Franktitude

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FRANKTITUDE: A Different kind of Eatery
“Restaurant experience is not necessary to own a Franktitude….Just a commitment to creating customer experience satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and growing the brand” Ari Wurmann, Franktitude Founder 1

CEO Ari Wurmann has no foodservice experience, but that hasn’t stopped him from opening Franktitude, a fast-casual gourmet hot dogconcept, at a rapid clip. He has already opened three units since fall 2006, plans to open two more by February and will start franchising in 2007. "To be big, you have to start big," says Wurmann, who worked as a brand manager at an electronics company in his native Chile before earning an MBA at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., in 2005. "I needed to capture attention, and opening five gives methat. Maybe I’m crazy, but it gives me that." In January 2008, the chain clenched the 89th spot on the magazine’s 2007 Top 100 Movers and Shakers list which recognizes a brand, menu or product that influenced the fast-casual restaurant segment. Franktitude achieved this distinction after being open for less than 15 months. “We’re thrilled to be recognized as one of the leading fast-casual brands,especially at such a young age,” Ari Wurmann, Franktitude founder and CEO. Franktitude’s business model is simple to operate because their toppings are delivered washed, sliced and ready to use eliminating most preparation work. Their footprint is smaller which lowers investment and operational costs. Almost no cooking takes place in the eatery, yet customers see a freshly made product createdjust for them. Franktitude’s no-fuss operations landed the gourmet frankfurter, salad and sandwich chain on QSR Magazine’s Best of 2007 list. Published in QSR’s December 2007 edition, the awards program recognized the frankfurter concept as “Best Option for Part-Time Restaurateurs.”

The birth of Franktitude
Franktitude was born with “national concept” written all over it. All of the systems weretested and retested in their corporate restaurants so they could refine the business model before began franchising. They figured out how to create an eatery with almost no cooking a very little prep work. Most of their product are ready to use, so when an order
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Source: QSR Magazine 2007

© Wurmann

Page 2 of 10 is placed, the customers sees fresh, health toppings being put on thefreshly assembled product. The proof is the franks and the sandwich and the salad if you will. Wurmann came up with the concept in 2005 after learning that 20 billion hot dogs are sold each year, yet there was no national hot dog chain. "If you think about burgers, you think McDonald’s. When you think about pizza, you say Domino’s or Pizza Hut," he says. "But when you say hot dogs, there’s no real bigbrand that you recognize as a leader. So I thought, here is an opportunity, and there’s a huge market, but for some reason nobody has taken that opportunity." Franktitude was developed as a mix between fast-casual and fast-food dining. With convenient locations and a menu full of food that is easily enjoyed on the run or at a sit-down meal, Franktitude targets guests of all ages. Franktitude willallow guests to order-to-go, dine in, and call for delivery. After raising $2 million from investors in Chile, Wurmann opened the first unit of Franktitude in Miami in September 2007. “Lunch has been packed since opening a few weeks ago. The space is bright and sleekly designed. At Franktitude you can get unusual dogs with various fresh toppings and sides of fries or sweet potato fries. Frankly,this place could become the Starbucks of hot dogs” Miami Herald2. The original plan was to open 5 stores during 2007 but difficulties with construction and permits along to find good locations made this impossible to accomplish. “I didn’t realize it was so difficult to open a business in Miami,”, “I thought this country was less bureaucratic. I’ve been, a lot of times, very upset. At the first...