Franchise Update Magazine Issue IV, 2013 | Page 16

Grow Market Lead

Doing

Anatomy of a Brand
By Pierre Panos

What It Takes
Moving the concept from dream to reality

I

n my previous guest column, I
discussed how I came up with
the idea for a restaurant concept
that fused the speed and inherent
benefits of fast casual with the flavors,
ingredient quality, and service level of
fine dining. I learned from the best and
prepared to enter franchising. But there
were two more important pieces I knew
had to be in place.

years. Franchisees have truly embraced
Fresh To Order, and our franchise-tocorporate unit mix is 50/50.
It did take some time to get here,
however. We opened our first restaurant
in Atlanta’s midtown neighborhood in
2006, followed by six more by 2008.
And then the recession hit. While our
loyal diners continued to join us for
lunch and dinner, franchisees were either hesitant to invest in a new concept
that stood alone in its category or fear1) Stay true to your vision
I was convinced of two th [