Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue IV, 2012 | Page 68

Collaborative

Tension
system. Leaders of the TDQO show up
at FAC meetings and provide input and
take information back to their group.”
At Jersey Mike’s Subs the situation is
a little different: it has only a franchisee
advisory council. However, according to
both franchisee leaders and franchisors,
it works for them.
Danny Malamis, president of Team
Washington and an area developer and
franchisee for Jersey Mike’s in metro
D.C., was for years CEO of another
large franchisee association. Today, he
is a member of the Jersey Mike’s National Advisory Council. “Things work
at Jersey Mike’s because of the close relationship between the franchisor and
the franchisees. We discuss and have
input on things that are important to
franchisees, such as unit profitability
and economics, prior to the franchisor

“Forming an
association gives
franchisees more power
and the ability to talk
to franchisors from a
position of strength.”

When things change

“Things work at Jersey
Mike’s because of the
close relationship
between the franchisor
and the franchisees.”

Dave Glodowski

making decisions.”
Brian Sommers, vice president of
franchise development for Jersey Mike’s,
chalks up the system’s positive relationship with its franchisees to “our company culture. It starts with Peter Cancro,
our founder and CEO, whose mantra
has always been making a difference in
people’s lives. Unit profitability is very
important to us,” he says. “No franchise
system is perfect. We’re not perfect. But
if you talk to our franchisees, they’ll say
our track record is pretty good. Half of
all our territories are being awarded to
existing franchisees. That’s a true barometer of satisfied franchisees.”
When push comes to shove

Danny Malamis

66

Multi-Unit Franchisee Is s ue IV, 2012

Supercuts multi-unit franchisee and a
board member of the Supercuts Franchisee Association, says this isn’t the
best way. “The right time to form an
association is when things are going
well. This helps guide level-headed
decisions and goals,” he says. Robins,
also an elected member of the Supercuts Advisory Council, describes his
personal philosophy as “peace with the
franchisor through strength.”
Lou Bonilla, president of the Meineke
Dealers Association, uses an old analogy
to make that point: “If you’re a country, you want to make sure you have
the strongest military in the world. You
hope you never have to use it, but if you
do, you want to make sure you have it.”

Historically, many franchisee associations
were born out of crisis. Gary Robins, a

The Meineke Dealers Association is currently dealing with a change in franchisor
leadership, says Bonilla, also an elected
member of the Meineke Franchise Advisory Council. “We’ve had a very good
relationship with the franchisor under
Ken Walker’s leadership for the past 10
years. He is a gentleman and one of the
classiest people with whom I have had the
pleasure to work. He didn’t always agree
and wasn’t shy about telling you when
he didn’t, but one thing I could always
count on: he listened. At the end of the
day, that was valuable because you can
change someone’s mind if they’re open.”
Walker retired in July as CEO of
Driven Brands, the parent company of
Meineke. Jonathan Fitzpatrick has been
named president and CEO. “We don’t
know yet exactly what that will mean,”
says Bonilla. “We’re still waiting to see
how that shakes out and look forward
to hearing from him at our conference
this fall.”
Dave Schaefers, senior vice president
of development for Meineke Car Care
Centers, agrees that the relationship
with the franchisee association has been
a good one—something he believes will
continue. “That relationship strengthens
all the programs for our company, from
the POS systems we use to the products we sell and how we do things. At