How Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop Has Expanded Into One of the Restaurant Industry’s Most Exciting Franchise Opportunities

Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop is a restaurant franchise serving sandwiches with a focus on mouth-watering ingredients and sourcing practices. The brand was ranked the No. 1 QSR Brand for Highest Quality and Taste by Sandelman & Associates in 2015, and as a franchise was named one of Newsweek's America's Favorite Restaurant Chains 2022 and a Top Food Franchise by Entrepreneur Franchise 500. 

From family roots, this sandwich franchise has over 300 restaurant locations in the development pipeline across 33 states, with goals to extend its investment outside the United States. With investments in technology and marketing to maintain their growth in the restaurant industry, they are looking for Capriotti’s passionate and genuine owners who fit their family-focused culture.

David Bloom didn’t plan on a career in franchising, but today, as chief development and growth officer at Capriotti’s, he’s helping guide one of America’s fastest-growing sandwich brands with lessons learned from past industry highs and lows.

“I love the food. I love the brand, but it’s really the team that I get married to,” Bloom said. “That’s what it takes — really strong people who can execute.”

Bloom’s introduction to franchising came unexpectedly when he stumbled into Quiznos in its early days, eventually becoming a multi-unit operator and corporate development executive. The experience gave him a unique perspective on what drives both explosive growth and eventual decline.

When Bloom joined Capriotti’s, the brand had just over 40 units. Today, the chain has about 180 shops open, with another 150 in development across 30 states. Unlike many competitors, Capriotti’s emphasizes multi-unit operators and unit-level economics as the foundation for expansion. The brand also differentiates itself by operating 20 company-owned shops. 

For Bloom, sustainable success comes down to values alignment and culture. “One of our values is passion to be the best,” he said. “If you don’t align from a value standpoint, at some point one of the parties is going to self-select out.”

Looking ahead, Capriotti’s may not aim to be the biggest sandwich brand on every corner, but it is committed to being the best where it grows. With a halo larger than its footprint, a focus on profitability, and a team-driven culture, Bloom believes the brand is set up for long-term success.

“We just want to build a great business and have long-term relationships with our franchise partners, vendors and communities,” Bloom said. “If people align with that, then Capriotti’s could be the right fit.”

David Bloom joined 1851 Franchise Publisher Nick Powills to discuss his entry into franchising, the lessons he carried forward from Quiznos and how Capriotti’s is growing through values-based franchising, smart real estate selection, and operator-first strategies. A transcript of Bloom’s interview with Powills has been provided below. It has been edited for brevity, clarity and style.

Nick Powills: All right, David. Question one is scripted, everything else off script. But question one—you could probably spend all 30 minutes talking about it. How did you accidentally fall into franchising? What’s your franchise backstory?

David Bloom: Actually, the word “accidentally” is the operative word. I moved to Denver. I was in the restaurant-hotel space, and we were taking over a hotel there. I ran into this brand called Quiznos that at the time had 18 restaurants. I became a multi-unit franchisee with my partners — opening a bunch of them and then buying a bunch of territory.

Good things and not-so-good things, but that was really my introduction — as a franchisee, multi-unit operator, corporate development guy, international development. It was just a big learning curve.

Powills: I’m curious — go back to the Quiznos days. That’s a rare scenario for something to catch that much heat. I get it — in the current world, the closest is maybe like a Blaze Pizza or some of the frozen yogurt brands that have these runs  —but still, not as sustainable as Quiznos. What was the magic of what made a brand like that take off? And as a side note, what could a brand today learn from the positive magic of Quiznos back then?

Bloom: I think, first of all, Subway was number one and there was no clear number two. So it was a bit of a horse race to fill that gap.

Rick Schaden, who was the CEO at the time, brought in and onboarded a lot of people like myself that started as franchisees and operators, and had a pretty deep buy-in to the success of the brand. He built really high-performance teams and strong processes. But we were also very innovative.

We were doing huge seminars — 500 people in the room. We were doing advertising that people just hadn’t done before. We just did a lot of stuff nobody else did. Rick really built the teams, gave them a lot of runway to try things, and gave them the resources. It just became a horse race to grow.

The year I left in 2006 — when the company sold the first time — we opened about 1,000 restaurants that year. Building a machine that can do that takes a lot of great people, many of whom I’m still close friends with today.

Powills: All right — turning the page on that. Getting to that sort of pace — does that end up being part of the reason why it tumbles over and goes the other direction?

Bloom: No, I don’t think so. When Quiznos sold, it was a leveraged buyout. In 2006, revenues were increasing year after year — it was fine. Then you hit 2008 and the world economy falls apart. Suddenly all that debt drags down a lot of brands, and I think that was the beginning.

They also changed management teams. The new people they brought in were really smart, but they didn’t necessarily understand the brand. There was a lot of management turnover. Competitors got good, and the whole idea of toasted subs being a differentiator — at some point not that long ago, someone said to me something about Subway “inventing” toasted subs. I was like, “Man, that tells you what a few billion dollars of marketing a year does.” When you’re the 800-pound gorilla, you can make people believe whatever you want.

Powills: So, probably the value — and I’m going to tell you what I think the answer is for you now, in this part of your career with a different business — is that you have a lens of what feels good and what feels bad. That’s probably both for franchisee selection and advisory back to franchisor: “I know what it feels like.” That experience ends up being invaluable for what you’re able to contribute now — taking an emerging brand for the category and putting the pieces in place to make it lift.

Bloom: That’s certainly part of my value as a team member. That being said, I work with and for a lot of other really smart people, which is the reason I’m here.

