Franchising in New England

New England franchisees have donated over $7 Million for the Jimmy Fund

Dunkin’ Donuts store owners in New England Monday raised just over $800,000 for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s Jimmy Fund through proceeds generated from the 11th Annual Dunkin’ Donuts George Mandell Memorial Golf Tournament and Auction. The event, organized by Dunkin’ Donuts Northeast Distribution Center (NEDCP) and held at The International Country Club in Bolton, Mass., is consistently the Jimmy Fund’s highest-grossing fund-raising tournament nationwide.

Dunkin’ Donuts franchisees and vendors in the Northeast have donated over $7 million to fund the work of “Rising Stars” physicians at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) since the program’s inception in 1998. Selected annually by DFCI, “Rising Stars” are doctors leading breakthrough cancer research as yet not backed by federal funding.

“This event is successful every year through the generosity of our franchisees, vendors, Dunkin’ Brands and DCP employees,” said David Liguori, Tournament Chairman and COO of Dunkin’ Donuts National DCP. “Even in a challenging economy these incredible and passionate people come through for the Jimmy Fund. And because the tragedy of cancer is pervasive, we want to contribute in any way that we can to help Dana Farber Cancer Institute battle this insidious disease.”

Nancy Rowe, director of the Jimmy Fund Golf Program adds, “The commitment by Dunkin’ Donuts is extraordinary and is vitally important to the work of Dana Farber. We are so grateful for their continued devotion to the Jimmy Fund and the priority they give it. It serves as a vivid example of selfless commitment at its best.”

More than 200 golfers participated in the tournament and approximately 300 people attended the dinner/auction. Sadly and in an ironic twist of fate, this year’s event took on special meaning for the Dunkin’ Donuts family with the May 30th passing to cancer of John Henderson; long-time franchisee and driving force behind the annual tournament and support of the Jimmy Fund. An emotional special presentation honoring his legacy highlighted the evening’s dinner capped by a sentimental remembrance by Dr. Lee Nadler, Senior Vice President, Experimental Medicine at Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

The Dunkin’ Donuts George Mandell Memorial Golf Tournament began in 1998 in honor of George Mandell, a Dunkin’ Donuts franchisee who died of cancer.

The Massachusetts Restaurant Association (MRA) has announced that MRA Board member Tom Galligan recently took the top spot. He’s chairman, president and CEO of Papa Gino’s Holdings Corp., NEFA Member and a company with more than 5,000 employees and more than 350 Papa Gino’s and D’Angelo Grilled Sandwiches restaurants.

Galligan has been an active member of the MRA for 10 years. As chairman, Galligan said in a statement, he will focus on boosting membership, strategic planning and promoting members through such programs as “Stars of the Industry,” which is an appreciation program for hourly employees.

CNN Money published a report on the 100 best places in America to start a business.

The 100 picks include these New England communities.

10. Franklin, MA

13 Manchester, NH

33 Hamden, CT

35 Cambridge, MA

38 Worcester, MA

63 Lincoln, RI

64 Fairfield, CT

88 Brunswick, ME

100 Colchester, VT.

Christopher Wright writes in the August issue of Franchise Times that NEFA Member L & W Investigations helps its clients stamp out fraud.

The leg-presses were a dead giveaway. Two of Glenn Parker’s investigators at L&W Investigations near Orlando, Florida, were finding it tough to tail their subject, a woman supposedly disabled, unable to walk and, therefore, unable to work. She lived in a rural area, and any strangers hanging around for a long time would stick out like a sore thumb. And their initial tails failed because the woman lost them on winding, country roads.

Finally, they followed her to a health club. They figured out her schedule and went back outfitted in gym togs and armed with video cameras. One was small enough to pass for a personal entertainment device of the type often seen in gyms. The subject was filmed working out on a stationary bike and several weight machines. The other investigator further documented the proceedings with a pinhole camera hidden in a gym bag. Film delivered to client, client happy, workers’ compensation case closed.

Glenn Parker opened his L&W franchise in 2007.

It’s all in a day’s work for Parker, who opened his L&W franchise in 2007. He chose the franchise for the interesting nature of its work and its ability to withstand economic ups and downs.

“It’s fun and exciting. Every single day is different,” Parker says. Disability one day, vehicle accidents the next. “You feel like you’re really doing some good. Insurance fraud is a huge issue,” he says. “It’s very satisfying work.”

Founded in 2002, the Massachusetts-based L&W is the first investigations franchisor in the country, with 35 offices, including three company-owned units, in 23 states.

While one might think that a background in law enforcement or investigations would be required, L&W prefers franchisees with business experience, CEO and chairman Neal Lyons says. Lyons’ own background is in retail. “Running an investigation firm is no different than running a clothing store or territory,” he says. “It’s basically the same fundamentals - customer service, basic business sense, working with clients, high-level management.”

