Inside A Growing Franchise: The Great Greek Mediterranean Grill (Ep 168)
Want to hear about what explosive growth looks like? Join Jaime Oikle of RunningRestaurants.com as he talks with Bob Anderson, President of The Great Greek Mediterranean Grill, about where they are now and the rapid growth that's planned. You have to have a lot of systems in place and working successfully to target aggressive growth as they are so it was great to take a peek inside their plans.
Check it out. Find out more at https://www.thegreatgreekgrill.com & https://www.runningrestaurants.com.
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Inside A Growing Franchise: The Great Greek Mediterranean Grill With Bob Anderson
Introduction
We have a great episode where we're going to dive deep into the business with Bob Anderson, president of the Great Greek Mediterranean Grill. Bob, welcome. Thanks for joining me.
Thanks for having me, Jaime. It's a pleasure to be here.
We met a little bit ago, talked a little bit about where we were from, and shared some stories there. What's going to be good here is we're going to dive in. We don't have too many notes. You’re a long-experienced operator, seen many parts of the business. Let's see where the conversation goes. I think one of my first questions will be curious and interesting. What was your first job in the restaurant space?
My first job in the restaurant business was as a manager of development and sales for Boston Pizza Restaurants. They're a Canadian company and I guess about a billion-dollar company today. They were growing here in the States. They were looking for some development people. That was my first foray. It was a great opportunity for me to join a great brand like that. It was a great place to start.
Current Growth At The Great Greek Mediterranean Grill
You've seen growth in various brands. Maybe a lot of that will get covered. Let's go where you are right now, the Great Greek Mediterranean space. You talked about it being an exciting space. You guys are growing. Maybe we'll go out to the website. I remember hearing twenty units with twenty more coming. Does that sound right?
Currently, we have 21 units operating. If we talk in 2 or 3 weeks from now, we'll have about 3 more open. We have almost 25 on the docket for this year. It's a breakout year for the brand. The year after that, 2023, we're looking to open another 40 to 50 restaurants. We have great operators who love the brand. Many of them are into their multiple second, third, fourth, and fifth units. We also have new people coming into the chain who want to be part of this Mediterranean space.
What you just laid out is explosive growth. You're talking about a couple, three, or four units a month. That's crazy. Does it make your head spin? What's it like? How are you picking locations? What do you guys think about growing that fast?
We've been preparing for this for two years. It all started with assembling a very capable team of experienced people who can open that many restaurants. We've assembled a team and put it together. Fortunately, we're part of a bigger company, UFG, as I was sharing with you before. Our company has been in business for 35 years. We have eleven brands and four category leaders in the world. We think Great Greek can be the next one.
My point is we have the resources to put a team in place that's necessary to have that growth. To your point, it's easy to say that you're going to open that many restaurants, but to have them on the books, leases signed, development, and open them is quite a different perspective. That's where we are now. It is an exciting time. We keep adding to the team. We added people this week to start preparing for that growth. Those would be persons number four and five just this year alone added to our team.
Pandemic Challenges And Adaptations
I'm curious because everyone has gone through it. How did you or how are you treating the pandemic? You're growing through that. It had to be challenging. Quick service tended to fare a little bit better. How did you guys deal with it?
It was an interesting experience for us. We were very fortunate how it ended up as we saw so many of our peers struggle. The format of the brand is a small footprint. We were doing about 50% dine-in and 50% off-premise. That shifted. Like everyone else, that first week or two weeks was a gut punch. For the first four weeks, no one was sure where this whole thing was going.
People started sticking their heads up and wanted to get out of their houses and started going to restaurants. They were getting the drive-thrus. They were looking for alternatives to the fast food drive-thrus. They wanted to serve better meals to their family. Since that point, about four weeks, in mid-April of 2020, our sales started accelerating and they haven't stopped. We beat store sales year over year, even in the COVID year, by about 20%.
