Good News Is Back!

The good news: Franchising is experiencing a remarkable growth phase - not only in unit count and system-wide revenue, but also in the number of new and emerging brands. The bad news: It's harder to keep up with all the good news! That's a nice problem to have - and why we're bringing back our "Good News" roundup of selected news items about unit growth, investment and financial developments, international expansion news, refranchising, and milestones attained by franchisors large, medium, and small. Here's your chance to follow the leaders, every third Tuesday of the month.

So if you're not doing it already, send us your good news here.

New Units/Growth/Expansion

Goldfish Swim School To Open 20 Units in 15 Months

Dunkin' Donuts To Add 24 More in Twin Cities Area

Hurricane Grill & Wings Signs 2nd Calif. Deal, San Diego

Newk's Eatery Signs 10-Unit Deal in South Florida

Zippy Shell Expands into Two Maryland Counties

PizzaRev Signs 16-Unit Deal in Tennessee and Georgia

Financial/Acquisitions

Roark Capital's Driven Brands Acquires Carstar Auto Body Repair

Incentives

iStudio Salons Launches Royalty Fee Guarantee Program for Franchisees

Veterans

7-Eleven Seeks 100 Vets for $2 Million Discount Program

CruiseOne Awards 5 Franchisees to Veterans - Free

International

Fuddrucker's Opens 3rd Location in Italy

Applebee's Opens First Restaurant in the Philippines

The Pie Hole Sells 20-Unit Master Franchise in Japan

Domino's Takes Pizza to Italy with First In-Country Location

Wayback Burgers To Open 6 Stores in Brunei

Texas Chicken (Church's Chicken) Opens Two Restaurants in Bulgaria

Johnny Rockets Announces 49 New Units in Italy, Paraguay, and Canada

Milestones

Sonic Drive-In Enters 45th State with Rhode Island Restaurant

European Wax Center Celebrates Opening of 500th Salon

Rebranding

Qdoba Mexican Grill Renames Itself Qdoba Mexican Eats

Huntington Company Rebrands 210 Stores To Martinizing Dry Cleaning

People

Famous Brands (TCBY, Mrs. Fields) Names Jonathan Drake CEO

Muscle Maker Grill Promotes Robert Morgan to President, CEO

"Famous Dave" Anderson Rejoins the Brand He Founded