Yeah, I love the food. I love the brand. But it’s really the team that I’m married to, so to speak. That’s what it takes — it takes a really strong team. Experience matters, but the world is changing so fast. Constant learning, iteration, staying on the forward edge — without being too far out on the bleeding edge — is really critical today.

Powills: I like that answer. I’ve used this line too many times — I say, if I’m buying a franchise, I bet on the jockey, not on the horse. What you just said is: I’m surrounded by a team of really smart people.

You can create points of differentiation in a sandwich category, but at the end of the day, it’s still a sandwich. So the question is: Can you get higher customer frequency with your brand than another? Marketing helps, but above that, as a franchisee, is there a team that will truly support me — not just say the word support? And how do they continuously think about innovation, to make sure my investment is protected?

Would you say team and culture are important ingredients for why someone would buy a Capriotti’s today?

Bloom: Our term for culture is “values.” Values alignment from a franchisee to franchisor perspective. One of our values is passion to be the best. That really drives our long-term thinking.

We’re not looking to keep things even keel — we’re looking to innovate, whether it’s product, technology or operations. Values alignment is huge and probably underestimated by a lot of people. In my experience, if you don’t align from a values standpoint, at some point one of the parties is going to self-select out. So we, as a company, try to start there first.

Powills: Give me a state of the union. What’s going on with the business currently? Where are things at? How’s franchise growth going?

Bloom: It’s been very consistent. I go as far back as COVID — that was an inflection point for us. We had adopted off-premise and delivery well in advance of COVID, being on the forefront of the technology curve. That was a boom time for us. I don’t like to talk about COVID that way, but we had record growth, record sales and record profits.

We’ve seen that continue — very steady growth across the country. We’re in 30 states today, growing at a pace we’re very comfortable with. We’re a multi-unit operator-driven system, not primarily single-unit operators, and that’s worked really well for us.

When you’re doing it like that, you’re not bringing in just new people every day. You’re supporting your existing team, and we’re seeing a lot of success. Probably the most encouraging thing for us is that as we’ve entered new markets, more and more we’re seeing record revenues there.

We’re very focused on unit-level economics and ROI, and improving that in a challenging environment. On one hand it’s tough, but on the other hand, it’s a differentiator.

We own and operate about 20 shops ourselves. A lot of franchisors don’t do that or don’t prioritize it. For us, aside from the fact that we make a lot of money at it, it also puts us in the same shoes as our franchise partners. If we make a mistake, it hurts us as much or more than anyone else.

So again, that alignment around focusing growth is important. But that comes from having a strong economic model, a differentiated product and a brand. Right now, the Capriotti’s halo is actually bigger than our actual business — and that’s a good place to be.

Powills: How many units are open now?

Bloom: About 180 open, with another 150 in development. That tells us what the next few years look like. It takes time to find sites and get them open, but it’s a really good growth pace.

We’re never the first sandwich brand on the block, so we’ve got to be really smart about our real estate and competitive positioning.

Powills: Do you feel pressure to sell or grow today? Or is it more about getting the right people in — franchisees who will scale with you — and valuing one strong franchisee versus multiple?

Bloom: Again, we have to align from a values standpoint first. Finding the right franchise partners is critical. Finding the right people and really supporting them through the process matters.

Over the years, we’ve doubled the amount of training we provide and doubled the people we send out to help open shops. That’s paid off — we’re opening stores at higher volumes and they’re holding those volumes long term.

We’re focused on the basics. We’re not trying to be the fastest, and we’re probably never going to be the biggest. That’s our niche. We have an upscale product that doesn’t belong on every block in the country — and that’s fine. For us, it’s a strong business model with strong ROI, and we think that’s the right strategy to win long term, as we define winning.

Powills: Let’s close with this. If there’s a candidate watching right now, what else do you want them to know about Capriotti’s?

Bloom: Check us out. Keep an eye on us. Timing is always a factor — it’s not always the right time for somebody. But if you’re thinking about investing, make sure you pick the right partner. That starts with people.

I think we’re unique in that we do what we say we’re going to do, and we keep doing it year after year. I see a lot of brands come and go, predicting world dominance. We just want to build a great business. We want long-term relationships with our franchise partners, vendors and everyone. That’s the right long-term strategy. If someone aligns with that, great. If they’re looking for something else, there are plenty of opportunities out there.

Powills: How many units did Capriotti’s have when you started?

Bloom: I think it was 40-some units.

Powills: That’s the point of me asking. When you find someone with history and experience — as both a franchisee and a franchisor — that person can have a voice, make an impact and surround themselves with good people. Now you’ve taken Capriotti’s from 40 to 180.

If I took every 40-unit brand out there and asked, “Would you like to be at 180?” the answer would be yes. If I asked a 180-unit brand if they’d want to be the size of Quiznos, they might say yes eventually, but with a clear process to get there.

You’ve won tremendously with Capriotti’s. We talked about culture, purpose and values. We talked about real estate selection and profitability. We talked about finding operators who only become multi-unit if you do what you say you’re going to do, meaning expectations were set properly.

For someone interested in food, Capriotti’s checks all those boxes. The biggest miss by operators in franchising is they don’t invite enough brands to the table. They get excited by the flashy thing. Flash doesn’t equal sustainability. What you’ve done from a sustainability standpoint has had tremendous impact and set up a great business — 180 open, 150 in development.

David, I’m grateful you gave me your time. Thanks for sharing the story.

Bloom: Great, Nick. It’s always great to reconnect with people I haven’t talked to in a while. I appreciate it.

Powills: It’s good seeing you. For David, I’m Nick. This is another episode of “Meet the Franchise.”

Watch the full webinar here.