“Wetzel's is a great business for private equity investors because it has everything they look for,” declares Bill Phelps, who as co-founder and CEO of Wetzel's Pretzels could be considered biased. “It has high cash flow. It has good growth.
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Tristan Jimerson and Daniel Laeger-Hagemeister delivered sandwiches freakishly fast for Jimmy John's. No one, Jimerson says, has delivery as dialed in as Jimmy John's. Since the delivery zone for each store is small, the sandwiches sometimes rode in cars, sometimes in messenger bags via bicycles.
I used to be a franchise lender, but I lost interest.
The older I get, the more I try to learn. In my 20s, I knew everything. In my 30s, I figured I could learn a thing or two, and in my 40s, well, I actually figured out there was still a lot I didn't know. And, instead of finding that terrifying, it was actually liberating. More comfortable in my own skin the older I got, I felt free to ask questions. If I could get a memorable “take away” from a conversation, I considered that a bonus.
Ann Littmann, a freshly minted VP at Safeway Driving School, is right on message as she describes the mission of the Houston-based franchise. “Safeway is a 43-year-old company, and we were invented to prevent the phone call no one wants to get,” she said, about a tragic car accident involving a young driver.
Tilted Kilt's CEO Ron Lynch is rolling out a new prototype for the Celtic-themed sports bar and grill, where the servers are known for their skimpy kilts. It will be lighter and brighter, with less kitschy Old World stuff hanging around. It will re-introduce games, the old-fashioned kind like pool tables, shuffleboards and dartboards. It will have a new lunch menu, with healthier options and smaller portions.
How to last for 100 years? For Nathan's Famous, it's the hot dog, stupid. And if you're Nathan's boss, Wayne Norbitz, the only way to eat it is plain. ‘That's the way God intended it to be,' he says.
Michael and Babz Barnett had their 15 minutes of fame six years ago on the hit TV show “Shark Tank.” Like other contestants, they pitched their concept—a modernized kids' gym called Romp ‘n Roll—to high-powered celebrity judges, and got the coveted offer.
‘There has to be an allowance for people to make mistakes,' declares Gary Moore, operator of 58 Burger Kings plus three other brands. Judging from the operation's success, many more hits than misses are likely.
It was the great, unavoidable war. With so much money and interest flowing into the marinara-red-hot pizza category, many industry watchers see Pieology's recent acquisition of Project Pie as the first move in an eventual wave of consolidation that will trim the number of players in this rocket-fueled restaurant segment.