Franchisee Adds PayMore to Growing Portfolio With Crumbl, Dave’s Hot Chicken and Crunch

• The Tews family plans to open its electronics resale locations in the Midwest and Northwest along with the Boston and Florida markets.

• Their agreement is the largest yet in the United States for PayMore, which opened 97 stores so far with nearly 600 units in development.

Growing up on a 2,000-acre farm in Idaho, Jerre Tews learned the value of hard work and getting the most out of days that often began before dawn and ended after dusk.

He passed on those invaluable work and life skills to his children, who together and separately run a successful multi-unit, multi-brand and multi-state franchise business. The Tews family has 14 Crumbl stores in San Antonio, Cincinnati and Oregon, and with another investor group operates a pair of Dave’s Hot Chicken in Cincinnati and two Crunch Fitness locations in Nevada.

The Tews family added its fourth brand in PayMore, signing a 36-unit agreement with the retail network of stores that buy, sell and trade electronics.

Led by brothers Connor and Jaxon Tews, their agreement is the largest to date in the United States for PayMore, which has 97 stores and is anticipating having 150 locations open by the end of the year. The company, which began franchising in 2020, said it has a pipeline of nearly 600 units in development, including more than 400 in the U.S. and nearly 200 internationally, primarily in Canada and the United Kingdom.

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Connor Tews said his family’s agreement with PayMore calls for opening 13 stores across Oklahoma, Arkansas and Memphis, nine in and around Boston, eight in Orlando and Palm Beach County, Florida, with six more locations in Idaho and Nevada. He’s anticipating their first store opening later this year in Boise, Idaho, about a two-hour drive from his current base of operations in Twins Falls, Idaho.

Jerre Tews said his family was sold on PayMore for a number of reasons.

“We’ve been involved with some of the fastest-growing brands in the franchise space and what stood out about PayMore was the simplicity of operations, scalability and the opportunity to make a real impact in the communities we serve by providing great service and value to customers looking to give tech a second life and keep electronics out of landfills,” he said.

Connor Tews added, “It’s going to be a whole lot easier to find real estate and labor for our stores than say a restaurant or a gym, which is always going to be a big lift. Just the initial startup costs are dramatically different. So, from the financial side, we figured we can take on more development with the brand.”

The investment range for a PayMore franchise is $139,250 to $266,500. By comparison, the investment range for Crumbl is $460,166 to $1.4 million, and it costs from $619,800 to $1.9 million for Dave’s Hot Chicken. A Crunch Fitness gym, meanwhile, can exceed $3 million, depending on its location and size.

PayMore’s average unit volume comes in just over $1 million, according to its franchise disclosure document.

Connor Tews said his family is anticipating hiring three to five employees at each of their PayMore stores, which is far fewer than the 100 or so at their Dave’s Hot Chicken locations and the 50 employees needed to cover all the shifts at their Crumbl locations. He said their Crunch gyms usually require at least 15 employees at each of their locations.

He also pointed out the pace of customer transactions at PayMore, which uses proprietary software for pricing used electronics like phones, laptops, tables and gaming consoles, will be a lot slower than their other brands.

Founders Erik Helgesen and Stephen Preuss “have done a great job setting this all up for the operators the last 15 or so years. We want to get in and run the playbook they have established and proven successful, which is kind of the name of the game with franchising, right? We’re very excited about seeing where we can take this,” Connor Tews said.

The Tews children has inherited a divide-and-conquer approach from their father in running operations for their four brands. Meanwhile, Jerre Tews, the family patriarch, provided financial support to his three sons on their franchise investments and guidance when needed on running their businesses. He’s also found time in his busy schedule to help his 95-year-old father Gerald Tews run a large Idaho farm that has raised wheat, corn, potatoes, beans and cattle for more than three generations.

“When our kids got done with high school, we encouraged them to do the best that they can do. Work hard. Be ambitious. We wanted them to pursue their dreams and my father was the same way,” Jerre Tews said. “He certainly would’ve probably preferred that I'm there on the farm with him right now, but he understands we’ve taken on a lot with our four brands. He’s been very supportive of us pursuing our own businesses.”