Meet Famous Toastery’s Robust Field Support Team

Famous Toastery, the 25-plus-unit, North Carolina-based franchise, has made a name for itself by offering the freshest breakfast, brunch and lunch offerings in its segment. The brand’s franchisees, who have grown throughout North Carolina since opening in 2005 and franchising in 2013, have become locally Famous as pillars in their communities, providing not only uncompromisingly fresh and decadent meals but a hub for friends, families and neighbors to get together. With this approach in place, the Famous Toastery team is looking to further prioritize a business model and support infrastructure that encourages franchisees to “Be Famous.” From the initial onboarding to long after the grand opening, Famous Toastery provides franchisees with the support and training needed to establish a successful business in their local community.

“We’ve had years and years of seeing what works and what doesn’t work. Franchisees are coming into the family and opening up their locally owned business, and they put their trust in us to give them the platform to succeed,” said Co-founder and Chief Culture Officer Brian Burchill. “We want everyone to achieve their goals, including clientele, staff and their families. When I opened the first store, my goal was to establish a sense of trust with the staff, customers and franchisees. That trust enables us to be more than just a business. We want to be famous and help them be famous at the same time.”

Marketing Support

To help spread the word about Famous Toastery and help make the brand famous in the communities franchisees serve, the team provides a robust suite of marketing support for both incoming and existing franchise owners.

Director of Marketing Lorna Martinez spearheads the marketing team to provide robust field support for the entire system. “I oversee the entire brand as a whole and also support individual franchisees,” she said. “All of our owners receive full grand opening support to tailor the marketing toward the local community. From there, we are constantly rolling out new marketing initiatives, resources on new menu items and continual support.” “resources on new menu items” doesn’t make sense to me.

Operations Support

The operations team, headed by VP of Operations Joe Gillie, is the boots-on-the-ground, day-in and day-out group that helps franchise owners address any and all issues at the store level.

“We provide coaching and mentoring on the best ways to execute our systems and processes,” said Gillie. “The whole team is very operationally-driven — whether it be handling issues with all vendors or driving operations initiatives across the system. We recently did a menu price increase, for example, so we were there to streamline that process between the POS company and our franchisees. I am on call for any hiccups that happen as far as making sure that everything goes smoothly.”

When it comes to operations, Gillie says Famous Toastery isn’t necessarily simplistic, but that doesn’t mean ownership needs to be challenging. “We are “Famously Fresh” — we use fresh ingredients, and we don’t compromise on the quality, which involves a scratch kitchen and a qualified team,” he said. “We’ve deliberately chosen to make our food as great as possible, and we are designing operational processes around making sure we do not compromise our standard of quality. We refuse to do what other people do. That might make our operations a little more complex than others, but we work hard to provide all of the support and training necessary to ensure this complex model is run as efficiently as possible.”

Training and Staffing Support

Famous Toastery Director of Training Ann Eley works to support incoming franchisees as they get their business off the ground, as well as provide ongoing training for all team members to boost employee retention and satisfaction.

“When a new franchisee comes, we bring a trainer in for both back-of-house and front-of-house staff,” said Eley. “We identify strengths and train the team to make sure they are ready to open the doors and serve the guests. After the opening, we go into cross-training and develop the teams in different areas. We also do a full tasting, a mock service, as well as team-building exercises to ensure the front and back of the house are one team. There is also a friends and family day so staff can experience the Famous Toastery brand with their loved ones. I’ve been in the restaurant industry a long time, and I know how important initial training and team building is for long-term success.”

And with the motto of “Every Server is Your Server,” Burchill says the field support team works closely with incoming franchisees to ensure they are prepared to meet the standards set by the brand. “In the restaurant business, you see the best and the worst of people, and the energy we bring to our service, we see it as a performance, which really keeps us famous,” he said. “It can be difficult to properly train staff to achieve that level of service, but we provide all of the support to help.”

Many of the Famous Toastery training managers, for example, have been with the company for years. “The culture that we bring is completely different than any other restaurant franchise,” said Burchill. “We treat everybody as family, and that means we have a huge responsibility to do the right thing and create a community place. Our first nine franchisees were our customers, and they just loved what we did. That is why you always have to go the extra mile. The support team pushes that, making franchisees understand how that push will make them famous.”

But training doesn’t stop once the doors are open, Eley says. “I’ve worked with a few locations recently who hired newer team members and wanted a refresher,” she said. “They reached out and asked for additional training support, and we were happy to do it. We also provide training on new processes, initiatives, menu rollouts, etc. Overall, we believe in the investment of our people — the time, money and energy to train our team are so important. That is what sets us apart and is why people seek us out for employment. We are fortunate to have so many front and back-of-the-house veteran team members. We all spend so much time at work in our society, so for people to choose us and stick with us means a lot.”

Leadership Support

The Famous Toastery team understands that field support has to start at the top, which is why CEO and Co-founder Robert Maynard is always available and willing to work with individual franchise owners.

“Our goal is to not only support franchisees in their day-to-day operations but also to help them reach their personal goals,” said Maynard. “We want to help franchisees understand the bigger picture for themselves, their families and their business. This will help them become famous in their communities and execute their business on the highest possible level.”

Martinez says this all-hands-on-deck approach to support is a major differentiator for Famous Toastery. “There aren’t too many franchise companies as big as ours where you can just talk to the CEO,” she said. “Robert is always working with franchisees and staff — everyone has each other’s phone numbers. We do road trips to visit locations and touch base with our franchisees frequently. Everyone can lend a hand. No one is more important than anyone else. No one is on an island.”

At the end of the day, Martinez says the robust field support at Famous Toastery is all about having people in place who can be used as a resource for franchisees.

“This support system that we provide is essentially the toolbox for successful franchise ownership,” said Martinez. “It allows franchise owners to become the stakeholder in their market. From there, they create their teams that spend their days making guests feel famous. We know that Famous Toastery starts and ends with the franchisee, and everything we do is based on providing them with the tools, support and leadership they need to feel great about their business.”

The cost to open a Famous Toastery franchise ranges from $575,500 to $999,500, including a franchise fee starting at $45,000. To learn about franchising opportunities, please visit www.bestbreakfastfranchise.com.