QSR Magazine: More Millennials Are Turning to the Stability and Support Found in Franchise Landscape

Millennials might often be labeled as the apathetic, lazy and narcissistic generation. But as the largest living age group in the U.S., their significant spending power shouldn’t be overlooked—according to Restaurant Marketing Labs, Millennials spend more money in restaurants per capita than any previous generation.

Millennials have also been credited with forever altering the restaurant landscape by seeking out brands that offer customized food choices, quality ingredients, freshness, authenticity, transparency and environmental and social responsibility.

Now, this important generation is coming of age as innovative entrepreneurs and business owners—and they’re turning to franchising to make that happen. And according to a recent article in QSR Magazine, franchisors should be ready to capitalize on their potential.

Some Millennials are interested in franchising because they made money in the last decade during the tech boom, and they’re on the hunt for a relatively safe place to invest it. Others are interested because they lived through the Great Recession between 2007 and 2009 and are looking for opportunity. But whatever the reason, Millennials can all agree on one thing—they turned to franchising because they don’t want to do everything themselves. That’s partly why the industry is so attractive to them, experts say; Millennials are in tune with what they are good at—and what they aren’t.

“Personally, I’m not a chef,” Sal Rehman told QSR Magazine, a millennial franchisee with Wing Zone. “I have a passion for business and the food industry, not for cooking. I told my family if I open a franchise, there’s branding, funding, and background behind me. I like the model where I don’t have to do back-end work figuring out suppliers and logistics; that is already provided.”

That’s where companies like TRIAD MFG come into play—a St. Louis-based manufacturer of custom store fixtures. Bruce Olans, the company’s Vice President of Franchise Store Build-Outs, oversees complete turnkey solutions for new franchise locations—from a napkin sketch to rollout. This makes it easy for first-time franchisees—such as Millennials—to get their business up and running without being bogged down by the costs, logistics and planning. And by seeing a store’s construction through from beginning to end, TRIAD allows new franchise owners to focus on establishing a strong presence in their community and building a loyal customer base before they open. To date, Olans helped to build out thousands of stores nationally.

“The build-out of a franchised retail location involves a complex marriage of cost estimates, deadline orders, shipments and installations. Fortunately, there’s a solution—franchise companies can designate every aspect of the store-opening process to one party. That’s where Triad comes in,” Olans said. “Because of the arsenal of tools offered through Triad to franchises, the ability to open quickly and efficiently is undeniable. Costs are decreased significantly, implementation time can be driven from months to weeks, and the pressure to get the store open is off the back of the new franchisee. There’s no better way to get a head start as a new business owner.”