Food Feature Articles

Food Feature Articles

Franchise Sector Showcase

Informative Food franchise articles to support business buyers, franchisees, and franchisors.

Many retailers are interested in building up new business by offering a deeply discounted "Groupon-like" gift certificate program. These programs market to local residents that, for example, for $25 they can get $50 worth of food at Fred's Pub. To be effective, the discounted certificate almost always has a short expiration date, a few weeks or months.
  • Judith Rinearson
  • 2,189 Reads
Today's customers are omnipotent. It really is the consumer--customer or guest, however you name them--who owns your brand. They make the rules now. Then they sit in judgment and deliver the verdict to their friends and family, often with their opinions amplified on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Yelp!
  • Jack Mackey
  • 3,387 Reads 1,023 Shares
Andy Lanz got started in franchising right out of the University of Wisconsin in Madison. With the help of his parents, the newly minted economics graduate purchased a Cousins Subs franchise in nearby Verona. Then he added a Figaro's Italian Pizza franchise as well as a Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream operation, and put them all together inside his first 2,500-square-foot store.
  • John Carroll
  • 7,419 Reads 1,014 Shares
The Great Recession has shifted the thinking and behavior of consumers, forcing franchise brands to respond with changes of their own as they try to keep up with the new normal. Indeed, no discussion of franchise trends in 2011 and multi-unit operators' favorite brands can begin without a nod to the recent economic turmoil and its residual short and long-term effects.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 6,798 Reads 4 Shares
Mobile applications and technologies provide the ability to significantly improve customer experience shopping at franchise stores. The mobile device provides many opportunities for advertising, customer engagement, and most important, sales. Franchises will uniquely benefit from these capabilities along the entire spectrum, from brand marketing to closing the sale.
  • Conrad Sheehan
  • 3,713 Reads 75 Shares
Consumer marketing has emerged as a sizzling-hot topic in franchise circles. Reaching customers efficiently and cost-effectively is front and center right now. Strategies and tools are rapidly changing and those brands not keeping up will undoubtedly suffer at the hands of their competition.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 3,941 Reads 1 Shares
Glenn Miller's first look at the franchising business came in the early 1990s, when the British Chartered Accountant's brother, an attorney, wound up with six Arby's in Central Illinois. It didn't take a rocket scientist to see some of the problems that needed fixing.
  • John Carroll
  • 6,520 Reads 133 Shares
Anand Gala can remember working in his family's Jack in the Box restaurants when he was still in elementary school.
  • Anand Gala, CEO, Gala Corp.
  • 3,533 Reads 13 Shares
Joshua Burton grew up minutes away from the Cherry Hill Mall in Southern New Jersey. In the late 90s, he used to hang out in the food court, where the first-ever Saladworks location still operates today. Burton identified with the Saladworks concept and brand, and watched the franchise thrive throughout his adolescence. When he decided to go into business for himself, it was an easy choice - Saladworks. Today he has three successful locations to show for it, and he hasn't even turned 30 yet.
  • Multi-Unit Franchisee
  • 6,354 Reads 55 Shares
Greg Cutchall never expected to get into the restaurant business. As a youth growing up in Omaha, Nebraska, he saw how tough the business was on his father.
  • Multi-Unit Franchisee
  • 13,024 Reads 1 Shares
It seems that everywhere you turn there is a discussion or reference to social marketing. With more than 600 million profiles on Facebook alone, the reach is pervasive.
  • Michael Sick
  • 4,387 Reads 1,014 Shares
Dogtopia
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There's nothing more American than fast food restaurants - and some of them even serve apple pie! Fast food franchises have been meeting the growing needs of the country's on-the-go car culture and diverse life styles, complete with late-night hours and 24-hour service. For decades, hamburgers, tacos, chicken, pizza, and subs were the mainstay of the fast food sector. In recent years, as customers began seeking healthier options, these standbys have been joined by wraps, smoothies, salads, frozen yogurt, and more. In 2010, one franchisor began offering vending machines containing fresh fruits and vegetables, protein drinks, and other health-oriented snacks.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 5,948 Reads 157 Shares
Tom Kazbour doesn't believe the secret to success lies in studying the ABCs of business. He believes new franchisees can whiz on past most of the alphabet and focus on the letter "V."
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 15,076 Reads 1 Shares
As savvy franchise companies continue to flourish in a challenging economy, FUSR continues to bring you good news each month, highlighting brands that are adding units, increasing comp store sales, striking deals with investors, and continuing to grow. And, as the U.S. struggles through its "jobless recovery," growth-oriented franchisors continue to look overseas for expansion opportunities.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 10,055 Reads 93 Shares
Multi-brand franchising allows multi-unit operators to balance risk and ride out the uncertainties of the marketplace in many ways...
  • Multi-Unit Franchisee
  • 5,445 Reads
Franchising continues to grow--not only in size, but in complexity--and in recent years, a huge part of that growth is attributable to multi-brand franchising.
  • Multi-Unit Franchisee
  • 6,314 Reads 212 Shares
Pierre Panos, a South African native of Greek descent, leaves little to chance. When the violence in his country became too dangerous in the early 1990s, Panos--a former Coopers & Lybrand accountant who'd followed his father into the restaurant and real estate industries--wanted to emigrate to a country where he and his family could be safe and settle for good.
