Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue II, 2011 | Page 42

P O W E R

P L A Y E R S

“We bought our first units in Chattanooga, and then in
North Georgia. Ten years later, we are one of their top five
franchisees, with stores in four states.”
BOTTOM LINE
Annual revenue: We are a private company, so I prefer not to say.
2011 goals: Sign five multi-store franchisees for f2o with a combined committed store count of 15 units, grow our Papa John’s business by 20 percent,
and buy some distressed commercial real estate.
Growth meter: How do you measure your growth? Smart, profitable growth is our mantra. We won’t grow just to get to a certain number of
stores. All our stores are profitable and we want to keep it that way.
Vision meter: Where do you want to be in 5 years? 10
years? I don’t plan on retiring. I already tried that for a year when I sold
Stoney River. I will always be involved in the two businesses that I really
like—real estate and restaurants—as long as I
can make a difference. I do plan on scaling down
the hours that I commit to the businesses within
5 years to focus more time on giving something
back. I am not sure yet what form that will take,
but I will have worked it out by then.
How has the most recent economic cycle affected you, your employees, your
customers? We have been blessed to be more
profitable every year during the past three years
than the preceding year even during the downturn, and the start of 2011 looks to be following
that trend. Our guests are being more selective
where they eat, and I feel that this has helped us
throughout our brands, spanning quick serve fast
casual and finer dining. We have a great value
proposition: people trust that they will get more
than they are paying for, and this always drives
business, especially when guests are looking for
perceived value.
Are you experiencing economic
growth/recovery in your market? We never really felt the downturn,
but since the economy has recovered slightly our stores are all performing well
above industry averages.
What did you change or do differently in this economy that
you plan to continue doing? I’ve been a little more paranoid than usual
since I realize that things can change quickly.
How do you forecast for your business in this economy? Carefully. As mentioned, we are not a public company so we don’t have to grow at
any specific rate. We only want profitable growth in store count, and our business revenue stream is pretty predictable.
Where do you find capital for expansion? Internally with some
bank financing. Our 14-year bankers have continued to lend to us during this
downturn.
Is capital getting easier to access? Why/why not? Yes, absolutely. Whereas only our bank was willing to finance initially, we are seeing a

lot more activity come back into the market. That being said, the lenders are
being extremely picky in whom they work with and the reporting requirements
are very different in this new economy.
Have you used private equity, local banks, national banks,
other institutions? Why/why not? Yes, local banks. We’ve used
none of the others since we haven’t needed them, and I don’t want venture
partners in my business at this stage unless it is part of an exit or partial exit.
What kind of exit strategy do you have in place? We have one,
including a very detailed succession plan if I wasn’t around for some reason.
I’ll leave it at that. The guys who really run the comp [