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As restaurants operate on increasingly tight margins in a challenging economy, multi-unit franchisees are looking for ways to boost average unit volume (AUV) across their locations. Franchise Update asked several restaurant owners what strategies they are using to maximize AUV and, ultimately, strengthen their businesses’ bottom lines.
Creating additional revenue streams, such as catering, can effectively increase sales and profitability. Beyond generating consistent incremental revenue, catering can also introduce the brand to new customers and expand its reach. Some franchisees also pointed to suggestive selling as another way to drive sales, encouraging team members to recommend additional menu items or upgrades. Success with this approach requires employees understand the menu, along with the product knowledge and tact to make recommendations that feel helpful rather than intrusive.
Traditional strategies such as marketing, promotions, and limited-time offers (LTOs) can also help attract customers and drive sales. Several restaurant operators noted, however, that increasing average unit volume often comes down to what they can control, including consistent execution and exceptional hospitality. When guests consistently have a positive experience, they are more likely to visit more often, building loyalty and driving sales.
In this week’s Franchisee Bytes section, we asked multi-unit restaurant owners how they are navigating the laws and regulations affecting their businesses. For franchisees operating across multiple states, one of the biggest challenges is keeping up with the different requirements in each market. These regulations can cover everything from health and food safety inspections to human resources matters, including scheduling and minimum wage requirements. Read their responses below to learn how they are managing the complex legal and regulatory challenges that come with operating a multi-unit restaurant business.
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Company: Wells Pie Group
Brands: 6 Your Pie Pizza
Years in Franchising: 11
We’re very intentional about finding ways to grow AUV across our locations. Our brand is centered around personalized, individual pizzas, which lends itself extremely well to catering. Growing our catering business has been a major focus because it not only creates an additional revenue stream, but also gets our product into the hands of people who may not already be familiar with our brand. We see catering as both a sales opportunity and a customer acquisition tool.
Inside the restaurants, we continually coach our teams on the importance of suggestive selling and increasing average ticket. We’ve found it works best when team members genuinely like and believe in the products they recommend, so we encourage them to try new items and speak about them authentically. We also use fun, creative team incentives to keep everyone engaged and make suggestive selling feel less scripted.
Ultimately, our approach to increasing AUV is a combination of driving more sales outside our four walls through catering while maximizing each opportunity we have with the guests already walking through our doors.
Company: LES Wings Partners
Brands: 3 Atomic Wings
Years in Franchising: 5
Marketing is where we focus most, since that's the area with the biggest room to grow, and it's improved a lot over the years I've been with Atomic Wings. We keep the menu fresh with new flavors regularly to keep customers coming back, and we've built in upsells to increase ticket size. More recently, catering has made a real difference. In Brooklyn specifically, we do a lot of catering for the Department of Education, and word has spread in the area to the point where we now serve close to 30 schools regularly. Wings travel well and fit almost any event, so there's strong catering potential across the brand.
Company: Batt Enterprises
Brands: 15 TCBY and 2 Mrs. Fields
Years in Franchising: 16
The fastest AUV growth usually comes from the stores you already have, so that's where we focus first. It starts with operational excellence by staying disciplined on labor, product mix, promotions, and hours so every guest has a consistently great experience, because that's what turns a first-time visitor into a regular customer. On top of that foundation, we look for ways to drive traffic and frequency through LTOs, catering, co-branding, and community partnerships. Ultimately, if you give customers a great experience and really listen to what they're telling you, there's usually more opportunity inside an existing store than people realize.
Company: 3B Lodge
Brands: 9 Twin Peaks
Years in Franchising: 4
It starts with execution. You can have great marketing, but if the guest experience is not consistent, it will not translate into sustainable sales. We focus heavily on food and beverage execution, service, local-store marketing, and making sure our teams understand the events and occasions that drive traffic in their individual markets. We also look closely at dayparts and opportunities that may be underdeveloped in a particular restaurant. The goal is not simply to drive transactions; it is to create reasons for guests to visit more often and increase the value of each visit while protecting the experience that makes Twin Peaks distinctive.
Company: AK89 LLC
Brands: 6 Rock N Roll Sushi
Years in Franchising: 21
We focus on increasing guest frequency by creating an experience that turns first-time visitors into loyal regulars. That starts with building strong teams that genuinely understand the menu, connect with guests, and can confidently recommend new items and limited-time offerings. We also look for creative ways to introduce RNR Sushi to more people within our local communities and give guests a reason to return. By combining strong hospitality with intentional product promotion and local engagement, we can drive both repeat visits and incremental sales.
Food safety and health regulations. With the health inspections, you always have to be on top of your game in how you handle and cook the food. We’ve also had to deal with price increases through tariffs.
-Shak Patel, Multi-Unit Franchisee, Breaking Bread LLC, 6 Potbelly, 1 The Halal Guys
Like most multi-state operators, we navigate changing labor laws, wage regulations, healthcare requirements, food safety standards, and delivery-related regulations. The key is staying proactive, well-informed, and highly compliant in every market we serve. We work closely with our legal, HR, payroll, and operations teams to adapt quickly and keep the business running the right way.
-Brian Bailey, CEO, Team Bailey, 160 Domino's
Labor and wage regulations continue to evolve, so we stay proactive by investing in compliance tools, strong HR support, and ongoing education for our management teams. This helps ensure we’re always aligned with the latest requirements and supporting our employees effectively.
-Misha Punwani, Multi-Unit Franchise Owner, 16 Playa Bowls
Tariffs have been hard. In our states, we are fortunate that we don’t have a lot of regulations, including required parental leave, variable start times, and advanced scheduling.
-Dave Baumgartner, CEO/Managing Partner, Bluemont Group, 100 Dunkin’
Since we operate in multiple states, we have to comply with a wide range of mandates, some of which are more business-friendly than others. Our team works hard to stay ahead of new legislation to ensure that we are always in compliance. It’s a complex but necessary part of doing business at this scale. The most challenging regulations are in Washington, Oregon, and California, and they involve scheduling and minimum wage.
-Tom Lovelace, Owner/President, Tom Lovelace Group, 96 Papa Murphy’s
The state of Florida leads the country in personal injury lawsuits. We care deeply for our employees and always handle these situations with care, but when this is taken advantage of for the wrong reasons, we have to find the best course of action that considers all parties.
-Wade Oney, President, Bam-Bam Pizza Inc., 96 Papa Johns, 8 Qdoba, 8 Starbucks
Drive-thrus are a major part of our business model, so when we are looking to expand, we need to be aware of local ordinances that regulate them.
-David Weeks, CEO, The Bean Team, 9 Barberitos, 8 Dunkin’, 4 Newk’s Eatery, 1 Dunkin/Newk’s co-brand
We comply with labor, health, safety, and food regulations through training, operational checks, and close collaboration with our franchisor, ensuring safe, consistent, and efficient operations.
-Lisa Starnes, Franchise Owner, Starnes Holdings, 8 Captain D’s