Bill O’Brien distributed beer before buying an L&W franchise.

“We can always hire good investigators,” Bill O’Brien, L&W’s franchisee for Wisconsin and Minnesota, says. O’Brien was a Miller beer distributor before he joined L&W in 2004. Selling beer taught him the necessity of maintaining good customer relations. “It’s all about the customers,” he says.

O’Brien’s most memorable case was the time he and his staff helped break up a ring of conspirators that was staging phony car accidents. His staff interviewed the driver in an accident case and found in a database that the same vehicle identification number had turned up in half a dozen prior accidents. Turns out, six people from Madison, Wisconsin and Chicago were totaling the same vehicle, fixing it up, and painting it a different color each time to hide their tracks. Because the plot crossed state lines, the FBI got involved and the fraudsters were eventually prosecuted for filing false insurance claims.

L&W doesn’t take every case that walks in the door. One secret of its success is to stick tightly to insurance work. The economics are better, for one thing. In divorce cases, for example, there’s a chance the client won’t pay the bill.

Most of L&W’s work comes from word-of-mouth in the insurance industry. “It’s a small world,” Lyons says. “If you don’t do good work, they all know it.” L&W’s reputation in insurance circles confers a competitive advantage. Not every investigations firm has the same currency in the industry. Recommendations from existing clients are more important than any marketing campaign L&W could undertake, he says.

L&W did not model itself on other professional franchises, such as tax preparation or accounting. Instead, it used Wolivar’s successful investigations company as a template to roll out nationally. “It shows that, if something is a good business model and it works, there’s no reason you can’t make it work everywhere,” Lyons says.

IRA Rollover Solutions is a NEFA Member and sponsor of our September 16^th meeting: “Identifying and Selecting High Performance Franchisees” a panel discussion on awarding your franchise to the best candidates.

IRA Rollover Solutions offers a self-directed retirement structure that permits individuals to actively invest their retirement funds into a franchise or business without taking a taxable distribution or incurring early withdrawal penalties.

This franchise or business funding solution offers significant benefits over any other funding source available.

IRA Rollover Solutions brings you the compliance assistance necessary to integrate each and every component required by law to comply with all applicable ERISA and IRS code sections pertinent to this type of transaction. Our compliance assistance brings you the experience and knowledge to assist you through the following steps:

• IRA Rollover Solutions creates a C-corporation for your company
• Your new C-corporation adopts a new retirement plan & trust
• Your existing retirement plan funds are transferred to your new retirement plan
• Your retirement plan purchases shares of stock in your new business with the proceeds being deposited in the new business bank account

Using your IRA as a funding source for new or existing businesses adds significant advantages over debt type financing. No Loan Approval. Because retirement funds can be structured as an investment into the business, there are no corresponding debts that can increase business overhead. And as your business grows so can your retirement through long term stock appreciation and a new 401k profit sharing plan.

Benefits:

• Substantial tax benefits through tax deferred growth of owners business
• Debt service is substantially reduced or eliminated
• Checkbook control
• Lower cost option versus traditional funding alternatives
• Retirement asset pledge requirement waived through traditional lending sources
• Pay back of retirement investment not required in the event of business failure
• Substantial tax benefits with exit strategy

IRA Rollover Solutions has a team of financial advisors that utilize a consultative approach with each and every client, our team has an extensive background in financial planning, asset-allocation and estate planning. 

Prior employment includes:

• Charles Schwab, Financial Advisor
• Ameriprise Financial, (formerly American Express Financial Advisors), Financial Planner
• US Bank, Branch Manager
• Smith Barney, VP CIMC
• Kemper Securities, Senior VP Financial Consultant
• West One Bank, AVP Workplace Banking, Washington State
• Bank of America, Regional Small Business Lending Advisor
• Foster & Marshall Securities, Registered Representative
• First licensed in the security industry 1983

Licensing: Series 66, Registered Investment Advisors, Series 7, Securities,

UFood Grill opened its first Midwest location at 200 W. Jackson in Chicago. It is the first of five locations planned for the Greater Chicago area, with the second location already under construction at 823 S. State St. and a third in lease negotiations in Lincoln Park.

Carl Dissette, owner of 11 Jimmy John’s restaurants, in the Chicago area, is the franchisee introducing the UFood concept to Chicagoans. Plans arfe to have five locations open by next summer.

George Naddaff, Chairman and CEO of UFood Grill comments, “We are excited to bring the UFood experience to Chicago and expect people of the Great City of Chicago to appreciate a new and exciting diverse menu such as ours. We continue to follow our business model, penetrating the metro-plex hubs throughout the country to leverage our UFood brand for maximum visibility.”

