Dishing up healthy takeaways means Rod Fawcett and Jimmy Panagiopou are two franchisees with lots on their plates.
What happens when a franchise leaves its franchisees in the lurch? Rod Fawcett, for one, was not put off. Rod had notched up a few years in the national marketing manager role in the corporate world but had got to the stage of wanting to do something for himself, to achieve work satisfaction by being his own boss.
He looked at several business opportunities with a partner; Subway's success impressed them, so they looked in the arena for a similar product.
"We were fairly comfortable with the structure at Quiznos, it was a fairly young franchise which would give us an opportunity to do multi stores - that was the plan."
The partners signed up for a Bendigo store. Eighteen months later, on a Thursday afternoon, they received a letter from Quiznos giving them five more days to trade. "Then I wished I was back in the corporate world," Fawcett admits. "There were a few expletives thrown around."
The Australian company had gone into receivership and Fawcett says he and his business partner were left with no contracts. What they were left with was the bespoke equipment (still housed in Fawcett's garage) and a lease.
At this point many people would have walked away from franchising. Not Fawcett. "You've got to stay in the game," he explains. "Ninety percent of success is turning up, so we turned up at Healthy Habits. We'd heard about them, and met Katherine Hampson, and she said she would be happy to help."
Healthy attitude
Undertaking the appropriate research, the business partners visited stores, tasted the food, looked at the support provided and the company's plans. "We thought, if you've got all this behind you, something must be right." It took them two weeks to decide to purchase a franchise. Six months on, the product, the process and the customer response has far exceeded their expectations.
"The whole thing about franchising is that there is a model to follow. So if you're not from the food industry you can have a crack at it. That's what we like. Everything is documented and you can follow the process, and with a bit of effort you have success yourself.
"If you said to me, set up a sandwich shop, I couldn't do it, I'd have to hire a chef and get him to sort it all." The Bendigo store was shut for three months before reopening as a Healthy Habits outlet.
"We were still paying the lease and kept paying some of our staff, we didn't want to lose them."
On a 10 and 10 year agreement, Fawcett predicts the business will continue to grow so they can look at another store Fawcett is more than happy with the support he receives from head office. "Katherine rings every week, she loves the brand, she comes in to see us, she travels around the country and keeps in contact."
Franchising seems to agree with him.
"We're not just confining ourselves to Healthy Habits, we're looking to invest elsewhere. My business partner has investmer in Athlete's Foot. We'd put in a manager here and work on the new business. You don't have to worry about it with franchising you just follow the system."
Jimmy Panagiopou had spent a few years with high profile brand KFC employed as a restaurant manager before making the move to
Spudbar fast food franchise.
"Working at KFC was a great learning experience. They fit you up to run a business professionally, there was great support." His boss was a multi-unit franchisee, at the time with 20 sites under his belt; it was Panagiopou's first brush with franchising and he liked what he saw. "I treated KFC as my own business, it was a tight ship. But they rewarded you."
Getting it right
It was a different story when he left after five years to join the IGA supermarket as a liquor manager; achieving great sales for his department and being awarded for it left him, he says, with nothing but a handshake – and a bitter taste.
He had left KFC because of the demands of the job, which didn't sit well with a family of five children, and had ended up working too many hours without reward. "And I have a lot of commitments outside work too. I wanted a break from rotating rosters."
When he looked around for the next opportunity the possibility of franchising at the Watergardens food court, where he had worked for KFC, came up. "I thought I couldn't afford KFC and I was looking for a healthy option. With Spudbar
food and beverage franchise there is no deep frying and we only sell healthy drinks.
"You've got to believe in what you sell. This is a new concept too, particularly in this side of town – we're in the western suburbs of Melbourne, so I saw the opportunity to make a name of it.
"I've been operating for a week, and it's been good. We're not so busy now school holidays are over, but I've got a lot of marketing to do."
That selling baked potatoes also offers a great profit margin was another great selling point for the Spudbar franchise, he adds. With his daughter working alongside him full time, and one casual staff member he poached from KFC, he is set up for the immediate future but has one eye on employing more casual workers.
Setting up a business is particularly challenging but the franchisors have been very supportive he reports, helping in every way they can.
So he has come full circle from traditional fast food served at Watergardens to a healthy eating concept dished up in the same location.
"What I learned at KFC I am putting into place here," he says.
19-Jun-2008