Franchisee Eric Fairbanks started as a delivery driver with Hungry Howie's; today he operates 11 locations of the pizza concept.
As a former pizza delivery driver out of college, Hungry Howie’s franchisee Eric Fairbanks said he relates more to his restaurant staff than he does to other restaurant operators.
“I know a lot of other business owners, and I have a hard time relating to them, because they are just different. They’re people that had money and bought businesses and they do really well,” Fairbanks said. “I’d never even ran shifts when I bought my first store; I was just a delivery driver. I’ve always been someone who’s out there grinding and working alongside those people.”
Fairbanks operates 11 Hungry Howie’s locations and eight Penn Station East Coast Subs shops in the Carolinas.
At just 10 years old, Fairbanks started mowing lawns for spending money. He recalled pulling a lawnmower on his bike around neighborhoods in upper Michigan. He kept at it through high school and college. As a wrestler in his teens, he found a competitive nature he said drives him in business ownership.
At 25, he balanced delivering pizzas and lawn care to make ends meet as he tried to find a job in education, which he studied in college. “I wanted to be a coach, which translated very well to what I do now, actually,” Fairbanks said.
A Hungry Howie’s consultant told Fairbanks’ manager about an opportunity to buy a store in North Carolina for cheap. His boss didn’t want to move to North Carolina, but Fairbanks jumped at the opportunity. Without the capital to buying a franchise, Fairbanks sold his car to make the investment.
That was about two decades ago, and Fairbanks noted he might have been overly confident in the endeavor at the time.
“It probably was not a good business move, but it hadn’t crossed my mind that it wouldn’t work,” he said. “It’s like, all I have to do is work day and night. … And I did exactly that. I think it only took me 12 months to turn it around.”
Eric Fairbanks owns 11 Hungry Howie’s locations.
In his 20s, he said the 100-hour work weeks were a breeze and even fun. Plus, he learned the ins and outs of business ownership as time went on. “All the other stuff was a challenge—figuring out taxes and LLCs and accounting, but I just figured it out along the way, one by one,” Fairbanks said.
One store quickly turned into three when he developed a new store and bought another existing unit at the same time. He’s added his other locations through new development and acquisitions.
The cost to open a Hungry Howie’s franchise ranges from $358,903 to $519,295. The top 50 percent of franchise stores, 136 units, reported average sales of more than $1 million in 2024.
Adding Penn Station
Fairbanks is a self-proclaimed huge fan of Penn Station’s sandwiches and regularly visited the location down the street from his home. He had the opportunity to buy property near his busiest Hungry Howie’s store, in Boone, North Carolina, close to Appalachian State University. He partnered with an employee in the area to develop with Penn Station.
“The first place I called was Penn Station, because I just loved the concept and thought it would be amazing up there,” Fairbanks said. He talked with a few other brands but decided Penn Station was the best fit. He opened his first sub shop in 2018.
Folks from Penn Station corporate visit “at least once a month” to review and inspect locations. The sandwich franchise has a heavy focus on operations, which Fairbanks said is different from Hungry Howie’s.
The initial investment to open a Penn State franchise ranges from $507,500 to $858,750. The average unit volume in 2023 was $836,144, with a range of $354,517 to $1.9 million for 313 franchised locations.
Fairbanks added Penn Station East Coast Subs to his portfolio in 2018.
One benefit of owning two brands is using what he’s learned at one brand and implementing it with the other. “Pizza is just very heavy tech and marketing focused. … One thing that’s made me successful at Penn Station is I’ve taken my marketing success from Howie’s and implemented it with Penn Station, because they’re a little behind the pizza business when it comes to marketing,” he said.
Fairbanks doesn’t have concrete expansion plans, but he knows he wants to grow. He’s been purchasing real estate, rather than renting, for his locations. But he pointed to real estate availability challenges in the Carolinas, which could make growing his business more complicated.
“It is really tough to find real estate. … I gotta be patient and make sure I make good choices,” he said. “I’ve been acquiring real estate. … The last one I bought was an existing old bank that we’ve converted to a Hungry Howie’s/Penn Station side by side with pickup windows.”
As his business expands, so does his team. When he started, he was doing it all: human resources, marketing, accounting. You name it, he did it. But as he’s grown, he’s been afforded the opportunity to hire people in all the necessary departments.
“You can leverage a lot of different things when you have multiple units, so it gets easier,” Fairbanks said. “I think most business owners, hopefully, would say that the secret to their success is the people they have around them. Because if they’re not on board and working to a way forward like you are, then you’re in trouble.”