Franchisee Voices: Cary Albert of Dairy Queen

Cary Albert opened his seventh Dairy Queen* location in Kaufman, Texas in March of this year. Already Texas’ biggest Schlotzsky’s and Cinnabon franchisee, Cary, his wife Jackie and Albert Restaurant Group are preparing to open three or four Dairy Queens annually over the course of the next three years. While Cary serves as president and CEO of MAT Solutions, a measurement assurance technology company that he started, Jackie handles the day-to-day at Albert Restaurant Group. As Texas natives, the couple plans to bring the state more Dairy Queen locations, from Dallas-Fort Worth to Athens, Texas.

1851 had a chance to catch up with Cary and learn more about how he got involved with the brand and his future plans.

Tell us a little bit about your background.

My wife and I live in Dallas where we have a lake house on Cedar Creek Lake. We operate the Albert Restaurant Group and we opened our seventh Dairy Queen location near Kauffman this year. The other six are scattered in the Dallas-Fort Worth area where we have locations in The Colony, Lewisville, Flower Mound, Fort Worth and Dallas.

My wife, Jacquelyn, is the president of the restaurant group while my job is more in development of real estate. We have been in this industry since 1995 and we’re the largest franchisees of Schlotzsky’s and Cinnabon in the area with 25 units in Dallas, Austin, San Marcos and San Antonio. We started with Dairy Queen in 2012.

We’ve been living in the Dallas area since 1989, but I’m originally from South Texas, born and raised near Victoria. I joined the Air Force out of high school and Jackie went on to the University of Texas. I spent four years actively in the Air Force and three inactive, based out of Denver and Plattsburgh. I worked as an electronics technician while in service and after my duty, I started MAT Solutions, an electronics calibrations company, in January of 1993. I am the president and CEO and I’m still there every day. My other business ventures I work for in the interim. We have a great team of folks that work for us.

Why did you choose to become a franchisee with Dairy Queen? How did you learn about the brand?

Schlotzsky’s is a lot like DQ, it’s a strong brand – it’s 75-years old. In Texas, everyone calls Dairy Queen a stop sign and everyone knows it. Everybody has a story about Dairy Queen and you never leave there without a smile on your face. We happen to have some great food there as well and it's a unique product mix in this state. 

Do you provide any interesting services or work with any other local businesses, organizations, or prominent individuals in the community?

We’re really involved with the North Texas Food Bank’s catering program; we sell box lunches for $6 and $1 from each of those sales goes to the food bank. We donated $10,000 and 30,000 meals in 2015, all a part of the Albert Restaurant Group. We also work with the Children’s Miracle Network, who works with the Dairy Queen brand and we participate in any airy Queen’s Children’s Miracle Network promotions.

What’s next for you and your business? Do you have any development or expansion plans with the brand?

For right now, we have purchased the rights for another dozen trade areas for Dairy Queen that are in development. We’re aiming to open three or four locations annually over the next three years.