Food Feature Articles

Food Feature Articles

Franchise Sector Showcase

Informative Food franchise articles to support business buyers, franchisees, and franchisors.

For more than a decade now, has been carefully monitoring the radar screen, gathering information on franchise lead generation and sales.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 4,161 Reads 6 Shares
This article from 2008 could almost be written today. Learn how the more things change, the more they stay the same (except for Covid, of course).
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 5,085 Reads 14 Shares
David Ostrowe is a man on a mission--or 20. First, he says he's really working hard to be a great dad. "It's important to me to be the 'Jolly Green Giant' to my daughter, so I'm really working at it," he says.
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 12,084 Reads 153 Shares
As the credit crisis and the economic downturn begin to bite on Main Street America, restaurant row is in for a shake-up. For the first time in nearly two decades, the $550 billion restaurant industry has suffered stagnant sales this year, creating painful cash-flow problems for restaurateurs who can't get credit lines to cover investment and operating costs even as food and labor costs have risen sharply. That's made it harder for chains and independent eateries alike to upgrade equipment, hire new staff and renovate facilities. "The credit crisis is having a devastating effect on nearly every segment of the industry," says Aaron Allen, CEO of the Quantified Marketing Group, an international restaurant-consulting firm. "This is the death knell for a number of restaurant chains."
  • Time Magazine
  • 3,312 Reads 26 Shares
Reciprocity Restaurant Group President Lyndon Johnson good-naturedly lets new acquaintances have a little fun with his name. That's because he's fine with his name. "I can think of a lot worse people to share a name with," he says.
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 3,899 Reads 74 Shares
It is a quiet Saturday morning. If you are the average American, the downturn in the economy has started you to think about how it will impact your career and the opportunities for your children as they enter the workforce. Articles about Enron and Tyco and Global Crossing and other corporate scandals abound and some of the most respected brand names internationally are talking about layoffs and bankruptcy.
  • By: Michael H. Seid, founder and managing director of MSA - Michael H. Seid & Associates
  • 27,581 Reads 13 Shares
When Steve Foltz graduated from Eastern Oregon University in 1985 he thought he might be interested in city or government work. To bide his time and help pay bills while he was interviewing for jobs during the day, he took a night job at Rax Restaurant in Portland.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 7,982 Reads 2 Shares
The franchising continues to grow, not only in size, but complexity—and in recent years, a huge part of that is attributable to multiunit, multi-concept franchising. Today one of every two franchise operators has more than one location. And really, why not? If the cookie-cutter approach works in one location it will most likely work in another, and another. In fact it really boils down to a simple numbers game: the more sales and revenue generated, the more profit potential there is.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 8,078 Reads 5 Shares
Florida-based businessman Peter Economys and New York entrepreneur Rob Tobias have a very special talent important to area developers: they're champion multi-taskers. But the concentration and mental agility necessary for the success of any area developer is doubly important for them--because each oversees multiple concepts.
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 5,202 Reads 129 Shares
John Prince has done a lot in his 66 years. He's been a radio talk show host, reporter, stockbroker, and even ran a small hot dog and soup stand. He's worked at SmithBarney, Citibank, been a multi-concept owner, and even started his own franchise brand (more on that later). He's seen franchising from more than both sides now.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 17,864 Reads 5 Shares
Unfortunately, many franchisors flounder in direct-response recruitment advertising. Typically, their development efforts focus on improving their sales and media sources, with minimal attention paid to increasing ad performance.
  • Steve Olson
  • 3,612 Reads 1 Shares
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There's a loud ruckus, a crowd gathers 'round, and a customer is sprawled on the floor next to the soft drink dispenser. The area is covered in soda and ice and the customer laments she slipped, fell, and is injured because of your negligence.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 8,968 Reads 1 Shares
With her high energy and positive attitude, it's no surprise that Linda Fong is a successful multi-brand, multiunit franchisee. However, like many franchisees, she's not one of those who made a plan and followed a straight line to that success. But it's the detours and her individualism that have taught her what she needed.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 3,551 Reads 15 Shares
Growing up with a father who owned a Burger King gave Will Bigham an early look into the back room operations of fast food franchising, laying the groundwork for his own career.
