Nigel Travis knows there’s a recession going on, but it’s not obvious when he looks at Cleveland-area Dunkin’ Donuts. Local stores have seen like-for-like sales increases for the last six consecutive years. And in the last five years, 14 local franchisees have opened 27 new stores, bringing the total here to 47.
That’s a drop in the bucket of the global growth of Dunkin’ Brands Inc. — which operates both the coffee-and-doughnut chain and Baskin-Robbins — where Travis serves as CEO. Systemwide sales for the 15,393 locations worldwide totaled $7.2 billion in 2009.
But there’s something special about Cleveland, and Travis recently left the company’s headquarters near Boston and came to town to learn the secret.
“I think it’s great franchisees who have focused on the community, given great service, given products of value,” he said from a new location of Dunkin’ Donuts, where he doubles as president. “That’s the magic difference.”
He defines a great franchisee as someone who understands the local community and is well-trained on the corporate brand. So maybe the better question is how do you identify great franchisees?
“If you ask people about what was important in the restaurants or even retail stores they go in, they will very quickly tell you what’s important to them,” Travis says. “You can deduce from that how focused they are on consistency, focused on quality, value.”
Also ask whether potential franchisees are willing to get out in the community to propel the brand. Sometimes, that’s as simple as explaining your expectations to illustrate what the job will entail.
“At another brand I worked at, I used to speak to all the new franchisees and I told people how hard they had to work to maintain the product, how hard they had to work to get out into the community — a lot of foot-slugging as I call it,” Travis says. “Two people actually left because they didn’t want to put that kind of dedication into running their franchise.
“If you’re focused enough on the attributes you’re looking for, which is really hard work, focus on quality, being involved in the community, making sure that you have a consistent product … I think you can very quickly deduce who you should have in the system or not have in the system.”
[Read a blog about Dunkin’s remarkable growth in one local market]
