Marketing

Brooklyn Dumpling Shop, Perkins, Bun Mee, Keke's leaders share franchising success insight

What it takes to succeed in franchising was the focus of a panel talk at the recent Restaurant Franchising & Innovation Summit.

Photo by Willie Lawless/Networld Media Group

April 7, 2025 by Judy Mottl — Editor, RetailCustomerExperience.com & DigitalSignageToday.com

Restaurants looking to franchise know it's a huge business strategy but oftentimes it's a journey that's taken without enough insight and knowledge and that then leads to failure.

Learning franchising best practices, the potential obstacles in play and the planning required are key elements when it comes to a successful franchise strategy.

And all those elements were the focus of a panel talk, "Franchising Think Tank," at the recent Restaurant Franchising & Innovation Summit, which was held in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina from March 11 to 13.

The summit, run by Networld Media Group, draws executives from leading brands to share successful ways to build and manage restaurants. Networld Media Group is the parent company of Fastcasual, Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb. Its next in-person foodservice event is the Fast Casual Executive Summit being held Oct. 13-15 in Denver, Colorado.

The panelists participating in the session were Jeff Galletly, chairman and CEO of Brooklyn Dumpling Shop; Toni Ronayne, president of Perkins Restaurant & Bakery,; David Schmidt, president of Keke's Breakfast Cafe and Denise Tran, founder and CEO of Bun Mee Vietnamese Sandwich Eatery.

The panel was moderated by Abhinav Kapur, co-founder and CEO of Bikky, which sponsored the panel discussion.

Defining goals, choosing partners

An initial step in defining a franchise roadmap is knowing the goals — determining whether it will be a locally-focused development effort or a nationwide one, and, if nationwide, determining if the brand has the resources to do the required due diligence and deep dive into regulations and ordinances.

Once the roadmap is completed, the biggest, and most important step, is choosing the right franchise partner. It's literally the "key" to success for both the franchisor and franchisee, according to the panelists.

The goal, according to Kapur, is not to chase potential franchisees. "Instead have them come to you," he said.

His insight was echoed by Galletly who said franchise interest must be inbound.

"It's the quality of a franchisee that leads to success," said Galletly.

"The most important thing is finding right franchise partner," said Schmidt, explaining his brand is seeking a specific type of franchise. "we're committed to growing nationwide. We're looking for a franchisee that wants to operate 10-20 not one to two units."

The value of discovery day

Brands aiming to franchise host a discovery day event for prospective franchisees, and that event is critical to providing not only insight about the brand and its values but learning about the franchise and their values, according to the panelists.

"We have two new concepts and are very selective about a franchise partner," said Ronayne. "We have discovery days and our leadership team involved. Our responsibility is making sure they know what they're buying into," she said.

Bun Mee held its first discovery day for potential franchisees this spring.

"We just had our first discovery day and it went well as we have high quality candidates in three different markets," Tran said, adding her brand is signing her first multi-unit deal following the event. "It's real exciting. Discovery day is a validation experience for potential franchisees," she said.

Schmidt recommends that a brand spend "a lot of time" on the discovery day strategy as potential franchises need to "understand our model and our operations model."

Support the franchise partner

Once a brand has chosen a franchise partner the franchise strategy truly kicks into high gear as the panelists noted that future success is tied to strong brand support.

"I will go anywhere with a great franchisee and it's all about the ability of a franchisee. It's the quality of franchise that leads to success and the thing I believe is fighting for the franchisee. We are here to serve you [the franchisee] and to make sure they're succeeding," said Galletly.

Schmidt said support is critical and the brand needs to "stay close" to a franchise. That level of connection, he added, has also allowed him to expand his knowledge.

"I always learn something, whether its technology or local legislation. Our best ideas come from the franchisee," he said.

About Judy Mottl

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Judy Mottl is editor of Retail Customer Experience and Digital Signage Today. She has decades of experience as a reporter, writer and editor covering technology and business for top media including AOL, InformationWeek, InternetNews and Food Truck Operator.

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