How do you decide on the locations for new units? What factors or data points are most critical in your analysis?

Welcome to the fourth issue of Multi-Unit Restaurant Franchisee—Paths to Success. Each newsletter features a single question, with responses from different multi-unit restaurant franchisees speaking directly from their experience. It is emailed to subscribers every 2nd & 4th Monday.

A second section, “Franchisee Bytes,” features responses to a more personal question from a different group of multi-unit operators (favorite book, who they’d like to have lunch with, best advice, what do people not know about them, last vacation, etc.).

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SCOTT SUTTERFIELD

Franchisees: Scott and Eric Sutterfield (brothers)

Brands: Beans & Brews Coffeehouse (10, about to open 11th)

Years in franchising: 18

To determine the location for a new Beans & Brews Coffeehouse, I lean heavily on franchisor guidance, leveraging the corporate team’s expertise to identify optimal real estate. We evaluate critical factors such as traffic volume, growth projections, and demographic trends to ensure the viability of each potential site. Despite being occasionally skeptical, I trust the franchisor’s recommendations, and it has yielded remarkable success. The locations of three of our top-performing coffee shops were all recommended by the Beans & Brews team. With a portfolio of 10 thriving coffee shops and ongoing expansion plans, we continue to prioritize a data-driven approach combined with franchisor guidance to secure prime Beans & Brews locations in the Salt Lake City area.

DAVID PLAIT

Brands: Hungry Howie’s (21) 

Years in franchising: 35

When identifying the next best Hungry Howie’s unit location, I’ve found that being arm’s-length to the units I operate helps ensure that the business is running smoothly. I will often spend several days to a week learning about the community around the units we operate in to develop a better understanding of how to make improvements where needed for continued success. In doing so, I will often rent a hotel room and order pizzas to test them out, ask local community members their go-to pizza places, and visit local schools and organizations to see how the original franchisee was involved to get a better feel for the community. Being more familiar with the Midwest and analyzing the high density of consumers we’re looking for in that area improves our chances for success. When analyzing opportunities to expand locations as a franchisee, I strongly believe that doing your due diligence to make sure every restaurant is effectively serving its community is the most critical factor in success.

HANNIBAL MYERS

Company: Global Restaurant Hospitality Group, LLC (President & CEO)

Brands: Church’s Chicken (41) in Southern CA and Western AZ

Years in franchising: 32 (27.5 on the franchisor side, 4.5 as a franchisee)

When thinking about potential locations for new units, in addition to the usual attributes of favorable trade area demographics, there are several factors/data points I look for:

• Is there a true demand for my brand offering in the trade area? (General, but not to be overlooked)

• Would the development of the new location cannibalize sales at a nearby profitable location by more than 15%?

• Will the location be equal to or superior to that of any key competitor(s) in the trade area? (Highly desired, though not an absolute deal breaker for the ideal location)

• Is there an acceptable presence and volume of the core customers for my brand within 8–10 driving minutes during the lunch and dinner daypart windows? (Most critical)

• Is there an acceptable presence and volume of “likely” customers for my brand within 5–8 driving minutes during the lunch and dinner daypart windows? (Most critical)

• Is there strong average daily traffic on the main artery past the location, and a lack of any blockage of access to the site during rush-hour traffic? This will vary by brand. (Most critical)

• Is there good ingress and egress for the location during the lunch and dinner daypart hours? (Most critical)

• Is there good visibility of at least one side of the building on which building signage will be installed from both directions on the main artery? (Most critical)

• Is there the existence of or the ability to install a pole sign (as opposed to only a monument sign)? (Highly desired, though not an absolute deal breaker for the ideal location)

• Has the location housed a national or regional brand offering a similar service or product in the recent past that failed? If so, how might any lingering impressions affect customers’ propensity to give my brand a try?

• How robust is the trade area competition for QSR workers?

FRANCHISEE BYTES

What did you want to be when you grew up?

A pilot. My grandfather took me to the Wings of Eagles Air Show when I was around 7, and I knew from then on that I wanted to fly. I would draw all sorts of airplanes, but it wasn’t until after college that I had the time or money to become a pilot.
--Talisin Burton, Managing Member, Burton Foods (14 Dunkin’, 1 Baskin-Robbins, 1 Jimmy John’s)

Entrepreneur.
--Sedrick Turner, President/Owner-Operator, Global Midsouth Corp. (8 Checkers with 1 under construction, 6 Rally’s)

In college, I wanted to be a doctor, but obviously, that has changed quite a bit.
--Roger Wagner, Chief Operating Officer, BRG, M2R, and W2B (20 Burger King, 12 Moe’s Southwest Grill, 5 Tropical Smoothie Cafe)

I wanted to be an architect who designed resort hotels.
--Karl Malchow, Owner, Renegade Pizza LLC (5 Toppers Pizza)

Own entertainment parks. As kids, we would go to this King Arthur–themed park called Camelot in Anaheim, California, not far from Disneyland, where everybody wanted to go on their birthday. It had an arcade, mini-golf, and a water park. I just loved it. And then, I ended up doing this for my livelihood.
--Ryan Debin, Chief Excitement Officer, Momentum Enterprises/Launch Entertainment (11 My Gym Children’s Fitness Center; 4 (1 in development) Launch Entertainment Park; 1 Retro Fitness under development; 3 Abbott’s Frozen Custard)

A physician.
--Steven Leibsohn, Owner (35 Wetzel’s Pretzels, 2 food trucks, 1 Twisted by Wetzel’s)