Spicy Pickle Franchising Inc., operator of the fast casual restaurant chains Spicy Pickle in the United States and Bread Garden Urban Cafe in Canada, has announced the addition of a CEO to its management team
The company will divide its current CEO/president role and appoint Mark Laramie as CEO, while Marc Geman will continue to be the president. Laramie will assume his position immediately.
Laramie is a restaurant executive with more than 30 years' experience in growing companies and expanding regional brands into national and international markets. Laramie has extensive experience in retail operations, franchising, brand management and organizational development, with brands from Little Caesars Enterprises Inc. to Quiznos Classic Subs to Papa Murphy's International, where he helped build that chain to more than 1,000 restaurants.
"We have been working steadily to improve both our board of directors and bring in C-level personnel with extensive experience in growing franchise chains and refining retail operations. Mark Laramie fits these criteria perfectly," said president Geman. "With his background, we add the needed ingredient of operational know-how for rapid expansion while we continue to look at multiple opportunities for the growth of our system. I look forward to working with Mark and having someone with his restaurant experience and skills to help us firmly establish both our brands — Spicy Pickle and Bread Garden Urban Cafes — throughout North America and beyond."
Laramie had similar warm words for Geman. "The team at Spicy Pickle has done a wonderful job of growing the brand through these critical early years and I am honored to join the team at this stage," he said. "Our brands have the nucleus of a great staff as well as dedicated franchise operators and we will now take our systems and development to the next level. It is a very exciting time for Spicy Pickle and Bread Garden Urban Cafe and I am very happy to be a part of it."
