Before becoming a Newk’s Eatery franchise owner, Greg LaFoe worked as a representative at Northwestern Mutual. There, he worked closely with franchise owners of brands such as Sonic Drive-In, which showed him just how successful franchising can be. 

“I stopped there at Northwestern after about a year and went and worked for a large Sonic Drive-In franchisee in Jackson, Mississippi,” he said. “I did that for about a year, and then I went out to Texarkana, Texas. I really enjoyed it and lived there for about a year. I moved back to Jackson in 2008. With Newk’s being a local franchise there, I decided to pursue it.”

Newk’s stood out because of its freshness. LaFoe noticed how everything was made from scratch and how high the quality of the ingredients was. He saw how each meal at Newk’s is handcrafted in an open environment, while the brand prepares its dishes on-site without any fryers or microwaves. 

In addition to the quality of the food, LaFoe was also attracted to how franchisees were able to scale efficiently, something he ended up doing himself after opening Georgia’s very first Newk’s location in Lawrenceville. 

“We decided to expand because the timing was right,” LaFoe said. “We had had two stores that were doing fairly well and we felt the need to grow, and the right opportunity came up. There was a group that was selling four of its locations as the owner was retiring. I'd known the family for a very long time and reached out, and we just decided it was a good fit and ended up purchasing those four units.” 

He sold the Lawrenceville location in 2017, but has since grown his portfolio to six units across Georgia and Alabama, with restaurants in Norcross, Tucker and Columbus in Georgia, as well as Opelika, Montgomery and Dothan in Alabama.

“We bought Tucker in 2023, which was actually a closed location that we reopened,” LaFoe said. “We were able to take that store that was currently doing about $1 million in sales when we bought it, and it will probably do around $2.2 million this year.” 

LaFoe also saw how well the concept translates into catering and realized early on how it could drive sales, especially for locations that needed a boost beyond in-store traffic. Newk’s menu allows operators to prepare food in bulk without sacrificing quality, and the items travel well, which is important for large orders. 

“The food holds well over a time period,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be piping hot all the time like a lot of restaurants. Sandwiches and salads just hold themselves well, and you can make them in bulk.”

That flexibility has allowed LaFoe to grow revenue without always relying only on foot traffic. Instead of waiting for more guests to come into the restaurant, his team focused on bringing the food directly to customers through catering.

“We can’t always get more people to come sit in the restaurant immediately, but we can get that food to people pretty fast,” he said.

Catering has also helped him stabilize operations and retain employees. By increasing overall sales volume, LaFoe has been able to maintain consistent hours for his team, even during slower periods, which has led to stronger retention at the store level.

“During COVID-19, when everyone had let go of their staff, we actually made a conscious decision to hire,” he said. “When everybody started coming back, we could fulfill these large catering orders. We were able to drastically increase our business during that time.” 

LaFoe is still building on that momentum today. He plans to continue expanding his Newk’s footprint while building on the systems that have already proven to work.

To find out more information on costs to buy this franchise, please visit https://1851franchise.com/newks-eatery.