Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue IV, 2011 | Page 28

DOMINA
TORS
as “one of the coolest brands out there
today.”
Having accomplished more than he’d
ever imagined, and having learned about
balance in life, Head, who now lives in
Nashville, says he is focusing a lot of his
time now on giving back. “I was always
so lucky with my mentors—people like
Billy Trotter and Clyde Culp and Jim
Patterson. I’d like to be remembered as
someone who was a good mentor and
teacher, who taught young people how
to be good leaders.”

BOTTOM LINE
Annual revenue: I’ll say this: the AUV at bd’s in 2010 was $2.2 million.
2011 goals: At bd’s, we want to have a 1 percent increase in sales and traffic, which is a pretty lofty goal these days. We’re increasing our alcohol sales and
sales of appetizers, which we’ve never focused on before. We’ve come a long
way in both regards.
Growth meter: How do you measure your growth? In actual
comparison, same-store sales.
Vision meter: Where do you want to be in 5 years? 10
years? I hope to be retired in five years, hanging out at my son’s new restaurant, drinking margaritas and eating tacos. For bd’s, it’s hard in this economic
environment to predict or set goals beyond three years. In five years I hope we’ll
have 100 restaurants or more.
How has the most recent economic cycle affected you, your
employees, your customers? As a brand, it’s created huge obstacles because of the unavailability of money to grow. Despite the fact that lenders get up
at conferences and say they’re lending, if you’re not borrowing big bucks—$20
million or more—there’s little or no lending going on. The consumer has experienced shrinking disposable income, which makes it hard to grow sales. How we
perform, execute, and wow our guests becomes even more important. As to our
employees and teammates, we haven’t laid off anybody.
Are you experiencing economic growth/recovery in your market? Yes. Over the last five years, the population of Detroit, where the bd’s brand
was started, has shrunk by more than 300,000, and unemployment has been 26
percent. And of course the auto industry took a whacking. Yet our Detroit restaurants continue to outperform all others in the country. There’s great loyalty from
our guests to this brand. Popeyes also is doing extremely well. We bought our
stores two years ago; we were plus-12 in 2010 and so far this year are plus-5.
What did you change or do differently in this economy that
you plan to continue? We’re not doing anything different—we’re just
more conscious of the value equation.
How do you forecast for your business in this economy? Ouija

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boards, dartboards (laughing)? It’s tough but we’re very disciplined in our forecasting and we measure everything we do, so our database is pretty deep. We
also pray a lot.
Where do you find capital for expansion? We found that the SBA is
still lending, but with new requirements. We’re looking for high-profile franchisee
candidates, those who already have a business, infrastructure, and local bank
relationships. These are the people who can pick up the phone and get money to
develop.
Is capital getting easier to access? Why/why not? No, and because of the events of the last 60 days, it’s become even tougher.
Have you used private equity, local banks, national banks,
other institutions? Why/why not? We’re owned by a private equity
company and we’ve used private banks.
What kind of exit strategy do you have in place? We’re just
building as many restaurants as we can, and it will take five years to do that. If
you build a strong company of well-run restaurants and focus on developing your
people, the exit will take care of itself either through merger, acquisition, or IPO.
What are you doing to take care of your employees? The biggest
thing we do is treat them with respect and create a healthy, fun work environment.
How are you handling rising employee costs (payroll, healthcare, etc.)? We’re committed to our people and want them to stay. Our
managers have a group healthcare plan that we still offer at a 60/40 split (we
pay 60 percent).
How do you reward/recognize top-performing employees?
I don’t believe everything has to be monetary, but we do have good incentive
compensation and bonus programs at all levels. One of the coolest this year was
a contest running through summer promotion. Four servers and bartenders won
all-expense paid trips to the annual conference in New Orleans, where they’ll rub
elbows with managers, regional directors, and senior team members.

Multi-Unit Franchisee Is s ue IV, 2011

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