  • John Carroll
  • 3,993 Reads 43 Shares
For Bill Gellert, who currently owns and operates 14 franchise units across three brands, with a fourth on the way, business is "a constant mixture of fear and excitement." And he loves it.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 4,047 Reads 37 Shares
"I love the action of the restaurants and the strategy of the real estate. This is the jackpot business for me," says Mike Scanlon, president and CEO of Thomas and King in Lexington, Ky., where he opened his first Applebee's in 1988.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 5,377 Reads 1,021 Shares
As vice president of concept development at HMSHost, Novack has his plate full, and seems to relish every bite.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 6,612 Reads 1,023 Shares
During the past 20 years, we have witnessed a generation of multiunit franchise operators grow up. Today there are more than 40,000 of them.
  • Darrell Johnson
  • 6,105 Reads 1 Shares
Beyond the unmistakable impact of the Internet and World Wide Web, advances in technologies used every day by franchisees are continuing to change the face of franchising -- and the way franchisees do business.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 3,678 Reads 1,014 Shares
Earlier this year, a franchise magazine that shall remain nameless here focused upon the issue of "cleavage in the marketplace" - a subject no man in his right mind would ever touch. However, I found it interesting that this subject had garnered discussion in one of the leading publications on franchising, or for that matter, in any reputable publication.
  • Rupert M. Barkoff
  • 3,320 Reads 1 Shares
Most people would trade their day job anytime for Bob Stucker's problem a few years back: "I retired too young."
  • Kerry Pipes & Eddy Goldberg
  • 4,856 Reads 11 Shares
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Becoming a "Mega Franchisee" is a high-risk, high-reward endeavor. For a third year, Area Developer has measured and highlighted those franchisees bold enough, smart enough - and fortunate enough - to succeed in the rapidly growing and lucrative market of multiunit and multi-concept development.
  • Kerry Pipes & Eddy Goldberg
  • 5,496 Reads 1,023 Shares
Conventional wisdom would say the best franchise operators are individuals with past business experience - or even better, previous franchising experience. But that may not be the case any longer. A youth movement is under way in the world of multiunit franchising.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 5,956 Reads 98 Shares
There’s probably not a bigger franchise opportunity in America...literally. Weight loss franchises not only help individuals change their lives, live longer, and more healthfully, but also offer high earning potential for franchisees who are interested in a piece of the $46 billion weight loss franchise industry.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 2,160 Reads 3 Shares
Last Saturday, mom and dad packed the kids into the minivan and headed out to the fitness center (Curves for her and Athletic Republic for him). First they dropped the kids off (one at Huntington Learning Centers, the other at Abrakadoodle). Before they left, they'd made sure the woman from Bathfitters knew exactly what they wanted done with their new shower, and reminded the man from Spring-Green to cut the back lawn extra short this week.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 4,511 Reads 1 Shares
Even experienced area developers can get emotional about locations, says Jeremy Behar, president and CEO of Cirrus Tenant Services, a Toronto-based company specializing in real estate negotiations for various businesses, including franchises. As a consequence, he says, "They will do what it takes to sign the deal and get it done."
  • Ripley Hotch
  • 3,311 Reads 3 Shares
Sit-down restaurants, also known as casual restaurants, have re-established themselves in the world of franchising - a world more often associated with such fast-food standards as McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, KFC, Taco Bell, and Subway, for example.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 2,730 Reads 49 Shares
Sure, you're measuring your advertising spending and marketing budget. But are you measuring the numbers that matter? Savvy franchisors who do are reaping bigger rewards at significantly lower costs.
  • Steve Olson
  • 8,634 Reads 1,023 Shares
1987 was a good year for franchising. Up to then, franchising was young, brash, and not always professional. Franchises weren’t much concerned with history. They were built mostly by young entrepreneurs who saw an opportunity and grabbed it, looking forward, not backward. The first 30 years of modern business format franchising had the feeling of the Wild West (like the Internet of the last 10 years).
  • Eddy Goldberg & Ripley Hotch
  • 3,576 Reads 9 Shares
When was the last time you made an honest assessment of who you have in the most important "chairs" of your operation? Your front-line staff single-handedly sets the tone of your customer service and "packages" your performance day to day. Is your packaging attracting or distracting? Does it gather customers, or chase them away?
  • Gloria Plaisted
  • 3,216 Reads 5 Shares
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