The fresh-Mexican chain puts franchised growth on hold in favor of company expansion. Maya Norris reports in Chain Leader that Camp Fitch the CEO of Tijuana Flats has decided to forgo franchising at Tijuana Flats to concentrate on company growth.
Read MoreCross posted at: Let’s Talk Franchising
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With over 25 years of franchise, marketing, and entrepreneurial experience, and the owner of Franchise Perfection, Jim Coen, brings key skills to franchise consulting for those interested in buying a franchise business opportunity.
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As pro-franchise as I am, this is an interesting read, as well as an interesting company. If I was a franchisee, and was told that no more franchises would be sold, I would think to myself, “why the heck did I fork over a few hundred grand”?
On the other hand, if the support was the same or better, it could be a win-win.
time will tell.
Joel Libava/Cleveland Ohio
{AKA Franpro}
The thing that struck me was here is a company that is looking at things in the appropriate way. They have a model that requires strong operations to pull off successfully. Rather than go pedal to the medal and risk the value of what they have, they are applying the brakes, to make sure operations are as strong as possible.
The main reasons for a company to franchise are to attract capital and operators, it seems that Tijuana Flats, doesn’t need the capital. So why franchise anymore?
I like it that the leadership of Tijuana Flats has a clear vision of its priorities.
As you say Joel, time will tell.
I completely agree with Jim.
“We reached a point where we no longer needed that source of revenue. We would much rather own the restaurants ourselves than to franchise them.”
That is the quote that to me is most interesting. This is a company that runs *profitable* restaurants. They are good operators – why risk their name by franchising when they don’t need to. I’ve always been impressed by Tijuana Flats. After reading this, I’m even more impressed.
When I look at franchise operations, I’m always interested in seeing how many company stores there are. Seems like so many companies these days build the ‘concept’ store with the sole intent to sell franchises – no intention of ever running their own stores. Tijuana Flats shifting their focus from franchising to company growth is not only refreshing, it underscores the strength of their concept.