Franchise Vs. Independent Operations
It's very interesting the different trajectories. A lot of folks had to close. That brings you to the question of franchise versus independent. In a franchise, you have the systems in place. It maybe can withstand a punch in the face a little bit better than a mom-and-pop. What do you think about that aspect of someone who could start Jaime's Greek Mediterranean Grill versus joining a franchise? How do you guys talk about the difference there?
It was a huge difference. We had calls with our franchise operators every day at the beginning, and then it went to weekly. There was a lot of communication, and our team was able to pivot. We pivoted with our vendors. We made sure there wasn't a breakdown in the supply chain so we could have the food. We pivoted with information about safety, health, CDC guidelines, and all those things. We were operating in many different states in Florida, Texas, and Michigan. Our other brand was in California.
We were able to bring some great resources and expertise to our franchisees to allow them to focus on running the business. That would be the difference and a huge difference. We did all that grind and grunt work, and we focused on getting the restaurants ready to operate under whatever the rules and laws were in their state. As I said, we shifted from dine-in to completely off-premise like everyone else.
Our business was always already going that way. Many of our initiatives were to explore the off-premise component of our format. In many regards, it accelerated that for us. We were a great resource to stand right next to our franchisees and their operators. Our corporate locations help nurture them through this incredibly difficult period.
Employee Education & Retention
I'm curious to dig a little bit further there. Stepping away from the pandemic in general, but the education process of your owners. Maybe it's through conference calls. Maybe it's through a franchise summit once a year or something like that, getting everyone together in the same room. How do you educate folks that are spread all over?
We do all that. It's a host of things. We start with communication at the local level. We have executives, regional vice presidents in many of the regions, and our field staff who work with our restaurants locally. As we step up, our divisions will send out group emails on the things going on, whether it's supply chain or an increase in price suggestions. Hiring employees is the big thing right now. We're constantly doing that.
The UFG company does a world expo. We did one last year celebrating 35 years. We have the whole downtown West Palm Beach Convention Center. All the brands were in it. The company does that every five years. We're planning our conference in Las Vegas in September of this year. Each brand does a conference. We're bringing education and valuable content to our franchisees in many different ways on a regular basis. We still try to improve that, get it better, and all those things. We do video calls. We'll do a quarterly video call on a certain subject.
You guys are plugging them in. You talked about hiring. One of the things you talked about is the labor shortage. I happened to have a great interview earlier where we talked about that aspect. A lot of good tips came out of that. I'm sure you guys have found solutions, ideas, and ways to find people in this tight market. What are some of the things that have worked for you guys, for your teams, and for your locations in finding people, getting them in place, and making sure you're staffed? What has been working?
There are two most significant areas that we try to focus on that work. One is a little bit new to all of us. One is the true and tried core of being a great employer and knowing how to recruit and hire people. The first is when we launched a restaurant and we launched in a market or trade area, it was all about introducing the brand to the consumer. We've accelerated that or moved it back. We do a marketing launch geared at hiring employees and getting the message out about the brand, the differences of the brand, and what a great place it is to work to help attract people.
That is a major shift for us. It has to be a concerted effort on a lot of different fronts. More so than any one tactic, this has brought us a lot, or this is in different markets. It's always different types of things, but training our operators to have the soft skills to interview and sell the job, so to speak. Being an employer of choice and showing those candidates a path beyond the position that they're interviewing for.
If it's a frontline person who wants to get into management, show them that path. If it's a manager who wants to get into corporate or regional management, show them that path. One of the things that we found to be very successful is showing people that path of growth, how we're going to nurture them, and how they're going to come out once they get in with us and have growth as an individual and an employee in that environment. To me, that has been the most significant because every restaurant is out there looking for good people.
The bonus for us is our restaurant is a nice place to work. We have a great customer base. It's a comfortable place for people to work and manage. Those three things are the areas that we're focused on. Tactically, we probably have 11 to 12 different tactics. In some markets, this tactic works. In this market, that doesn't work. That's always a moving target for us.
