When Rising Roll Gourmet decided to franchise
in 2003,
the fast-casual, lunch-only concept had two units ringing
up
$2 million in systemwide sales and positive reviews
for its gourmet sandwiches from the local media in Atlanta
as well as the Zagat guide. But founders Jeff and Bob Weiss
knew that it would take more than great sandwiches
to successfully duplicate Rising Roll.
That’s when the father-and-son team
brought in Mike Lassiter, CE0 of Atlanta-based
Franchising Concepts. Lassiter spent four months
preparing Rising Roll for franchising by analyzing
and improving its menu, labor costs and prototype.
"When we looked at this, we said, ‘OK,
franchisee profitability has to be our No. 1 goal,"
says Lassiter, who now serves as president of Rising Roll.
"So if we focused on the franchisee,
we truly felt our concept had the legs and
the long-term viability to be very successful."
Less Is More
Rising Roll honed its extensive menu of nearly
80 items
to decrease food and labor costs. It began purchasing
ready-made items such as boiled eggs and guacamole
to reduce labor. It also removed 27 slow-selling items
that were expensive and labor intensive to produce.
For example, Rising Roll got rid of the shrimp salad sandwich
because it only sold well in the summer and had a short shelf
life.
It also removed the labor-intensive quesadilla.
Employees had to come in early to prepare the ingredients
and build the quesadillas. Those not sold were discarded.
By streamlining the menu to 50 items,
Rising Roll removed 22 inventory items, reduced food costs
by 6 percent and shaved off about eight hours of labor a week,
according to Lassiter.
It also helped with franchisee training: "Bottom
line,
it’s just a heck of a lot easier to learn 50 recipes
than 80," he says.
Room for Improvement
Rising Roll streamlined the store design to
reduce rental costs,
better market the products and maximize throughput
after seeing inefficiencies in one of its two company stores,
a 4,000-square-foot unit in Alpharetta, Ga.
The company created a 2,400-square-foot prototype
where customers see the menu board and deli cases
from the entrance. The prototype maximizes seating by
using two tops instead of four tops to accommodate
its primarily business customers, who usually
come in alone or in a party of two.
Rising Roll also hired a real-estate broker
to help with site selection and negotiation,
and set up franchisee advisory committees.
Since Rising Roll began franchising in 2003,
11 units have opened in Arizona, Florida, Georgia,
North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.
It doesn’t plan to open more company units.
Instead it will help franchisees open 60 to 70
units in the West and Southwest over the next five years.
"Right now our total focus is franchisee
profitability.
So we’re not looking at corporate stores," Lassiter
says.
"We don’t want to lose focus on that franchisee
profitability." |
