New Brix Holdings President Drives Ghost Kitchen Expansion

Sherif Mityas was once the CEO of Hollywood Video and Movie Gallery, the biggest competitor to Blockbuster Video. To avoid becoming obsolete like the products of his former company, Mityas is pushing innovation in his new role as president of Brix Holdings, parent of Red Mango, Orange Leaf, Smoothie Factory, SouperSalad and RedBrick Pizza.

After spending four years at TGI Fridays, Mityas joined Jamco Interests, the majority stakeholder of Brix Holdings, in November 2021 as operating partner. Jamco is also a member of TGI Fridays owner TriArtisan TGIF Partners. In his first 30 days as Brix president, Mityas pitched the idea to expand some of the brands via non-traditional platforms, such as ghost kitchens.

For Smoothie Factory, “extending into non-traditional ghost kitchens is going to be a very important piece of our strategy this year and going forward, and even automation is going to be a big deal,” Mityas said. “It’s an opportunity as a collection of brands to kind of reimagine who we are and how we offer what we offer moving forward.”

Though no partnerships have officially been announced, Mityas is in “detailed discussions” with three of the larger players in the ghost kitchen space. “We feel that this is a multi-player strategy for us to enter new geographies with our brands,” said Mityas.

Mityas nodded to his background with TGI Fridays, which partnered with Reef Technology to launch more than 300 ghost kitchens, as a key reason why he was able to “gear up these conversations and start moving on the development path forward,” he said.

The plan is to enter promising markets through ghost kitchen expansion, both to build brand awareness, bring Brix products to more customers and to attract franchisees, who would ideally build physical locations in markets that gain traction.

Mityas will focus on expanding Smoothie Factory and frozen yogurt brands Red Mango and Orange Leaf through these platforms. RedBrick’s requirement for pizza ovens poses a challenge, while SouperSalad’s buffet concept will need reimagining to work as a delivery-only offering.

“This is not going to be your father’s Brix brands, let me put it this way,” Mityas added. “It’s exciting, and I’m looking forward for new franchisees to join us on this journey.”

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Send promotions and new hire news in franchising to Callie Evergreen, [email protected]