November-December 2016

It only took 10 minutes for Joey “Jaws” Chestnut to snatch victory from the jaws of Matt “the Megatoad” Stonie during the 7th Annual Smoke’s Poutinerie World Poutine Eating Championship in Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto, October 1.

In a year with stunning sales drops at some of franchising’s largest brands, it’s equally notable how many brands posted excellent systemwide sales growth numbers.

This world’s a cruel place, and even well-intentioned, high-quality restaurant concepts will fail with so many new competitors. This dog-eat-dog mantra applies doubly in overheated categories like pizza, burritos and, of course, better burgers.

Consider the plight of an architect working with a brand that’s starting to franchise. On one hand is the founder. “They’ve put their heart and soul and passion into creating the brand and the culture,” says Greg Terry, design director at Studio Four Design in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Rich Wagner’s life has gotten easier in recent years. As the co-founder and senior vice president of Nature’s Table, a 68-unit healthier-eating fast-casual concept started in Florida in the late 1980’s, he’s seen the concept pick up some momentum as Americans have generally started favoring healthier and more transparent restaurants.

The name Two Maids and a Mop makes perfect sense for a residential cleaning service, until you begin to hear about the franchisor’s extreme thriftiness while growing the business, and you start to do the math. And then you can’t help worrying, which maid gets the mop?

Jeff Gill sat with his head in his hands, unsure of what he was going to do next. It was the early 2000s, and he had bought a business opportunity called Chips Away, which repaired paint chips and bumper scuffs on high-end cars.

‘What truck just hit me’ is a question many multi-unit operators ask. But for Rory Smith of Shoney’s, the answer is always to get up and press on.

If there had been an opening in our cover story line-up earlier than November, I would have been the one to break the news that Valerie Daniels-Carter is the coolest woman in Wisconsin. As it was, e-magazine PureWow chose Daniels-Carter back in September to represent Wisconsin in its state-by-state listing of cool women doing impressive things.

Amit Kleinberger, CEO of Menchie’s, has a great story to tell at first glance: More than 300 MidiCi pizza franchises, his second brand, have flown out the door since 2015. But not a single one has opened. Can this operation be sustained?

When acai berries and mangosteen are key parts of your menu, hunting them down is a challenge. ‘The tricky thing is you want stuff to show up the same way every day,” says a CoreLife exec.

Timing is everything when chefs create limited-time offers. ‘We’re not the leader of the pack but we don’t want to be an ankle biter,’ said Buffalo Wings & Rings’ chef. Add the mandate to be ‘operationally feasible,’ and it’s tough.

The concept: Paris Baguette has built an iconic image worldwide with more than 3,700 locations, most of them in South Korea.

In 2011 Minnesota passed the Taproom Bill, allowing breweries to sell beer onsite and fueling the growth of a local industry that’s ballooned from fewer than 30 in-state breweries to more than 100 in just five years.

It’s not only the American population that’s aging. The demographics have galvanized U.S.-based senior care franchises who have set their sights on global expansion and pursued a variety of strategies to get there.

A Doc Popcorn in a car wash? Why not, when the aroma of caramel corn is a sure-fire draw. As the land grab continues for restaurant brands, more franchises are going the non-traditional route.

When Robert Cresanti replaced Steve Caldeira as president and CEO of the International Franchise Association in the fall of 2015, a cooling vibe washed over the industry-leading association as it switched from red-faced partisanship to a calmer, more bipartisan approach.

Despite common misconceptions, succession planning is not necessarily solely about retirement. Rather it’s about opening doors for franchise owners and helping them take advantage of emerging business opportunities.

There were no blockbusters this past year in franchise legal cases, but rather a number of decisions that illuminated the need for attorneys to be vigilant, according to two franchise attorneys.

Charles Modell, a deservedly-so prominent franchisor lawyer, in his guest column in the September issue of Franchise Times, correctly opined that a thoroughly prepared financial performance representation is a pivotal piece. A carefully prepared Item 19, which has a reasonable basis and full and fair disclosure of the material facts and assumptions underlying it, is key information that a prospective franchisee seeks to obtain and can help a franchisor lawfully sell franchises.

Continued innovation in site selection tools is making it easier for franchise groups to identify high-traffic hot spots. In the past five years, site selection firms have stepped up their game in delivering traffic count data that is more accurate, timely, granular and hyperlocal.

In 2007, Focus Brands of Atlanta purchased Moe’s Southwest Grill from Raving Brands, headed by Martin Sprock who also founded Planet Smoothie, for an undisclosed sum.

The sparkling new Embassy Suites in my hometown feels like it’s always been here, because the building has been for more than a century. Melding old with new, the lobby has snowy marble floors accented by super-mod wood accents. Over the fireplace swims a school of fish, an installation from a local artist.

From a high stock price of $43 in 2006 to Chapter 11 bankruptcy and delisting in September, Cosi serves as a tough lesson—namely, restaurants need to make money to grow.

A fountain out front and a font of capital inside, the Restaurant Finance and Development Conference is almost here, presented by our sister publication, the Restaurant Finance Monitor.

Franchise brands are looking to the future in Brazil and Uruguay, two South American markets with plenty of potential but in need of some economic growth and development attention to reach it.

Language: Portuguese (Don’t speak to them in Spanish, and print materials in both English and Portuguese) Religion: 65% Roman Catholic

Everyone signs a confidentiality agreement at Vitality Bowls, franchisee and employee alike, to guard the brand’s intellectual property. For all three of Living Large’s emerging franchisors, protection is job one.

Fresh & Healthy Brands hired Hisham Anas as its business development manager for the Middle East and North Africa. Muscle Maker Grill promoted Derek Bogner to VP of franchise operations, Scott Carlock to CFO and David LaPointe to director of corporate operations.

Jason LeVecke, the grandson of CKE Restaurants’ founder, figures he has nothing left to lose. So he sent a blistering letter in late September to “friends and colleagues,” blasting the leadership of CEO Andy Puzder and the “degrading” ads promoting Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr., the two fast food brands franchised by CKE.

Of the dozens of newsletters, alerts and other instant analyses of the effect of Brexit, or the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union, on franchising, these two headlines above are perhaps the most memorable (and, no, I did not add that emphatic type or exclamation point).

Every four years the U.S. government calls upon one of the most influential aggregates of men and women in the country: the Electoral College, 538 men and women, to be exact. It is their responsibility to cast the votes that decide the president and vice president of the United States.

It’s been tough this summer finding workers to staff Colorado’s 11,247 restaurants. After all, the state’s unemployment rate is a meager 3.8 percent. So hospitality recruiter Michelle Shriver wasn’t exactly surprised when a client wondered if she could help find reliable hourlies. He hadn’t been the only one to make such a request.