A former franchise professional for some of the nation’s top emerging chains, Bruce Holzman has joined Mexican cantina Barberitos as vice president of franchise sales.
A 20-year veteran of the restaurant industry, Holzman is lending his expertise to drive the same kind of growth for Barberitos that he did for restaurant chains such as Salsarita’s Fresh Cantina, Dairy Queen, and Huddle House.
Prior to joining Barberitos, Holzman sold close to 300 Salsarita’s franchises in less than 20 months, turning the start-up Fresh-Mex chain into a prominent regional brand.
He had similar success at Dairy Queen, where he developed and sold more than 130 new DQ Grill & Chill, Orange Julius and Karmelkorn franchises in the Southeast. The sales generated an annual royalty stream of $2.7 million.
Holzman also served as a consultant for smaller franchise operations such as Desert Moon, Juiceblendz, Friendly’s Ice Cream, and Jittery Joe’s Coffee.
“Barberitos does things differently than other franchises,” he said. “In an industry where site only franchises are the norm, we offer protected areas. Most franchises do not provide numbers; we have a complete section in our disclosure documents dedicated to performance information. And most importantly, our founder and CEO is a franchisee so every decision we make corporately affects him personally.”
The chain was founded by Downing Barber, owner of Barberitos Franchising Inc. He started the concept in 1999 in Athens, Ga., and launched the franchise program in 2003. It now has 22 locations in operation throughout Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina.
