Just Three Months After Launching Franchising Opportunities, Coolgreens Signs First Franchisee

It is no surprise that Cassidi Brown always had a dream of opening her owner restaurant, having grown up working in restaurants since she was 15 years old. Working at a variety of different restaurants, including Buffalo Wild Wings, Red Lobster and The Melting Pot, Brown has an array of experience working as a server, busser and bartender.

After graduating from Oklahoma Baptist University in 2013, Brown moved to Moore, OK where she was introduced to Coolgreens for the first time. Brown and her now husband went on one of their first lunch dates at Coolgreens and her life changed forever, in more ways than one.

“I am a big advocate for healthy living and Coolgreens provided a great food choice that was always fresh and delicious,” Brown said. “I would go to Coolgreens at least three to four times a week.”

In September of 2014 the couple moved back to Texas. While they were sad to leave their favorite eating stop, Brown was brewing up an idea of her own— to open a Coolgreens near her new home. After reaching out to the company, Brown learned that there were no franchise opportunities at the time. But little did she know the brand was actually in the process of structuring a franchise platform.

“We knew that we had a great concept and wanted to offer opportunities for our passionate fans to grow the company,” Clay Carson, VP of Development for Coolgreens, said. “Since this was our first time creating a franchise platform, we had to take our time to create a bulletproof plan to ensure our future franchisees wouldn’t fail.”

While a little upset with the Coolgreens outcome, Brown continued on her way to pursue her dream of owning a restaurant.

“It took me a lot longer to finalize my plans because I was having a hard time jumping all in,” Brown mentioned. “My passion to own a Coolgreens consistently resonated in my mind,”

In August 2017, Brown was on her way to finalize her entity formation for a new restaurant when she got a call from her best friend telling her that Coolgreens had officially launched a franchise opportunity.

“I was ecstatic,” Brown exclaimed. “Right away I dropped everything I was doing, reached out to Coolgreens and started the process of becoming a franchisee.”

Not only was this great timing for Brown, but Coolgreens was thrilled with the immediate support and interest in the company. Only having locations in Oklahoma City, the brand was itching to expand their business to other locations throughout the country.

“Our initial target markets were key locations throughout Central Southern U.S. in Texas, Georgia and Florida,” Carson stated. “Cassidi requesting to bring the brand to Dallas fit our goals exactly.”

Due to the minimalistic back-of-house structure, the startup time for a new franchisee is relatively shorter than other restaurant concepts.

“While I want to ensure that my first location will do well, I have a goal of opening three to six locations throughout the Dallas/ Ft. Worth market,” Brown mentioned. “The DFW area has been listed as the top five to ten best places for young professionals. These young professionals are much more concerned about healthy living, and food plays a big part in that.”

The passion and drive that Brown has to be a multi-unit owner are ideal characteristics Coolgreens is looking for in new franchisees.

“Cassidi really embraces the Coolgreens commitment to community and understands the restaurant business from the inside out,” Carson noted. “Coolgreens numbers are impressive, the overall investment is low and the AUVs are fairly high, so we have a lot of people that like the category and like our business model, but don't really understand the core values of the brand. We believe that ultimate success with Coolgreens is the relationship that we build within the community, it is more than just a great restaurant. Cassidi gets it and we are looking for more Cassidis.”

To learn more about franchise opportunities with Coolgreens, please visit https://www.coolgreensfranchise.com/