Stacked Pickle COO Scott Goodrich Brings Major Franchise Growth Experience to the Neighborhood Sports Bar Concept

Stacked Pickle chief operating officer Scott Goodrich may have years of experience growing major brands, and he certainly has lofty goals for the sports bar franchise, but what ultimately attracted him to the brand was its desire to be a neighborhood favorite.

He got in touch with Stacked Pickle owner and CEO Gary Brackett over LinkedIn in December of 2017, and the two exchanged ideas about the business over the following few months. Goodrich officially joined Stacked Pickle in August of 2018.

“I looked at a lot of the things Gary was doing and the company’s philosophy about being connected to the community and hyper-local,” Goodrich said. “That resonated with me because I don’t like the giant, nationwide sports bar chains. Gary is creating the local family sports bar. I feel like there’s a place for that. There’s room for sports bars that offer a more intimate and personal experience.”

Goodrich’s background in franchising and helping brands grow is extensive.

After several years working for United Airlines, he joined Five Guys Burgers and Fries and became their regional director of franchise operations. There, he became “addicted” to the idea of scaling brands and played a major role in growing Five Guys from 20 restaurants in 2005 to more than 1,200 in 2013.

In early 2014, he joined Uncle Maddio’s Pizza Joint as its vice president of field operations and support. He was promoted to COO in 2016. During those first two years, he helped the pizza brand grow to almost 50 locations across 14 states.

Goodrich has only been with Stacked Pickle in an official capacity since August, but he’s already implemented some major changes and procedures.

“We’re thrilled to have Scott on board,” Brackett said. “His passion for the brand is tremendous, and he wants to grow Stacked Pickle nationwide while also making sure it keeps that neighborhood feel. He’s already put processes in place that will set us up for growth and success in 2019.”

One of Goodrich’s first orders of business was to lead a vendor audit and put all of the vendors that Stacked Pickle was using on a spreadsheet and analyze what each one was doing for the brand and how much they cost.

“We’re about two-thirds of the way now through this audit, and we have canceled some contracts that we felt weren’t giving us our ROI,” Goodrich said.

For instance, only months after joining, Goodrich has already implemented a digital storefront system that gives managers access to an application that centralizes all of a store’s social media across the web to enhance the brand’s local SEO, social media, and mobile customer engagement efforts.

“I’m not a tech guy, but what I am pretty good at is understanding what the customer’s experience is going to be and leveraging that,” he said.

One thing Goodrich is especially proud of is connecting with all of the managers of the restaurants and helping them build a development plan for up-and-coming managers and having them be a big part of development.

“That’s what I bring to the table, that organization,” he said. “I’m able to put a process in place with them very quickly. It makes them better managers and gives our leadership team at the store level  a purposeful way of developing our staff company-wide.”

He’s also transformed the weekly general manager performance reviews into a more personable experience. Instead of doing a weekly phone call, general managers now meet in person in a room with chairs organized into a circle so that everyone can capitalize on ideas from each other.

“We’ve had a lot of good synergy and everyone feels more connected and they’re helping each other,” Goodrich said. “I am proud of that, of being able to help them get to that point.”

He is working with the brand to solidify processes.

“As the COO I’m constantly looking at ways to have continuously improve every aspect of the business,” Goodrich said. “It’s like a big chess game, all the moving parts that go into the restaurant world, whether that’s procurement, marketing, disaster planning - all the things you have to put together when franchising a concept. We’re very close to having that completely done.”

Stacked Pickle is aggressively franchising  nationwide, and already has major plans for 2019.

“We would like to open between six to 10 franchised Stacked Pickle restaurants next year or at least have them in the development phase,” he said.

Goodrich also wants to make Stacked Pickle an employer of choice.

“We want to continue to improve our people development to the point where we’re considered an employer of choice,” he said. “We want folks to want to come to work here and bring that energy with them. When they love their job that’s apparent to the customer.”

He is looking forward to the company’s expansion plans and recognition for the Stacked Pickle brand.

“I’ve helped them ramp up and get ready for more or less of a flood of prospective franchisees that are coming in,” he said. “Stacked Pickle is really poised for rapid growth, and once people find out about it and come to visit and learn a little bit more about it, you’re going to see people want to be part of this brand. We’re a brand people can love.”

The startup costs for a Stacked Pickle franchise range from $425,550 to $939,850. The franchise fee is $40,000. For more information on franchising with Stacked Pickle, visit https://buildthepickle.com/.