Freewheelin’ Franchisin’

Columbus Dispatch:

Roosters restaurants bill themselves as “fun, casual joints,” and it’s a theme that’s at the heart of the company’s recent growth effort.

Shannon Foust, a restaurant-industry veteran, wanted to take a nontraditional tack when leading that growth, through the sale of Roosters franchises.

The president of Roosters Franchising thought that other restaurant companies, which command big royalty and advertising fees, create resentment among franchisees.

So he sought to woo a different kind of operator — experienced restaurateurs who don’t need hand-holding or the trappings of a larger corporation.

“The idea is: What if you had a really strong financial model but didn’t have an ivory tower, didn’t have a bunch of stuffed shirts,” Foust said. “This infrastructure that has to be supported.”

His business model looks like this: The company doesn’t have a headquarters building and Foust works out of his home.

It charges $25,000 per location for development and franchise fees and an annual royalty fee of 3.25 percent, both low for the industry. Franchisees do their own marketing and don’t have to pay into a company advertising fund.

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Photo: Eric Albrecht | Dispatch.