Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue IV, 2011 | Page 30

DOMINA
TORS

By John Carroll

Doctor of
Franchisology

Choosing restaurants over medicine—and loving it!

W

hen Sunita Sagar was a teenager working as a part-time
cashier at a Jack in the Box
in California, she dreamed
of the day she would become a doctor.
The dream stayed alive as she worked her
way through the University of California, San Francisco, simultaneously rising
through the fast food world to assistant
manager and part-time manager.
After earning a B.A. in science and
working in hospitals for a few years, she
realized that the last thing she wanted to
be was a doctor. About then, it became
apparent that her future already had
been part of her life since she’d taken
that first job at Jack in the Box.
“My husband and I wanted to go
back into the restaurant business,” says
Sagar. Only this time, she wanted in as
an owner-operator, where she could put
everything she had learned firsthand
to use growing a multi-unit franchise
organization. Her first shot arrived in

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2007, when she was given the chance
to buy an underperforming Denny’s in
Campbell, Calif.
“That restaurant was going downhill,” she recalls, “and we turned that
restaurant upside down. We turned the
people around, we turned the operation
around, and we turned the sales around.
We started staffing the restaurant with
the right people, and then we had an

opportunity to purchase more. So we
bought three stores in Fresno in 2008.”
Once again, Sagar stepped in on each,
where she could see for herself what
needed to change. “We took over those
three stores and managed those stores
for a few weeks,” she says. “We made
some staffing changes, found people
right for the business, and took a few
months to bring those stores around.

Name: Sunita Sagar
Title: COO
Company: Sagar Family Corp., Devika Restaurants Inc., Sagar Diner and

Sahil Restaurants Inc.

No. of units: 8 Denny’s, 5 Baja Fresh, 5 Jack in the Box
Age: 43
Family: Daughter, Devika, 16, and a son Sahil, 12—and my husband Dev
Years in current position: 4
Years in franchising: 4

Multi-Unit Franchisee Is s ue IV, 2011

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