Franchising Pro Franchises Gourmet Frankfurter Eatery

A former Franchise professional for some of the nation’s top emerging chains, Bruce Holzman, has joined gourmet Hot Dog chain Franktitude as vice president of franchise sales.

A 20-year veteran of the Restaurant industry, Holzman is lending his expertise to drive the same kind of growth for Franktitude that he did for restaurant chains like Salsarita’s Fresh Cantina, Dairy Queen and Huddle House. Prior to joining Franktitude, Holzman sold close to 300 Salsarita’s Fresh Cantina Franchises in less than 20 months turning the start-up Fresh-Mex chain into a prominent regional brand. He had similar success at Dairy Queen where he developed and sold more than 130 new DQ Grill & Chill, Orange Julius and Karmelkorn franchises in the Southeast generating an annual royalty stream of $2.7 million. Holzman also served as a consultant for smaller franchise operations such as Desert Moon Fresh Mexican Grille, Juiceblendz International, Friendly’s Ice Cream and Jittery Joe’s Coffee.

Holzman’s growth strategies for the five-unit Miami-based hot dog concept involve targeting a certain breed of franchisees and positioning Franktitude as a no-fuss operation. Franktitude’s ideal franchisee is a business person who wants to get out of the corporate world to have more independence and flexibility; the single restaurant owner who is tired of doing it on his own without support day in and day out; and the multi-unit restaurant owner who cannot continue to grow with his or her existing brand, Holzman said.

“Franktitude is ideal for all of these types of business people because we are inexpensive and simple to operate, with little or no cooking taking place in our restaurants,” he said. “We offer the full line of support and services one expects from a top tier franchise and don’t have the same limitations some other brands have such as encroachment and territory issues.”

He is revising Franktitude’s brochures and Web site to sell the company’s franchisee support infrastructure which rivals that of many established restaurant chains.

“This concept was designed from the beginning to be a franchise with systems in place to grow consistently and reasonably,” he said.

Holzman is also using Franktitude’s unique volume discount program and territory protection as selling points with prospective franchisees. To open one Franktitude unit, the franchise fee is $25,000, but franchisees can invest in the rights to two units for $40,000 and three for $50,000. For the more experienced candidate, the area developer program allows a franchisee to open a certain number of restaurants in a specified territory within a defined time. Territory protection is offered to all franchisees, regardless of how many units they open, so franchisees can adequately penetrate market areas to generate maximum sales without competition from fellow franchisees.

“This is a big deal because many of the larger, mature franchises offer no protection at all, which is one of their biggest issues,” Holzman said.