Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue IV, 2012 | Page 60
“ THAT
your back office people have to be really sharp,” he says. A strong, efficient
infrastructure is the only way to keep
up, but that has a price, he says. “It’s not
as synergistic as you may think, which is
why I mention the business case. Now
you need a better person in your office
to manage the complexity.” That usually
means paying them more, as well as more
costly software and accounting systems.
“I would ask people not to build in
cost savings with multiple brands,” he
says, calling rosy predictions of largescale efficiencies “phantom.” His G&A,
he says, has been essentially the same as
he adds and sheds brands.
“I think the synergy argument is
not a good enough reason to go into
multi-branding,” he says. However, it
does have one huge benefit. “I like the
diversification angle. It helped me in the
recession with different price points, and
not all geographies went in and out at
the same time.”
Finally, he says, “I see some people
go into multi-branding who had a lot
more runway with the brand they had,
so instead of expanding with that brand
they decided to add another.” Before
exploring which bran