When Jim Rudolph and his brother, Bill, bought Rita’s Water Ice in May 2005, they were stunned by the amount of attention they got.
“You have to remember, I’m not from Philadelphia,” said Jim Rudolph, now Rita’s chief executive officer. “I’m from Pittsburgh.”
Rudolph didn’t realize how popular Rita’s was in the Philadelphia region, where it had been founded in 1984 by a firefighter trying to supplement his income.
But McKnight Capital Partners – the Rudolph brothers’ investment firm – didn’t buy it for the strong Philadelphia connection. They bought it to expand far beyond the Mid-Atlantic region.
“Who says this can’t travel?” Rudolph retorts to skeptics who say that people outside the region have no idea what water ice is.
Rudolph – described by franchisees as passionate, tireless and intense – has lofty goals for Rita’s: He wants to have 1,500 stores by 2010, up from 319 when he bought it, and $500,000 in average annual sales per store, up from $225,000 last year.
Full-time employment at Rita’s Water Ice Franchise Co. L.L.C. has climbed from 42 at the time of the sale to 83 now. That does not count the thousands – mostly part-time workers – employed by franchisees. Last year’s sales at Rita’s outlets totaled $73.7 million, the company said. So far this year, they are up 5 percent, Rudolph said.
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