franchise development

Minneapolis — Caribou Coffee®, a national premium coffeehouse and Panera Brands company, has opened its first-ever domestic franchise location. Located in Wooster, Ohio, the grand opening on Nov. 17 marked a significant milestone for Caribou Coffee since announcing its domestic franchise program in October 2021. Earlier this year, Caribou Coffee announced its first multi-unit agreement with franchisee Mike Mariola, who intends to develop locations in the Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati markets. “We’ve been anticipating the day when we could welcome guests to Caribou’s first U.S.-based franchise location,” says Matthew Walls, …

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Houston — Shipley Do-Nuts, makers of gourmet, made-fresh-daily do-nuts for more than 85 years, has signed a deal with Lexington, Va.-based franchisee Jody Mask to open three Shipley locations in Virginia — a new state for the brand. Mask is currently scouting potential sites in the Virginia Tech area as well as Roanoke, Salem, Lynchburg, Harrisonburg and Williamsburg/Stanton. He expects to open the first location within the next year to 18 months. Shipley, which first opened in Houston in 1936, has experienced record-setting growth over the past year and is …

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Los Angeles — On November 14, sweetgreen opened its first advanced order vehicle pickup window, “sweetlane,” located in Schaumburg, Ill. The grand opening of “sweetlane” serves as the latest iteration of the company’s evolving restaurant experience, testing new formats to meet customers where they are. As the first of its fleet, the “sweetlane” provides an effortless experience for visitors in vehicles to pick up online orders through a drive-up window. To order via “sweetlane,” customers place their order through the sweetgreen website or app, and choose “sweetlane” as their desired …

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San Diego — QDOBA Mexican Eats (QDOBA), the largest franchise opportunity in the fast-casual Mexican segment, is coming out of a development banner year after differentiating itself with flexible footprint options that allow the brand to work well in a variety of traditional and non-traditional venues. The brand also added 34 new QDOBA locations in 2022. Among the 34 locations, 16 were franchise, 16 were license and two were corporate openings. The license locations included seven military locations, two airport locations, a premium outlet location as well as the brand’s …

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Denver — Quiznos has signed a multi-unit development agreement with franchisee Parish Patel that will yield 30 restaurants across Arizona starting in 2023. Part of a 7-year build schedule, three sites are slated to be built in the first and second year each, and the remaining locations over the last 5 years of the agreement. Patel, a former multi-unit franchisee who left the system in 2015 to pursue other fast-casual restaurant ventures, signed the multi-unit deal after experiencing the potential in Quiznos, a beloved and highly recognized brand under REGO …

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Los Angeles — FAT (Fresh. Authentic. Tasty.) Brands Inc. has hired its first chief growth officer, Jeremy Theisen. Theisen joins FAT Brands with over 20 years of experience in significantly increasing the revenue stream for high-growth startups in the restaurant sector and will be focused on spearheading the growth of the development pipeline across the FAT Brands portfolio. This includes bringing new franchisees into the system and driving multi-unit expansion with existing franchisees. Prior to joining FAT Brands, Theisen served as chief revenue officer of PathSpot, a hygiene management system …

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Alpharetta, Ga. — Your Pie, the original down-the-line pizza concept, has welcomed real estate veteran David Goldberg as vice president of real estate of the fast-casual brand. In his role, Goldberg will drive the real estate acquisition process for franchise development and expand the pizza eatery’s national reach. Goldberg brings a history of hands-on success in real estate store expansion, strategic planning and implementation to the Your Pie executive team. Prior to Your Pie Pizza, he accumulated an extensive real estate background in foodservice and retail. “David is an expert …

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St. Louis — Panera Bread has opened the first of its new updated urban store format in New York, the newest of several new formats targeted at more densely populated and non-traditional trade areas. With digital sales at Panera now representing 50% of total system sales, Panera now offers a portfolio of store formats designed to cater to the needs of an increasingly digital and off-premise guest. “At Panera, our innovation has always been rooted in the guest and associate experience, how we can reduce friction, drive convenience and bring …

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Los Angeles — FAT (Fresh. Authentic. Tasty.) Brands Inc., parent company of Round Table Pizza, Fatburger, Buffalo’s Express and 14 other restaurant concepts, has inked a new development deal to open 80 new franchised locations in Texas. In partnership with Brame Holdings LLC, 40 Round Table Pizza restaurants and 40 co-branded Fatburger and Buffalo’s Express locations will open over the next 10 years with the first units slated to open in 2023. “Texas is a priority growth market for Round Table Pizza and Fatburger and Buffalo’s Express as the concepts …

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Lansing, Mich. — BIGGBY® COFFEE is well on its way to its 2028 goal: 1,000 units open. There are currently 316 open locations, with an additional 153 in development. “We have had a strong year of openings because of the momentum we built from 2020 and into 2021. Despite the issues most have been facing with inflation, labor shortages, real estate challenges and supply chain impact, we have not been slowing down on our growth,” says Tony DiPietro, vice president of emerging market development at BIGGBY® COFFEE. This year alone, …

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