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 13,544 Reads 5 Shares
Multi-unit franchising is one thing. Multi-concept franchising is something else entirely. Nevertheless, it's a place--and a choice--that many franchisees love, and where they excel. These determined operators look for growth opportunities and potential across several concepts, sometimes in wildly different sectors. The multi-concept franchising model offers power in numbers (units, brands, territory, and income potential), as well as the security of spreading their risk across different concepts in a diversified portfolio.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 9,083 Reads 1,023 Shares
Franchise Update Media Group (FUMG), the leading industry resource for franchise development, announces that registration is now open for the First Annual Franchise Consumer Marketing Conference, to be held June 14-15 at the Omni San Francisco Hotel.
  • PRESS RELEASE
  • 2,584 Reads 1 Shares
Every business operation that's ever manufactured or sold a widget has relied on vendors. The people and companies that supply everything from paper and office supplies to mushrooms and cheese - and everything in between - are an integral part of a successful business operation.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 24,244 Reads 3 Shares
Retaining employees is an ongoing challenge for new franchisees -- and a key ingredient in building a successful business. After training employees to do their jobs well, the franchisee's goal is to retain them as productive, reliable workers. It costs much more to hire and train replacements than it does to work with current employees to improve their job performance.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 25,766 Reads 2 Shares
McAlister's Deli
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Program planning for the Franchise Consumer Marketing Conference, to be held June 14-15th in San Francisco's Omni Hotel, is moving full steam ahead.
  • Franchise Update
  • 3,374 Reads 20 Shares
On many occasions during the past year, I've seen and heard the past 10 years dubbed as "The Lost Decade." From a stock market perspective--with prices essentially flat between 2000 and 2010--it's not hard to understand why. Upon writing this article, the annualized return on the S&P 500 over the past 10 years was -0.68 percent, versus the average return of 6.28 percent since 1929 (according to FactSet Data Systems). Interestingly, over a similar time frame, aggregate corporate profits have doubled while total household net worth is about 50 percent higher.
  • Carol Clark
  • 5,039 Reads 14 Shares
As savvy franchise companies continue to flourish in a challenging economy, FUSR continues to bring you good news each month, highlighting brands that are adding units, increasing comp store sales, striking deals with investors, and continuing to grow. And, as the U.S. struggles through its "jobless recovery," growth-oriented franchisors continue to look overseas for expansion opportunities.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 9,612 Reads 93 Shares
In last month's Franchise Update Sales Report, I provided an introduction to working with brokers to increase your franchise sales, and highlighted some of the advantages of using brokers as part of your development strategy. This month I examine some of the risks and downsides, as well as how sign up with a broker that works for you.
  • Steve Olson
  • 5,055 Reads 245 Shares
When Indianapolis native Greg Willman and his friend Phil Salsbery talked years ago about forming a small investment company or owning and operating franchise concepts, they consciously omitted the restaurants category. "Neither of us knew anything about the food industry or had any experience in it," recalls Willman, who had worked in marketing and product development at large pharmaceutical, chemical, and medical device corporations
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 4,928 Reads 61 Shares
Truly great franchise sales and development teams are hard to find... and can be even harder to create. For franchise sales executives, attracting the right mix of people, passion, and experience, along with creating a positive culture and providing the right mix of recognition and reward, it's a delicate balance. Achieving that balance means the difference between a marginal brand and a great one
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 4,553 Reads 68 Shares
Are you someone who would you like to know the calorie count of that scrumptious three-layer cake at your favorite restaurant? Even if you're not, menu labeling is now a fact for U.S. restaurant-goers and many restaurant operators alike under the new national health care law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Section 4205 of the Act, signed into law March 23, 2010, sets new federal requirements for nutritional labeling of foods sold at "chain retail food establishments."
  • Regina Amolsch
  • 3,193 Reads 15 Shares
When Indianapolis native Greg Willman and his friend Phil Salsbery talked years ago about forming a small investment company or owning and operating franchise concepts, they consciously omitted the restaurants category. "Neither of us knew anything about the food industry or had any experience in it," recalls Willman, who had worked in marketing and product development at large pharmaceutical, chemical, and medical device corporations.
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 9,162 Reads 1 Shares
Your hourly employees…they're the face of your franchise business. They greet and serve customers and are essentially the cornerstone of your customer service efforts. So it only makes sense that if you've gone to the effort to recruit right that you would want to make sure that you keep those top employees happy and motivated. You might be surprised how poorly some franchise operators actually are when it comes to motivating their hourly employees.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 24,044 Reads 3 Shares
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