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The hungry customers start pouring into the tiny sub shop shortly before noon. Past the fourth dimension the lunch hour is in full swing, the new Beverly Hills Capriotti'southward Sandwich Shop --the first California outpost since the chain was founded in Delaware in 1976--is packed with people wearing business suits and designer jeans. Employees are calling out to customers by proper noun, inquiring about what they like, making menu recommendations, request how many peppers they desire on their sandwiches.

After only a calendar week in business, word has obviously gotten out: This nutrient is worth the wait. Capriotti'south signature creations, such every bit the Bobbie (turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing and mayo) and the Capastrami (hot pastrami, Swiss cheese, Russian dressing and cole slaw) are stacked high with premium ingredients. In fact, the shop slow-roasts eight to 10 whole turkeys for 12 hours every night and pulls the meat by hand fresh every morning. At $vii to $vii.50 for a "small" 9-inch sub, the sandwiches are quite a bargain, too--ane of the few in this tony neighborhood.

The two well-dressed ladies waiting in line have no thought that the young man talking to them about his love for the "Thanksgiving on a roll" Bobbie--which was just named the greatest sandwich in America past AOL--is actually the visitor's CEO. To be fair, 30-year-one-time Ashley Morris never expected to find himself in this position either. When he joined Capriotti's in 2004 as a franchisee, he was looking to diversify his portfolio, not change his life.

Morris discovered Capriotti's while attending the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He fell in love with the food, and then much so that he deliberately rented an apartment within walking distance of one of the company'south 20-plus Las Vegas locations. Knowing that other people were merely as fanatical nearly the chain, he figured opening his own Capriotti'due south was a surefire investment. Then he kept his job as a coin manager at Wells Fargo, and with Valerin Engler, his girlfriend at the time (and now his wife), ran the 3 Henderson, Nev., restaurants that they opened over the adjacent 3 years.

With their stores averaging $600,000 in sales, they asked about becoming area developers. Just the chain's founders, Lois and Alan Margolet, offered to sell them the entire company instead. The Margolets had managed to grow the system to 44 stores since they began franchising in 1991--largely on the popularity of the sandwiches alone, because they had only four corporate employees and ran the business out of their home. They knew the make had the potential to go to the next level just recognized that they weren't the right people to accept information technology at that place--and they believed that with his financial background, maybe Morris was.

"Equally presently as I heard that," Morris says, "I was fully committed." By Jan. 1, 2008, he had transformed from money manager to sandwich CEO. And though this may not be the path he had planned for his life, watching him run to fetch extra dressing for a Capastrami and wax philosophical about craven cheesesteaks, information technology seems that he's plant his destiny.

The Sandwich Phenom

While the last couple of years have been tough on most businesses, sandwich franchises in general take done quite well, with many fifty-fifty experiencing record growth. At the top of the heap, of course, is Subway, which opened more than than 2,000 locations last twelvemonth and saw same-shop sales soar into the double digits, thanks to its $5 Footlongs. With more 32,000 stores in 90 countries, the sandwich giant is on the verge of overtaking McDonald's in the number of restaurants worldwide.

With its electric current count at little more lx, Capriotti's may seem like barely a blip on the radar screen in comparison--but information technology's a bleep that makes people sit up and take notice.

"Capriotti'due south is one of those brands where people are fanatical about the food," Morris says. The quality of the ingredients and unique carte du jour items, along with the employees' enthusiastic interaction with customers, makes Capriotti'southward feel more like an contained East Declension deli than a nationwide chain.

And that combination of quality and service has garnered Capriotti's quite a post-obit--one that's been helped forth past the appearance of social media. Facebook, Twitter and Yelp were abuzz with comments when the Beverly Hills store opened in January. Many L.A. residents were familiar with the chain from weekend trips to Las Vegas and were excited to finally take one in their ain backyard.

One fan, Omar Khashen, proudly blogged virtually arriving at nine:45 a.thou. on opening day and waiting in the rain to be the first to eat a Bobbie made in California. The new store chop-chop won new fans, likewise. On Capriotti's Facebook page, which has xiv,000 fans and growing, i person posted, "In that location are many sandwich shops in this globe yes, but in that location is only room enough for one in my heart and that's Capriotti'due south! Thanks for showing me what a real sandwich should taste like!"

That following has helped Capriotti's weather the recession with ease. "Our average gross sales are north of $725,000 per shop," Morris says, "and that'south including the good, bad and the ugly." In fact, the poor economy has been more of a blessing than a expletive for Capriotti's, especially when it comes to finding prime number real estate--such as this location, on Wilshire Boulevard, just iii blocks from Rodeo Drive. "In a great market, this opportunity just wouldn't exist."

Despite its devoted post-obit, Capriotti's has stayed relatively pocket-size until now, with most of its stores effectually where the two erstwhile owners lived, Delaware and Las Vegas. "When we purchased the company, in that location was footling if whatsoever infrastructure," Morris says. "What we were buying was a 34-yr-former name, fantastic recipes and a handful of stores."

New Guild

Morris and his squad spent two years rebuilding the visitor's infrastructure, from technology to training to distribution. They even redesigned the wait of the stores, giving them a cozy neighborhood experience with brick-covered walls, checkerboard trim and small indoor and outdoor seating areas. "We actually reinvented the entire visitor," Morris says. "Now nosotros're ready to really take on the growth."

In fact, Morris is anticipating 500 locations past 2015. A lofty goal, but he is confident. After all, Capriotti'south surreptitious to finding franchisees is the aforementioned as winning customers: Just let them take a taste. That'southward what worked for Wayne "Buzz" Knyal, co-owner of the Beverly Hills store. As the former CEO of Franchise Mortgage Acceptance Co., he had spent years lending coin to franchisees but never thought he would get one himself.

"It was really the food that did it," Knyal says. He partnered with Don Ghareeb, 1 of the largest Taco Bell and Sonic Drive-In franchisees in the nation, and now that their first location is up and running--with $25,000 in sales in just its beginning week--they're hoping to open xx more in Los Angeles County in the next ii years and as many every bit fourscore in the next x.

California isn't the only state getting its commencement taste of Capriotti's. Wisconsin area developers opened one in Milwaukee in Nov, and Oregon, Tennessee, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri and Texas are all expected to see their first Capriotti'south this year.

Of course, a hankering for the Bobbie isn't the but affair that Morris is looking for in franchisees--that would hardly narrow down the field. He's seeking people with restaurant and franchise experience, and, with the credit market the mode it is, people who have the resources to supply on their ain the $300,000 it takes to get a Capriotti's shop off the ground. With the area developers he's attracted, he expects to have xx to 25 new stores open up past the end of 2010.

But he says that growth will never come at the expense of what drew him--and so many others--to Capriotti's in the first place: the quality of the sandwiches. "Part of our cadre values as a company is the quality of the food and the customer service," he says. "And our values bulldoze u.s.a. in all of our growth and all of our operations. The fashion we train, the manner we teach our franchisees how to operate, the fashion we design our stores and the way we make our nutrient will never modify."

Although his dreams for the sandwich chain are high, he too knows what he doesn't want it to be. "We'll never be on every corner," he says--undoubtedly a nod to Subway, which does in fact happen to have a location simply a few doors downwardly from the Beverly Hills shop. "We're more of that jewel that people seek out." And that'southward exactly how he wants it to stay.

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Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/205504

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