Sodexho Focuses On Franchises

Mcall:

A retail executive with experience at fast-food chains such as Arby’s and Wendy’s will help a Lehigh Valley company try to build the prominence of its own restaurant brands.

Bob Faller was announced Wednesday as the new vice president of franchise development for the Retail Brand Group, a division of global food-service giant Sodexho Inc. He started with the company last month.The Retail Brand Group, of Lower Macungie Township, develops branded chain restaurants for Sodexho’s institutional clients, including hospitals and college campuses. Faller, 60, will work with prospective franchise owners to help expand those brands into strip malls, shopping centers and other mainstream settings. He will split his time between his home in Atlanta and Lower Macungie.

”I’ll be a central contact point and interface with different folks who are interested in becoming franchisees, and opening businesses,” he said. ”We’ll help them decide if they think they are a fit for what we do, and vice versa.”

Faller was most recently vice president of franchise development at Ritter’s Frozen Custard, a 60-store chain of ice cream shops in the Midwest. He also worked as a regional real estate manager for other fast-food chains, helping franchise owners find and evaluate sites.