Red Lobster a lot.”

Lopdrup said he wasn’t aware of the Beyonc song until Red Lobster began trending on Twitter, something he doesn’t recall happening before.

Other factors likely helped its sales. The restaurant chain, which was acquired by Golden Gate Capital in 2014, had just started its annual Lobsterfest promotion on Feb. 1. Red Lobster also notes the 2010 winter wasn’t as harsh, meaning people were likely more willing to go out to restaurants.

Red Lobster has been working to enhance growth because it was sold by Darden Restaurants Inc., who owns Olive Garden, because of slow sales as well as an aging subscriber base. The chain says it’s posted sales gains every 3 months since the separation.

“Super Bowl Sunday is typically not a good day for us, so we were really delighted to see such strong results,” Lopdrup said.

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Erica Ettori, a Red Lobster representative, said she couldn’t “confirm or deny” if the chain has reached out to Beyonc, but noted that things were “moving fast.”

Regardless, the chain has already been trying to make the most of their moment, noting that lobster is recognized as an intimate food. The chain also tweeted that, “Cheddar Bey Biscuits” has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?” The tweet had more than 14,000 retweets as of Tuesday afternoon, but some mocked Red Lobster to take several hours to reply, simply to come up with something they deemed underwhelming.

Red Lobster, based in Orlando, Florida, has a lot more than 700 locations within the U.S. and Canada.

Compiled with files from Bloomberg News, The Associated Press

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