With New Systems in Place, Lenny's Subs is Growing Again

As with any brand that has a more than two decade history, there are ebbs and flows and it’s often how the ebbs are handled that will determine the ultimate success of the brand.

“Several years back now, Lenny’s Subs had hit a point where some franchisees were losing confidence in the brand and growth had been halted,” said Bob Ritter, Lenny’s Vice President of Franchise and Market Development. “The brand was in need of a reboot, a situation many brand’s face at some point in their history, and the reboot began just shy of three years ago now when we were purchased by Johnson Ventures.”

At that point brand leadership had decided not to focus on growth, but to focus on the success of existing franchisees and building back brand confidence and morale that had been waning. Now is 2015, Ritter says the leadership team is proud to have the brand back in a position for healthy, successful and steady growth.

“We’ve always had systems in place, but particularly over the last six to 12 months, we’ve focused on completing and refining those systems,” said Ritter.

In addition to focusing on bottom-line initiatives including the reduction of labor and food costs, Lenny’s has completed and released its proprietary eLEARN platform system wide, which stands for Lenny’s Education and Resource Network. The platform includes resources such as tutorials and how-to videos geared toward everyone in the company—from line-level employees to franchisees—and provides information on anything and everything from how to complete specific day-to-day tasks in the shop to guidelines for hiring.

“Our franchisees and their employees have been using this platform for about 20 weeks now, and over that period of time we’ve already seen significant same store sales increases across the board,” Ritter continued. “It’s a combination of better training and reduced costs; we’ve got a really solid infrastructure in place now, particularly since our President and COO Jason Vaughn joined us last year.”

Ritter believes that Vaughn’s extensive industry experience with brands including Taco Bell, Wendy’s and the like has been a game changer for the direction of the Lenny’s brand.

“We haven’t actively sought new franchise partners in a while now, but we are today,” Ritter said.

Lenny’s will add between five and eight new locations by the end of this year and will aim to open between 17 and 25 in 2016.

“We are focused on targeting franchise partners who buy in to the culture and environment we’ve created and after successfully opening their first location will have the wherewithal to grow as a multi-unit operator,” Ritter added. “For the first time in a long time, we are truly awarding franchises. Even if someone has the money, we will turn them away if we don’t feel they're a fit for the direction the brand is headed today and I think that really sets us apart.

As the brand continues down the path of refining bottom-line adjustments over the next several months, Ritter believes that the brand will also be in a strong position to bring on larger multi-unit operator franchise partners.

“All the pieces are falling into place, from cost reduction to our superior training platform to the new design of our shops moving forward,” he said. “It’s really the shop of the future; think of maybe a cross between Chipotle and Starbucks in terms of look, feel and atmosphere - that’s where Lenny’s is headed and we’re ready to bring on the right franchise partners to join us for the ride.”