Baskin Robbins, Capriotti's Sandwich Shop, Cosi, and Qdoba are among the restaurant chains making headlines this week.
Baskin Robbins has launched a franchisee incentive program. This includes a 10-year initial franchise fee payment plan whereby the $25,000 fee can be amortized over 10 years. In addition, qualified candidates who timely develop shops will be able to enjoy reduced royalty rates of .9 percent to 2.9 percent over the first 5 years, which is a reduction from the chain's standard royalty rate of 5.9 percent. Baskin-Robbins also introduced special incentives targeting U.S. military servicemen and women. For honorably discharged military veterans who sign an agreement in 2013 and timely develop shops, Baskin-Robbins will waive the 20-year initial franchisee fee and offer a 0 percent royalty rate for the first 2 years and a reduced royalty rate years 3 through 5.
Capriotti's Sandwich Shop opened its third location in the Dallas market. The chain hopes to introduce 50 new shops to the greater Dallas Metroplex.
Fast-casual restaurant chain Così, Inc. will open a second location in Costa Rica through franchisee Fast Casual S.A. This location is scheduled to open in August.
For its first fiscal quarter of 2013 Dave & Buster's, Inc. announced that same store sales increased 1.8 percent and revenues increased 2.9 percent to $168.2 million, compared to the same period in 2012.
First Watch, a breakfast, brunch and lunch chain, opened a location in West Boca Raton, Fla. The 3,700-square-foot restaurant is the company's sixth in Southeast Florida.
Blackstreet Capital Market has acquired Jerry's Systems, Inc., a 66-unit franchisor of Jerry's Pizza and Subs Restaurants. The restaurants are located in Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C.
Jack in the Box Inc. (NASDAQ: JACK) announced plans to close 67 of its company-owned Qdoba restaurants by Sept. 29, 2013, the end of its current fiscal year. The decision to close the restaurants followed a comprehensive unit-level analysis of sales, cash flows and other key performance metrics, as well as site locations, brand awareness and lease status, according to a company release. At the end of the second quarter, Qdoba's system included 647 restaurants, of which 340 were company-operated.
Schlotzsky's inked a franchise agreement for 55 restaurants throughout 7 of the former Soviet countries, including Russia, Belarus, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine. The chain hopes to have 30 international locations in the next 5 years.
SONIC Drive-In continued its Northeast expansion with a franchise development agreement that will open five new restaurants in the Rochester, N.Y. market over the next four years. SONIC now operates five locations in Empire State.
NPC announced today that it had entered into an Asset Purchase Agreement (APA) with a subsidiary of The Wendy's Company to acquire 22 Wendy's restaurants in the Kansas City metropolitan area for $9.3 million, plus amounts for working capital and initial franchise fees. NPC also agreed to acquire two additional restaurants currently under development by Wendy's in exchange for reimbursement of development costs and payment of initial franchise fees, thereby increasing the number of restaurants to be acquired to 24. As part of the agreement, NPC plans to reimage certain acquired restaurants in Wendy's new Image Activation format.
Former San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders cornerback Shawntae Spencer inked a deal to become a Wingstop franchisee and plans to open 15 restaurants in his hometown of Pittsburgh.
