Famous Toastery, a 25-unit better brunch franchise brand known for its “Famously Fresh” menu, is experiencing a brand resurgence after streamlining operations to meet post-pandemic demand for big brunches and adding new executive leadership to fuel the brand’s franchise growth mission.
Over the last few years, Famous Toastery developed and instituted new operational efficiencies in an effort to drive system-wide sales and help grow the franchise system, including standardizing operating procedures across all locations, reengineering the restaurant’s menu and prices to improve unit level economics, and launching a “Famously Fresh” campaign at the restaurant level and across marketing channels to leverage its fresh, made-from-scratch menu. Famous Toastery also grew its executive leadership team by adding franchise and restaurant industry veterans Mike Sebazco as President and Eric Gustafsson as Vice President of Franchise Development to lead business growth strategy and operations and drive franchise expansion.
These enhancements made to Famous Toastery are now paying dividends. In 2022, the brand saw its top 50 percent of franchise locations report an Average Unit Volume (AUV) of $1,770,835.
“The time this organization spent looking granularly at all operational aspects of this business and the decisions made to improve upon the franchise model has given the brand a competitive edge as a profitable brunch business with increased value for our franchisees, employees and guests,” says Mike Sebazco, President of Famous Toastery. “Now, the results are attracting new and existing franchisees to the system who see the opportunity to capture the demand for society’s ongoing love of the brunch daypart.”
In fact, due to the brand’s calculated investments, corporate vision and additional resources, entrepreneurs Divyan Patel, Jeffrey Folckemer, and Drew Van Zante were attracted to the brand and signed a five-unit franchise agreement to open new Famous Toastery locations in Jacksonville, FL. Added evidence to the brand’s strategic changes and growing unit volume sales is Famous Toastery’s former Vice President of Operations, Joe Gillie, who is leaving his corporate role to run and operate the location in Blowing Rock, NC as a franchise owner.
“While the impressive AUVs are helping drive the brand resurgence, one of the biggest draws to investing in a Famous Toastery is its single shift business concept, where owners and staff members are able to achieve work life balance with an eight-hour shift instead of working 14 hours a day,” says Eric Gustafsson, Vice President of Franchise Development at Famous Toastery. “In today’s competitive market, our franchisees can enjoy the concept’s healthy profit margins and strong unit economics in a compact space thanks to low food costs traditionally associated with breakfast, as well as lower labor and overhead costs due to morning to afternoon working hours.”
Founded in 2005 in Huntersville, NC, best friends Brian Burchill and Robert Maynard opened a breakfast restaurant in a small house where fresh ingredients and comfortable atmosphere were center stage. In 2013, the restaurant brand evolved into a franchise still focused on fresh, high-quality ingredients and with a special focus on attentive service. Today, Famous Toastery has more than 25 locations and aims to bring brunch, enjoyable hospitality, and community under one roof to other markets in the country with the help new and existing franchise owners. With an emphasis on perfecting classic breakfast and lunch items and injecting fun in beverages, Famous Toastery not only owns brunch, it makes it famous.
New franchisees go through an initial eight-week training program at Famous Toastery headquarters, with four weeks of training specifically dedicated to restaurant operations, from a culinary, bartending and service standpoint. Franchisees also go through a rigorous culinary training curriculum developed by Famous Toastery’s experienced culinary team to help them become confident in their franchise to serve up a fresh, made-from-scratch menu daily. Additional resources include operations support, new store opening training of staff members, local marketing initiatives, P&L review and coaching on best practices and benchmarking and ongoing trainings focused on franchise business success.
The cost to open a Famous Toastery, costs range from$588,000 – $1,011,500.