That's good. I wrote down a lot of stuff there. It's been hard to find people. I like the phrase employer of choice, having a culture, having the training, and having people want to work there. It's not a buyer's market. It's the sellers. They have their choice. They can go anywhere at any time. You need to make it a desirable place to work through any combination of things you mentioned, growth opportunities, pay opportunities, other incentives, and so forth. It's more of a challenge than it ever had been. It has to be part of the strategy to integrate all those things. You can't say, “Let's pay the least and have the least amount of attention for our folks.” That's not going to work.
What operators need to realize is that most individuals are not making the decision on the pay because the pay is there for everyone. When we sit down in front of someone, we want that individual to say, “I want to work for this person. This is a person I'd like to wake up every day, go to work, and work with.” It has always been difficult in this industry to find good people even before the pandemic.
Operators need to realize that most individuals don’t base their decisions solely on pay. You want that individual to say, “I want to work for this person.”
The operators who do the best job of it are the ones who are sensitive to creating a nice environment, respecting their employees, paying them fairly, and maybe giving them time off, vacation, and flexible schedules. That's all part of being a great employer. To me, that's the game. That person sitting in front of me is going to say, “I want to work for you.” They need to develop the soft skills of whoever that hiring person is.
Retention is a big deal. Celebrating your folks and acknowledging them, whether it's through awards or something else. Maybe you found that small incentives can work good. A little contest here, a bonus there, and targets to hit. Do you use anything like that?
We use all those things. I think you're right. I had a manager come to me one day and say, “This person is lazy.” I said, “They're lazy? Let me go talk to them.” I went over and talked to that person and said, “What's your role here? What do you do?” They couldn't tell me what their role was and what they were supposed to do. They were a front-of-house person. I said, “Do you greet the customer?” “I didn't know I was supposed to greet the customer.”
I went to the manager and said, “I think you have a good employee here, but they are not sure what they need to do. Deliver to them our five touch points for that customer in the front of the house, from when they walk in, to when they order, to when they get their food, to when they leave. That employee became an all-star employee and became a shift leader and then a trainer.
It was simply making sure that the individuals knew what the role of that job was to be successful. It was a great learning opportunity for me and for our organization to make sure now that we're talking to our management leaders to say, “You need to make sure that everyone understands what it means to be successful in the role.” When they do it, go pat them on the back and tell them, “Great job.” They want that as much as they want a bonus, a gift card, and those kinds of things.
When everyone understands what it means to be successful in the role, go pat them on the back and tell them, “Great job!”
I've been through some of the books I have on those walls. This is everyone's all-time classic. I got earmarks on How to Win Friends and Influence People, a classic Dale Carnegie. Something you said reminded me of that. Give people a good name to follow up on. You checked in with that staff member. Maybe they didn't know the exact thing, but you clarified and then you gave them an expectation level to work up to. You're going to find that they're going to be one of the best staff members for you because you've given them that level and expectations. You have to set it clearly.
A hundred percent. There are some brands out there that do it great. Everyone thinks they get all the great employees, but they don't get all the great employees. They hire great personalities and they show them what the role is and what success looks like. They support it and they acknowledge it. Those types of things are what repeat that behavior. Those are the things that we focus on with our management team and our franchise operators. Many of them have already been in hiring positions before, but it's also quite different hiring an executive than it is a frontline person or someone who works in a kitchen for a restaurant. You have to speak their language.
We’ll change the topic a little bit. Everything is mobile. Everything is social. A lot of your audience is probably on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, and so forth. It's very social. Do you guys do anything specific to target that younger audience on some of these platforms and these influencers? Anything you guys think about?
We're always seeking who that audience is. Being a newer team, there's a lot of trying to understand what those best places are. We're exploring a lot of different areas, whether it's paid online advertising. We're doing some things with geofencing. We have different technology partners that are testing different ideas in terms of loyalty and rewards. We're exploring all those areas at the moment. Some things are working very well. Some we don't get any traction on. That's part of the search.
