Brothers Grow Family’s Restaurant Legacy With 3-Unit Konala Agreement in Utah

• Crumbl franchisee Jay Bickmore partnered with his brother McKay Bickmore to develop emerging health food restaurant brand Konala in their home state of Utah.

• Their father, Jack Bickmore, has operated Subways for three decades and at one time owned more than 100 stores in Utah and Idaho.

Growing up in a family that at one point owned more than 100 Subway restaurants, brothers Jay and McKay Bickmore were well prepared to become franchisees.

Some could say they were overly prepared.

“Whether it was my dad or brother or sister or me, we would always come home smelling like baked bread with probably mustard on our shirts, which we would have to take off before coming into our house,” McKay Bickmore said. “It was just part of the deal of making sandwiches all day. It’s what we grew up doing.”

While their father still owns about 80 Subways in Utah and Idaho, the days of working as “sandwich artists” and managing Subway stores are in the Bickmore brothers’ past.

The pair plan to open Konala locations in their home state of Utah, in and around St. George, after they signed a three-unit deal with the emerging fast-casual healthy food concept.

The Bickmores are the second franchisees to sign an agreement in Utah-based Konala's home market. Earlier this year, the brand signed its first franchise agreement with a 28-year-old store manager who agreed to open five locations in the state, starting in Salt Lake City. Last month, the company signed a second multi-unit agreement with another first-time franchisee to grow the brand in New Jersey.

“You can say franchising is in our DNA,” said Jay Bickmore, 38, who owns eight Crumbl stores in Orlando, Florida, and seven others in Texas and Alabama. “We’ve seen firsthand what it takes to build strong, lasting brands, and we feel that Konala has that same foundation.”

“I’m really excited about bringing Konala to St. George because we live in an incredibly beautiful part of the country with a lot of outdoor activities and enthusiasts who I feel will really get into Konala’s healthy food choices and its warm and friendly atmosphere and service,” McKay Bickmore said.

McKay is taking the lead on the family’s new restaurant venture and is scouting potential sites for their first location, which he anticipates opening next year. He said they’re planning for a mix of drive-thru and dine-in options for their Konalas and are open to doing new builds or restaurant conversions.

It was McKay, 28, that pushed to add Konala to the family’s portfolio of restaurants. He spent months digging into the brand’s franchise disclosure document, breaking down the sales numbers and visiting a store in Seattle, where he was impressed by the quality of the protein bowls and salads.

He was also wowed by the speed and efficiency of the operations.

He said he was convinced that Konala was the right restaurant brand to invest in after meeting with company’s co-founders Trace Miller, the CEO, and his wife, Jammie Miller, the brand director.

“Trace and Jammie are so passionate about what they are doing and after a lot of trial and error and experimenting with all kinds of kitchen equipment and ovens, they’ve have come up with an incredibly efficient model for their stores,” McKay said.

“I was just blown away when I visited a store in Washington and saw the simplicity of the operations—how easy they’ve made it to run. It’s practically a kitchen-less concept with a high-tech oven that is pre-programable and is super fast with no grease involved. It’s one of the coolest pieces of technology I’ve ever seen, and that was a big selling point for me.”

Konala, which launched its franchise system last year, operates three corporate locations in Post Falls and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and in Spokane, Washington. It has franchise development agreements to open 18 locations in 2026 in several new states. 

The cost to open a Konala franchise ranges from $428,500 to $750,500, according to the franchise disclosure document, with the total investment for a freestanding drive-thru restaurant model in the $874,000 to $1.2 million range. First-year gross sales reported for the company’s Post Falls, Idaho, location hit $1.2 million.

Despite the many issues that Subway, which is ranked No. 9 on the Franchise Times Top 400, and No. 70 Crumbl have faced in recent years with falling sales or store closures, Jay Bickmore remains confident that both brands will rebound. Meanwhile, like his younger brother, he’s focused on growing the family’s restaurant legacy with Konala.

“What I’ve learned with Subway growing up and now with Crumbl is that all good brands go through their ups and downs and follow the food trends,” he said. “But if you can operate them efficiently, which we have done, they can be very, very good for you. We want to take the experiences we’ve learned from them to grow Konala. That is what we’re most excited about now.”