The Top 5 Reasons To Invest in a California Tortilla Franchise Today

Since 1995, California Tortilla—also colloquially known as Cal Tort—has brought a fresh perspective to “California-style” Mexican flavors. Hailing from Maryland, the fast casual restaurant began franchising in 2003, bringing its in-house recipes, exceptional service and best-in-class unit economics to locations all throughout the East Coast and Mid-Atlantic. Today, the innovative Mexican concept has successfully scaled to over 40 locations and is set to continue growing throughout prime U.S. territories.

A Superior Product Offering and Chef-Inspired Menu

“Our menu is vast, and we have a little bit of something for everyone,” said president and CEO Bob Phillips. “Our dishes are made with ingredients that seem impossible to combine, but before you know it, you’re hooked on flavors like the Crunchy BBQ Ranch or Blackened Chicken Caesar.”

California Tortilla’s commitment to healthy, fresh and high-quality ingredients is a main differentiator in the fast casual space. Each location sources the best ingredients from local farm-to-table suppliers and ensures that salsa, guacamole, queso and sauces are made fresh daily and are never frozen. In fact, there’s no freezer on-site at all. The chef-inspired menu caters to individual customer needs and offers bold and exciting flavor profiles for each signature item.

Unlike its fast casual competitors, California Tortilla doesn’t sacrifice quality for speed. The Mexican cuisine concept appeals to the millennial-driven preference for easy and healthy food by creating a truly fresh-yet-convenient meal option. California Tortilla also sets itself apart from competing brands in both the Mexican food category and fast casual sector through an open-concept kitchen that gives guests a look into the daily process of preparing more than 25 small-batch recipes in-house from the freshest ingredients possible.

The High-Performing Fast Casual Restaurant Segment

“In the restaurant industry, fast casual is the top-performing sector—30% of all restaurants in the United States are fast casual franchises,” said California Tortilla’s Franchise Development Director, Aaron Goldberg. “Within that, the Mexican food segment is the top-performing subcategory. We exist at the intersection of these consumer preferences, which is a sweet spot that shows no signs of slowing down.”

Currently, California Tortilla is working on two projects that will continue to set the concept ahead of the competition within the fast casual Mexican segment. The first is a total upgrade of the brand’s mobile app and loyalty program—Burrito Elito—improving its functionality and capabilities to better meet the needs of both the customers and the franchisees. The second is the implementation of a new ‘pay last’ model in which customers customize their orders down the line and pay at the end.

While most ‘pay last’ concepts are ingredient-based—where food is added from trays—California Tortilla incorporates curated menu items into this process. As customers go down the line, they can add or remove specific ingredients, resulting in an end product that is exactly what the guest wants. By streamlining the transaction, California Tortilla increases the speed of operations and appeals to the young consumer while simultaneously adding to the value proposition.

Competitive Unit-Level Economics and Exceptional Support Infrastructure

“California Tortilla is a great investment for a lot of reasons, but the primary two are great unit-level economics and exceptional franchisee support from day one of operation,” said Phillips. “Our menu, service system and buildout are designed to be profitable, and our franchisees benefit greatly from that.”

To position franchisees for financial and operational success, each new partner goes through four weeks of comprehensive training at the company’s training restaurant in Maryland. During the grand opening process, the executive team deploys a specialized training team on-site for two weeks and each new franchisee is assigned a dedicated franchise business consultant upon joining the California Tortilla family who helps them navigate product research and development, marketing, operational guidance, P&L analysis and much more.

“We are proud to guide franchisees through crafting a local store marketing plan and setting up a budget as well as processes that will set them up for profitable success and solid ROI’s in the future,” said Goldberg.

Growing Leadership and Franchise Development Team

As part of a strategic plan developed by president Bob Phillips to grow past the 100-unit threshold in the next few years, not only has California Tortilla invested in new operations and a store refresh, it has also brought on new management team members who are franchising industry pros.

Moving forward, California Tortilla’s main focus will be to identify and award development rights to best-in-class multi-unit franchisees as well as seek out high-quality locations in resonating markets. Now, they’ve got the perfect team to do it.

California Tortilla’s new franchise development team members will be leading these expansion efforts, including Director of Franchise Development Aaron Goldberg, Director of Franchise Operations Mike Dolinger and Franchise Consultant Martin Good. The team is positioned to help the brand finish off 2019 strong and head into 2020 with unprecedented momentum.

An Abundance of Prime U.S. Territories Available for Expansion

“Since we’ve elected to grow concentrically from our Washington, D.C.-area base, much of the U.S. is still available for development,” said Phillips. “We’re an emerging brand, so prime markets across the country are ripe with opportunity, which makes for a great potential investment with plenty of room to grow.”

In the last year, California Tortilla has entered a number of new markets and continues to build upon that momentum by expanding its footprint in open territories like New Jersey, North Carolina and more. Beyond that, California Tortilla is set to open its first Tennessee restaurant in Chattanooga and its first Kansas location in Wichita in late 2019.

With its innovative, Mexican-meets-Cali flavors, competitive unit-level economics and experienced leadership team, Cal Tort is perfectly positioned to ride the fast casual wave all the way to the top.

The investment range for a California Tortilla franchise ranges from $402,400 to $697,000, including a $40,000 initial franchise fee. For more information on available opportunities, please visit https://franchise.californiatortilla.com.