There’s a lot of restaurants out there clucking about their chicken right now. 

Samir Wattar, the COO of fast-growing emerging chicken franchise Layne’s Chicken Fingers, says let them cluck. Success, Wattar says, doesn’t begin in the kitchen. It begins in the culture. 

And Layne’s is all about the culture. 

Wattar says the leadership team is in the business of helping franchisees make money. “I believe in franchising, but I don’t believe in simply selling franchises,” he said. “I believe in opening successful restaurants.”

Success has come pretty naturally for this beloved cult brand, which likes to call itself Layne’s “Soon to be Famous” Chicken Fingers, that started near the campus of Texas A&M University in 1994. Its crispy chicken tenders became staples of the Aggie undergrads’ diets, while the easygoing vibe made it a favorite hangout in town. 

In 2017, Layne’s was purchased by a team with deep restaurant franchising experience, including Garrett Reed, the CEO,  who grew up near the restaurant and believed in the product. Taking a deliberative, strategic approach to growth, Layne’s has since grown to eight locations so far, with plans for almost 100 more by 2025.

But to Wattar, who brings a 30-plus-years experience in restaurant operations to the brand, unit-numbers sales is not the point. “The numbers we are interested in are not the number of franchises sold, but the number of franchises open,” said Wattar. “We want to open strong restaurants and help someone’s dream come true to own a business.”

Layne’s franchisees will certainly have a strong team in their corner. Reed comes with a formidable background in real estate, working for in-house real estate teams at Starbucks, Corner Bakery and Dunkin’ Donuts before starting his own real estate franchise company. 

Along with Wattar, and business partner Matt O’Reilly, this power trio have developed a culture that mixes the brand’s laid-back ethos that resonates with customers and employees with a perfectionist, military-precision approach to operations that franchisees need. Reed said that’s what it takes to make a brand work.

“We’re in the service business,” said Reed. “We’re not going to fail no matter how much heavy lifting it takes. I don’t lose.”

Once the executive team finds a franchisee who demonstrates the passion they’re looking for from its partners, the ramp-up to success starts with 14 days of classroom and onsite training that all franchisees go through to understand not just operations, but attitude and the passion their employees have for the brand. 

Another factor in franchisee success: Choosing the right property. By developing a range of options for real estate build-outs and entry fees, Layne’s gives franchisees the flexibility to find the investment level that’s right for them. For instance, a franchisee could buy an entire building or invest in build-out prototypes that are more modest and offer a lower barrier to entry. 

Additionally, the leadership team can help franchisees identify the second-generation spaces — addresses that were former restaurants — that can be up and running much quicker than a space that needs to be built from the ground up.

But more than the right location, franchisees also need to have intangible attributes like passion. 

“We don’t want people to just invest,” said Reilly “We make sure that we treat our partnership like it’s our money – maybe even more valuable. We will do everything in our power to make sure that a franchisee opens with a strong showing and continues to do what they need to have a successful restaurant.”

Total franchise investments range from $737,000 to $1,217,500. Learn more about franchising here: https://www.layneschickenfingers.com/franchising/