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Top 100: Hot Head Burritos No 54

September 26, 2011

54. Hot Head Burritos

Kettering, Ohio / No. of units: 12

For Hot Head Burritos, 2011 is going to be the year of the franchisee. With 12 stores already in operation, the chain, known for its freshly prepared Mexican fare, began selling franchised units last January and has plans to open 30 units this year. Current expansion goals include openings in Pittsburgh, Cleveland and northeast Ohio, Cincinnati, Indiana and northern Kentucky. On the R&D side, Hot Head not only introduced two new sauces, sweet and extreme Habanero, but courted its female clientele with smaller-portioned items at a $3.19 price point. According to Ray Wiley, Hot Head’s co-founder and chief executive, “We have a lot of female customers who were coming in and ordering big portions, but splitting them. So we came up with the L’il Bowl, a smaller version of the Burrito Bowl, and the L’il Burrito, a smaller-sized version of our burrito. They also fit right into our kids’ menu.”