STRATEGIC PARTNERS
June 15, 2020
Franchise Growth Solutions LLC has added a division to teach independent restaurateurs how franchise companies reduce food, paper, beverage, labor and other costs.
"All too often when I would speak with restaurateurs about franchising their business I'd discover their operational practices we're very, shall we say, entrepreneurial," Gary Occhiogrosso, founder and managing partner of Franchise Growth Solution and former president of Trufoods LLC, said in a company press release. "Unfortunately, that doesn't cut it when you're looking to scale a brand as a chain or a franchise. Systems, documentation, KPI's, and overall financial accountability must become the focus."
To create the division, Occhiogrosso partnered with Fred J. Kirvan, who has been in the franchise business in 1991 and helped to develop the operating system for Desert Moon Fresh Mexican, which took it from a single unit to a multi-state franchised brand. He served as president of Desert Moon from 2008 to 2013, when he took over as COO of Trufoods. He's also served as VP of Operations for Energy Kitchen, a NYC based fast casual chain.
"We focus on helping restaurant operators of any size, struggling with profitability in today's business climate by sharing franchisor best practices," Kirvan said. "These methods serve to systematize as well as optimize their restaurant operations and profitability."
Occhiogrosso and Kirvan have worked together over the past 20 years on a variety of regional and national brands, including Desert Moon, Magic Cup Cafe, Acai Express and several brands under the Trufoods banner — Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips, Pudgie's Famous Chicken and Ritter's Frozen Custard
The new division works with franchised and non-franchised restaurants, whether a single mom 'n' pop restaurant or a multi-unit operator seeking to increase its bottom-line performance. It offers restaurateurs the opportunity to learn how to control and reduce their cost of goods, labor, and other "middle of the P&L" expenses that often drain the restaurant owner of profit, according to the release.
"Fred and Gary worked with the team and me to develop systems that increased my profits by almost 10%," My Lynn Nguyen, co-founder and CEO of Magic Cup Cafe, a two-unit bubble tea and specialty drink franchise that has worked with Franchise Growth Solutions over the past year. "These methods not only give us more dollars to the bottom line but will increase profitability for our future franchisees."
Franchise Growth Solutions offers an ROI guarantee to underscore how confident it is about helping restaurateurs find opportunities for profit, Kirvan said.
"We haven't heard of anyone else doing that," he said.