The Boston Globe reports that Quincy grocery chain Stop & Shop will drop Dunkin’ Donuts stores from inside 130 supermarkets next year and likely replace them with rival java giant Starbucks, according to a Dunkin’ franchisee executive and a supermarket union official.

Mark Dubinsky, president of the Dunkin’ Donuts Independent Franchise Owners Association, yesterday said Stop & Shop is not going to renew its master lease with Dunkin’ when it expires early next year.

“For some reason, Stop & Shop didn’t want to continue. A lot of Dunkin’ franchises are sad to see the relationship end,” Dubinsky said. “Franchises liked the ability to access supermarket customers that may not frequent traditional stores. It was a good deal while it lasted.”

Most of the supermarkets with Dunkin’ Donuts shops are in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Now, Stop & Shop appears poised to expand a relationship with Starbucks it first began two years ago. Starbucks has 93 coffee stands operating inside Stop & Shop and its sister grocery chain Giant Food. Mark Espinosa, president of UFCW Local 919 in Connecticut that represents Stop & Shop employees, yesterday said he had been told by the grocer’s labor relations executives that Starbucks would be taking over the Dunkin’ sites.

“It was a challenging relationship,” Dubinsky said. “Dunkin’ had to use Stop & Shop employees because of the union and had difficulties managing employees because they technically weren’t their own.”

Espinosa said the setup led to a lot of confusion. Stop & Shop, he added, had a relatively hands-off approach to the Dunkin’ shops, while the union expressed concerns that Dunkin’ was staffing the stores only with management positions to avoid complying with staffing levels and other provisions of the union contract.

Advertising Age reports that while Starbucks is closing stores and McDonald’s is focusing its expansion efforts abroad, Subway, by far the largest fast-food chain, with 22,000 U.S. locations, is adding 800 this year.

Don Fertman, director-development for the sandwich shops, said there’s now about one Subway for every 13,800 people in the U.S., although some markets, such as Philadelphia and Boston, are “under-served.” He said he thinks Subway can take the ratio to one restaurant for every 12,000 people in the U.S. while revving up growth overseas, where it now has 8,000 outlets.

A major factor helping Subway sprawl is its low overhead. The shops don’t need room for large kitchens, so there are outlets in hospitals, appliance stores, a smelting plant and even a church where the pastor wanted to provide job training for neighborhood kids. Subway is also the largest chain within Wal-Mart.

Mr. Fertman, who joined Subway in 1981, when there were 166 stores, said franchisee applications are up again this year and he credits the chain’s advertising for sparking renewed interest. He said that when he joined the company, most people thought he worked for New York mass transit. Now when he says he works for Subway, people chant “Eat Fresh.”

Subway is “possibly out of all restaurants, by consumer perception, the healthiest restaurant out there through a combination of marketing and product,” said Darren Tristano, exec VP at Technomic. “Because of the amount of marketing dollars put forth by the company and brand recognition, they have a great opportunity to be successful.”

Mr. Tristano said Subway still has room to grow — within its existing stores. He noted that the average McDonald’s brings in more than $2 million a year, while the average Subway earns closer to $375,000. And since Subway has about 50% more U.S. stores than McDonald’s 14,000 locations, he said they can do more. “They’ve just started to get deep into breakfast,” he said. “I still think there’s opportunity for growth.”

Papa Gino’s is launching another ad campaign featuring New England Patriots Linebacker Tedy Bruschi.

The new “Papa Time” campaign, created by Boston ad shop Connelly & Partners, highlights Papa Gino’s pizza, fast delivery and overall convenience.

The television ads will begin airing in late-July in the Boston and Providence markets, where the Dedham, Mass.-based pizza chain has its highest concentrations of restaurants.

In addition to the new advertisements, Papa Gino’s will launch an online sweepstakes that will offer weekly chances to win free pizza for a year and will also include instant food prizes.

Papa Gino’s Holdings Corp. is the parent company of Papa Gino’s and D’Angelo Grilled Sandwiches; the company operates more than 370 company-owned and franchised Papa Gino’s, D’Angelo and dual-location restaurants and employs more than 5,000 people.

The Boston Business Journal reported Au Bon Pain plans to add a total of 100 units over the next two years in India. The Boston-based bakery and cafe chain has signed a master franchise agreement with Spencer’s Retail Limited, the retail arm of RPG Enterprises, a $3 billion Indian conglomerate with 20 companies operating in six business sectors, including retail, power, entertainment, technology, transmission and tires. The announcement comes at a time when Au Bon Pain, earlier this year, announced a recapitalization by LNK Partners in March, the introduction of smaller portions and store openings in Kuwait and Dubai next month.

Au Bon Pain’s menu in India will include a line of vegetarian sandwiches as well as other vegetarian items to accommodate cultural traditions and religious dietary needs.