As we grow, it will increase more. I had a meeting with our creative team about TikTok and what we want to do there. Do we want to do a channel? Do we have the capabilities right now to put in the time and energy that constantly needs to be updated and fed? Do we want to look at who are the key influencers in certain markets that can have an impact on us? That's some of the things that we're working through as we speak.
We recognize that we have to be part of the communities and the conversations that are happening relative to our brand, whether it's the food, Mediterranean food, a healthy diet, or more inspirational about enjoying life. Our tagline that captures the essence of our brand is to live your life deliciously. That can mean a lot of different things.
It could be about the food. It could be about living and enjoying every moment. That's a very inspirational piece of the Mediterranean hospitality and lifestyle, so to speak. We have a lot of different opportunities there. It's trying to figure out and find out where's the best place and giving a little bit to all those places.
I have an episode coming out with Rev Ciancio from branded strategic hospitality where we talked about TikTok. When that comes out, I'll make sure I send you the link. Folks, look for that because he’s got a whole book about TikTok for restaurants with tips and stuff. He points out a couple of examples. It's one of the newest platforms, and restaurants are starting to use it. You need to know, should I be there? Should I spend time? Should I invest? That will be a great resource for folks to check out for that because he's got some good tips there.
In your last talk there, you mentioned loyalty and rewards. I want to stay there for a quick second. What do you guys think about loyalty and rewards? A lot of brands do it. Some people do it well. As a consumer, the ones I like the most are when I get rewarded relatively frequently. I don't have to go 24 times before I get a $1 cookie. It has frequency to it and so forth. I like it when it's tracked on an app and I can see what the status is. What do you guys think about loyalty and how does it play into some of your decisions?
You're hitting on all the things. We're having some robust dialogue right now. Initially, loyalty was about point-based. You came in, you spent a dollar, and you got a dollar. Maybe American Airlines created that. Starbucks came along, and everyone thought that was the way to go. We went out recently and had a lot of conversations with our guests.
Our brand has been around for ten years. We're going into our eleventh year with the brand. We have consumers who've been around for a long time. Those are the ones that we're interested in hearing from. The bottom line is they come back. As you had mentioned, people want more about, “Give me some incentives on frequency and we want a reward on frequency.”
For us, we’re going to shift away from points-based rewards that people accumulate to more, “I'm rewarding you at this moment. It's instantaneous. You're going to come back. It's a great offer.” We're looking at that as the place for us to go in the future. I think the points and the loyalty for companies like Starbucks where people might get a cup of coffee every day might be a great fit for that. For us, our consumers are telling us that they want to get more contact on incentives based on their visits.
It's shifting more to a visit-based reward. Our customer, in general, comes to our restaurant very frequently, more so than any other brand. When I was in the burger space and pizza space, people put themselves on a schedule. I could do that once a week, once a month, or once a quarter. In the Mediterranean space, there's no schedule. We have people come in for lunch and then have a salad, and then they come for dinner and have a chicken souvlaki plate.
We have a much higher incidence of repeat visits, which makes this space very special to me. Healthy eaters snack during the day. We have great snack foods. We don't have the deep dive down the 2 to 4 dead hours or not dead hours for our brand. It makes for a nice situation for our operator, but our consumers are coming back so often, which is great for the brand.
Website & Brand Vibe
It is a different philosophy from healthy eating. Folks can repeat. Let's go out for a second. I'm going to pull up the website for you guys, and we'll take a look at it for two minutes or so. Let’s figure out which buttons to push. Let's go. Does this look right? Does it look familiar?
You're making me hungry already.
What's the brand vibe you guys are going for? What's the feeling? This looks great here. When you think about that first impression when folks land on the website or they pull up the phone, what are you guys trying to convey?
As I mentioned earlier, our tagline is to live your life deliciously. Everything we do, we want to do at the moment, and we want to do it well. Our feeling is people eat their food a couple of times. They first do it with their eyes, and then they do it with their mouths, and then they take some home with them. For our brand, as you can see, our food is beautiful. It starts with the food when it shows up at their table. It's cooked to order. It's made fresh every day in our restaurant. The ingredients are of the highest quality. We had a very great experience with the food.
