TUESDAY / OCTOBER 11, 2016 / 1:00 PM
Ask the Experts: Forging the Ideal Franchisee-Franchisor Relationship
Franchisors and franchisees share a common goal of growing the brand. They also have have another thing in common: They need each other, but they often forget that and waste precious time and money fighting each other. Attendees of this session will learn what questions to ask potential partners BEFORE going into business with each other and how to find the right person in which they can work.
PANELISTS
session sponsor
Craig Dunaway | President | Penn Station East Coast Subs
Craig Dunaway has been President of Penn Station since 1999. Before joining Penn Station Inc., Craig was a partner at the regional accounting firm of McCauley, Nicolas & Company, LLC in Jeffersonville, Indiana, where he had worked since 1982 in various staff and managerial positions. Dunaway formerly had ownership interests in a Papa John’s franchisee that owned 11 stores, and he served as the secretary/treasurer for that Papa John’s franchisee. In addition, he had ownership interests in Coastal Cheesesteaks, LLC until June 2011 and in Louisville Cheesesteaks, LLC until January 2014, both of which are Penn Station franchisees.
Jim Mizes | President & COO | Blaze Pizza LLC
Jim is the “founder’s best friend” turning brand vision to reality through systems, values based leadership, culture, and a common purpose. Over the past 25 years, Jim has worked with multiple start-ups to rapidly scale. At Blaze Pizza, Jim has led expansion from 2 restaurants to 80+ in just over 2 years. Prior to Blaze Pizza, Jim was president of Freebirds World Burrito and CEO & president of Club One (a health club company). Jim successfully scaled Noah’s Bagels from 8 to 130 restaurants in 3 years and then was part of the executive team that built Jamba Juice from 50 to 450 restaurants in 5 years. Jim led the 59/79/99 Run for the Border campaign at Taco Bell that resulted in 60% same store sales growth in 1990.
Larry Sidoti | Chief Development Officer | Paris Baguette
Larry has over 20 years of restaurant and franchise experience with leadership roles in both operations and development. In his current role with Paris Baguette, Larry is responsible for corporate growth as well as all aspects of developing and leading the franchise business. Prior to Paris Baguette, Larry was VP of Development for Ruby’s and VP of Operations and Development for Yogurtland. Larry began his career in food service in 1995 when he founded Juice it Up. Over a 13 year span the company grew to over 180 stores. In addition to starting Juice it Up, he was also a franchisee with two brands.
MODERATOR
Tracey Fullington | National Account Manager | SCA Americas – Tork
Tracey Fullington is National Account Manager for SCA Americas. She is an accomplished sales management professional with over 20 years of experience, who is dedicated to serving restaurants in a sustainable way. Tracey promotes SCA’s line of Tork products and hygiene initiatives to national account foodservice concepts with corporate headquarters based in the Southeastern United States. Since 2007 she has been responsible for maintaining and growing a portfolio of high profile national foodservice concepts with locations that cross regional boundaries.
