Layne's Chicken Fingers Franchise Information

Layne’s Chicken Fingers: Executive Q&A, Samir Wattar, COO

1851 Franchise: What is your backstory? How did you fall into franchising?

Samir Wattar: I’ve been in restaurants all of my career, and I’ve always wanted to be in franchising. There is a reward in seeing people succeed. When I wanted to get involved in franchising, one of my mentors said, “You want to get into franchising? One thing you need to understand is that, when you go home, your wife will ask, ‘How was your day?’ When the franchisee goes home, his wife will ask, ‘How were sales today?’ If you don’t understand that, you should never be in franchising.”

My background is in operations. I love the restaurant business. I love everything about it — the people, seeing the people that I hired or mentored through my career grow into senior positions and fostering the next generation that’s going to run this business.

I fell into franchising with a brand called Pollo Campero. I was on a [vice president] of operations, supply chain and training.

I look at mentoring franchisees and getting them to where they want to go, and in my mind, there are two kinds of franchisees: the dreamer, who is very successful in his own field, has a great job and always dreamt of owning his own business, and the investor, who has other brands and wants to expand his portfolio. 

I was with MOOYAH Burgers, Fries and Shakes, where most of our franchisees were dreamers. And I can name three or four of them right now that are multi-unit franchisees and have become investor franchisees. They’re investing in other brands. 

With Layne’s, we’re attracting more of the investor franchisees, and catering to them is very different as you guide them.

1851: It sounds like you’ve been among the magicians in franchising — like you have a blueprint. What does that look like?

Wattar: You need to stabilize a brand. What are we selling? Our customer is not the customer that’s coming into the restaurant and buying chicken fingers. Our customer is an investor or somebody that’s going to put their hard-earned money on the table. Once we stabilize that, we stabilize the brand’s operation systems and supply chain. Make sure you support the franchisees and have a brand voice. Be true and be honest about it.

Then, the biggest thing is explaining to the leadership or ownership that, as a franchisor, we’re not in the restaurant business. We’re in the service business. Franchisees sign with us for service so they can open their own restaurant and have their own services. That’s a mindset shift because running restaurants is very different from supporting franchisees. 

Part of servicing franchisees is saying no to protect them and protect the brand. I use this example all the time: I have three boys, and I tell them no 3 million times a day. That doesn’t mean I don’t love them. The reason I say no is because I love them, and I want them to be better. It’s the same thing with franchisees.

1851: Why do you think so many franchisors don’t understand this process?

Wattar: In my mind, it’s financials. If you’re desperate to sell franchises, you’re going to say yes to everybody. The key is that you have to say no. You have to be true to yourself, the brand and the other franchisees.

So far, we’ve sold 225 in the last three years that I’ve been with the brand, but I probably said no to another 300 because they’re not going to represent the brand, and my current franchisees will lose confidence in me. 

Somebody asked me, “How are you getting franchisees? Where are you getting your franchisees from?” I tell them, “My restaurants.” My franchisees tell people that we mean what we say. 

Saying no is hard. We’ve said no to big checks, big franchisees. But we knew it was the right thing to do for the brand. We can’t be short-sighted. We get the picture of where we want to be four or five years down the road.

1851: If another brand listens to what you’re saying, can they become un-stalled and grow again?

Wattar: Yes. That hasn’t changed. It’s hard sometimes to look at yourself in the mirror and say, “This is what I’m doing wrong. This is what I need to change.” But your franchisees are your bread and butter. It’s not our brand; franchisees are the ones making the investments, and we need to listen to them before we say, “OK, let’s do this.”

You have to be disciplined. We treat the franchisees as we expect them to treat the Layne’s customer walking in. Different customers, same treatment. You don’t tell your regular customer walking into Layne’s “You’re wrong” or “I’m not going to do this for you.” You figure out how to make it a good experience. If you have a million-dollar store and their royalty is 5%, that franchisee is paying you $50,000 per year. That’s a $50,000 customer; treat them as such.