People eat their food a couple of times. First, they do it with their eyes. Then, they do it with their mouths. Finally, they take some home with them.
You ask me about the vibe. I grew up in an Italian family. On Sunday afternoon, we called it dinner. It was about 2:00 or 3:00. The whole family got together around a table. There was a lot of energy and a lot of conversation. My mother, my aunts, and my grandmother spent most of the day preparing that food. The food was delicious. It was plentiful.
That is the feeling that we want people to have when they come into that restaurant like most cultures have on that Sunday afternoon when the family gets together. It's a lot of fun, very welcoming, a lot of love, but also great food. That's the vibe we're after in the restaurant. Our teams are welcoming to the guests.
As I said, our food comes out on a real plate. You get a real fork. You don't even clean up your dish after you finish. You leave and our team cleans it up. It's the closest thing to a full-service experience without being a full-service restaurant. That's where we think there's a huge opportunity for the brand to jump out and capture and be the world leader in the fine, fast, casual segment of Mediterranean food.
Franchise Expansion
I appreciate you going through that. I was scrolling through the website and stuff. Great photography, by the way. It looks very appealing. Let's talk about that for a second. The growth part, you already rolled through it. You're franchising and looking for folks and partners. Let's click a map here. There are already folks all over the place. How do you think about expansion?
For us, it's worldwide. I mentioned to you earlier when we were talking that we see and believe that we're going to be the brand that jumps in and leads the world in the fine, fast, casual Mediterranean space. We have 21 restaurants open here in the States. We'll open another 22 to 25 this year and double that the following year.
We also have agreements already internationally in Canada. We're working on finalizing some deals in Europe and Australia. We have an interest in the brand around the globe, but we also have a team in place that can support that because we're part of a much bigger company. We have a fully dedicated team in Australia. We have a dedicated team in Europe. It allows us to jump out and take that opportunity right in front of us. It starts with assembling a great team, which we have, and now bringing in some great franchise partners, which we are accumulating.
I clicked on franchise and that took us to a different website. You guys do a good job with taglines, a delicious franchise investment. I appreciate that. For folks that want to know more about either the franchise opportunity or they're just looking for lunch, where do you send them? What's the best place to go? Is it just the website?
The best place to go is to our website, TheGreatGreekGrill.com. They'll be able to get any information they want there, from menu to location. As you saw, there's a franchise link. If someone is interested in learning more about the franchise, they can click that link. They'll get a little bit more information and then a button to ask for additional information. Our team will contact them and follow up. There's a lot of information on the website.
Closing Thoughts
We covered a lot. Any closing thoughts that we didn't hit that you want to hit? Any parting thoughts for operators that are out there, whether they're franchise or independent, in the business, or anything?
My parting thought is, as we share with our team, turn the TV off. I know on TV, it sounds like the world is crashing. It's not what we're seeing in the marketplace. Go pay attention to your guests and give them a great experience. Whether you're in the Mediterranean space, pizza, burger, or whatever space, you'll have a much better chance at thriving in this business by focusing on your team and your guests. That's what we're focused on. Turn the TV off unless you're watching the Dallas Mavericks and rooting for them.
That's funny. I was reading something else like turning the TV off in general. Work on yourself and work on your business. Don't get stuck in reruns. You can watch the playoffs. Watch some playoffs, get into that, have some fun, but enjoy what's going on out there. I appreciate you, Bob. This has been great. It’s fascinating to talk about what's going on behind the biz. That was Bob Anderson, president of the Great Greek Mediterranean Grill. Make sure to check them out at TheGreatGreekGrill.com. A lot of Gs there. For more great restaurant marketing, operations, service people, and tech tips, stay tuned to us here at RunningRestaurants.com. Thanks so much. We'll see you next time. Thanks, Bob.
Thanks, Jaime.
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