Franchise Today

This week, I’ll be talking with John Ramsay, Vice President of Franchising for the iconic Noodles and Company.  John’s background spans over 28 years of experience in restaurant franchise development, with such icons as TGI Friday, Jack in the Box, Marco’s Pizza and Bruxie International.  John joined Noodles & Company in November of 2020, as vice president of franchise development. While many restaurant concepts in this Covid/Post COVID era have been hitting the brakes, Noodles and Company has actually doubled down, as the Colorado chain with John leading the franchise development charge, hits the gas, driving Noodles' restaurant growth initiatives.  John’s history includes positions in both franchise and restaurant development and he is extremely excited to have the opportunity to grow and further develop a proven concept like Noodles and Co.  As we will discuss, Noodles has innovated and adapted quickly to the off-premise experience and offers attractive unit-level economics for franchisees."

Noodles & Company offers the world’s favorite noodle dishes, salads and soups, all in one restaurant. Each dish is carefully hand-made to the guests’ specifications, using only the freshest ingredients. Noodles proudly uses REAL Food and REAL Cooking for REAL Flavors. Their dishes are inspired by the individuality, creativity and cultural heritage of cuisines from around the globe. From Penne Rosa to Japanese Pan Noodles, The Med Salad, and of course our famous Wisconsin Mac & Cheese, only the most authentic ingredients make the cut.  There's quite the story behind this award winning brand and here to tell it, is John Ramsay.

Goldfish Swim School offers swimming lessons to kids from the age of 4 months to 12 years. Founded by Jenny and Chris McCuiston in 2006, the swimming business started franchising in 2008, following a rise in demand for swimming lessons. Since then, the Goldfish Swim School franchise has expanded to more than 130 locations in both the United States and Canada.

Andrew McCuiston, President of Goldfish Swim School is my guest, this week on Franchise Today.

This week I present another inspiring tale of two young kids that went to high school together, remained friends through college and then began a junk business that took off, right from the start.  The story:  College Hunks Hauling Junk and Moving is all about how Nick Friedman and his partner Omar Solimon, rode the wave of knowledge and information they took from reading Michael E. Gerber’s E-Myth Revisited.

During this interview, Nick will tell you that it was this book that transformed his point of view, from working in the business, to working on it and morphed it from the two of them doing everything from answering phones, driving the truck and collecting trash, to being an enterprise of 400+ franchised territories and growing.  Today, they are delivering nearly $300,000,000 in system-wide sales.   No doubt, one man's junk, is another man's treasure.  Nick Friedman is here, to tell us all about it.

This week I chat with Jane Grote Abell, a second generation franchise leader.  Herstory is not about how franchising found her, it’s how she was born into it the restaurant and franchise business along the way, had the golden opportunity to sell her company to the golden arches, that’s right McDonald’s and then double down about four years later and actually buy it back.  We’re talking Donato’s today, with Jane Grote Abell, an amazing advocate for women in business, and philanthropy.  Today, she is a founding family member and Chairwoman of the Board at Donato’s Pizza. 

Jim Grote founded Donatos as a sophomore in college. His philosophy was simple: 'To make the best pizza and to treat others the way he would like to be treated.' Jim built trust with his customers and a sense of goodwill in the neighborhood. And, with Jim’s very first restaurant connected to the Grote house, young daughter Jane, very much grew up in the family business.

Some dozen years ago, I remember having a conversation with Amit Pamecha, the founder of FranConnect, who back then, just happened to be my boss.  It was a conversation over dinner, about how back then, we didn’t seem to run into too many MBA’s in the franchising world.  Well, fast forward to today and I think its safe to say that trend has changed.  We hear from guests all the time here on Franchise Today, who have MBAs to their credit.  But, it’s not everyday that those MBAs  were earned at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, with an emphasis in Marketing, Operations & Entrepreneurship.  Well that all changes this week, as my guest, Wetzels Pretzels CEO Jennifer Schuler, checks that box for us and is here to tell us all about that, and more.

Restaurant Operations, Marketing and Franchising veteran Paul Macaluso joined Another Broken Egg Cafes as President and CEO in 2019.  Paul is an enthusiastic, hands-on leader with experience in a variety of executive and senior positions. Spanning a career of 25+ years, he is widely known for driving results at respected brands throughout the restaurant industry.  He began his career as a Restaurant GM with Taco Bell and advanced to hold many operations and marketing roles for them for the next 10 years. 

He then went on to take a turn at brand strategy, menu development and product marketing positions for both the Burger King Corporation and Sonic Drive-ins, before joining joined FOCUS Brands filling a variety of senior marketing and brand strategy positions there, before being promoted to President of McAlister’s, where he led the brand to record setting EBITDA and new restaurant openings.

Prior to joining Another Broken Egg, Paul served as President and Chief Executive Officer of The Krystal Company, leading a brand revitalization effort including rebuilding aged restaurants, achieving positive same store-sales, improving unit level profitability and restarting the franchise sales pipeline.

I'm off to Buffalo this week for my annual pilgrimmage to the National Buffalo Wing Festival, but in my place, I present a very special reprise of my two-part interview with Michael E. Gerber.  PLUS, the Man, the Myth,The Legend has a very special offer that he is extending to select listeners of Franchise Today.  Tune in Wed. @ noon ET, to learn more.  Next week, I return and will be joined by Paul Macaluso, President and CEO at Another Broken Egg Cafes.

Brandon Ezra started Grand Welcome with a handful of condominiums in Mammoth Lakes and grew his property management company to be one of the largest in that destination. That was the start of a larger vision and the umbrella growth of Grand Welcome. 

Today, Grand Welcome is a fast-growing franchise system leveraging the highly fractured, $81 billion-dollar short-term vacation rental market. With 738 properties under management nationwide, and sales projected at $48 million, Grand Welcome expects to nearly double their 2021 sales of $25 million, in 2022.  Entrepreneur magazine has named Grand Welcome a 2022 Top New and Emerging Franchise. 

Grand Welcome Founder and CEO, Brandon Ezra, my guest this week, on FRANCHISE TODAY.

This week’s interview is with an amazing, rising star of franchising, Tony Zaccario, who at the age of 28, is President and CEO of Stretch Zone.  For the past five years, Zaccario has led the charge at Stretch Zone, bringing the brand to 200 units from the 5 that were licensed when he first got there.  Zaccario was hired as General Manager in 2016, promoted to VP of Operations 15 months later and ultimately to President and CEO just 15 months after that. 

WIth not a single failure, this chain is tracking toward 300 open and operating by the summer of 2023. And, with the likes of Drew Brees, NFL and franchising veteran on his board and, also investing in the brand as a multi-unit owner, this brand is on it's way.. In fact, their growth is not occuring from the sale to new franchisees, so much as from awarding additional territories to highly successful, existing franchisees, coming back for more.

Today, as CEO of Mongolian Concepts Restaurant Group, Gregg Majewski sits at the helm of  3 brands:  Ghengiss Grill, Flat Top Grills and BD’s Mongolian. But this restaurant and franchise executive checks the box for growing more than just this roster of brands, as straight out of college 20 plus years ago, Gregg went from the role of accounting apprentice, to Controller, from Controller to CFO, then from CFO to COO and ultimately straight to the top of the house as CEO of none other than Jimmy Johns.  Over the course of 5 years, he contributed to the growth of that iconic sandwich chain from 307 open and operating when he arrived, to more than 300 on his watch when he exited, 5 years later.  And, he's well on his way to doing it all over again with Mongolian Concepts.  Gregg Majewski, this week on Franchise Today.  .