Close Contact

Regional business directors will help Taco Del Mar expand to new markets around the country.

By Lisa Bertagnoli

March 1, 2007

Managing the franchisees of a chain when half its units are in three states is one thing. But as a chain expands nearly 3,000 miles away, franchisee management becomes more challenging.

During the next year, Taco Del Mar will open 120 units, plus add 15 master developers and 100 franchisees to its system. The Seattle-based Mexican QSR also plans to expand in markets as far-flung from the home office as Illinois and Mississippi.

With those plans, it became clear to President David Huether that Taco Del Mar would have to change its system of managing franchisees and master developers. No longer could a few employees at headquarters help franchisees with site selection, building and marketing via telephone and e-mail; no longer could Huether handle field operations.

His plan: Station regional business directors, or RBDs, in markets around the country, and hire a vice president of operations to manage them.

A Geographical Approach

Huether began by hiring a vice president of operations. Bruce Lane, former director of operations at Atlanta-based MCap Restaurant Group LLC (its three brands include Zaxby’s) and a one-time Waffle House franchisee, joined Taco Del Mar in January. "It took me six months to find him," Huether says, noting that he was looking for candidates with a mix of multiunit and brand experience in the United States and overseas.

The second step: reorganizing the RBDs already on staff. Chip Wicks, Tom McDermott and Kym Hagel remain based in Seattle: one handles Canada, Arizona and Nevada; a second, Idaho, Montana, Washington and Oregon; and the third, California, Hawaii and Alaska. The fourth, Chris Doyle, relocated to Chicago to handle the Midwest.

The third step is under way: hiring RBDs for the Southeast and East. Taco Del Mar recently hired Bruce Chaffee to work out of St. Louis, where he’ll oversee Puerto Rico, plus the Midwest east of the Rocky Mountains and west of the Mississippi River. Lane says it’s not easy to find managers who understand the role of an RBD. "It’s not an employer-employee relationship, which is what a lot of people are accustomed to," he says. "We have to have a person who can work with a franchisee in a 100-percent partner relationship."

Good RBDs can be difficult to find, concurs David Mansbach, managing director at HVS Executive Search in Mineola, N.Y. While franchisors look for regional directors, large franchisees want operating partners to do the same job. "Companies are getting that [franchise management] is a critical part of their plan," Mansbach says.

Lane and the RBDs communicate via conference calls, plus phone calls and e-mails several times a day.

Even with constant phoning and e-mailing, Lane travels 40 percent of the time. "Nothing replaces the personal visit with master developers or franchisees, on a personal or professional level," he says.

A Personal Touch

Fred Vosloh, master developer for the Gulf South and franchisee of a store in Flowood, Miss., says working with an RBD has helped make his entry into the restaurant business easier. "We’re neophytes in this, no two ways about it," says Vosloh, a former software developer.

Vosloh has called on Doyle for help with several issues. When Vosloh discovered that employees were throwing away huge amounts of guacamole, Doyle suggested that employees make the guacamole mix and add avocado only as needed. The restaurant has since cut down on guacamole waste.

Doyle has also helped Vosloh find prime locations in and near shopping malls. "I can’t imagine doing this without support," Vosloh says.

Proximity to franchisees is by far the biggest benefit of the RBD system. "We have people closer to our customers, the franchisees," Huether says. "It makes our ability to support franchisees and master developers more effective."

And more effective support means higher profits. "We only get paid because franchisees are successful, and they pay us royalties," Huether says. "That’s the only way we make revenue."