In his first nine years with Family SportsConcepts Inc., Nick Vojnovic watched the company’s Beef ‘O’ Brady’s restaurant chain grow at a tremendous rate.
What started out in 1998 as 30 locations, primarily in the Tampa Bay area, and $16 million of revenue, had increased to 250 sites nationwide with revenue of approximately $200 million by 2007.
But then the company hit a snag.
Beef’s, as Vojnovic refers to it, started experiencing tremendous commodity increases because of rising ethanol and fuel prices. Aside from the business having to spend more money to pay for supplies, those rising fuel prices are also driving people to enjoy some home cooking instead of eating out — and Vojnovic, who became president of the organization in 2005, was hearing all about it from his franchisees.
“We are seeing pressure at the store level where they go, ‘Nick, I’m working just as hard, and I’m not making as much money,’”he says. “We, as a franchisor, have to lead that way and make sure they are making money and make adjustments.”
Because a lot of the company’s success is dependent on the franchisees making money and being happy, Vojnovic and the management team knew it was time to make some changes.
They decided to re-evaluate parts of their company’s brand and concepts to continue the kind of growth they’ve experienced and that meant trying new things.
One of those changes involved serving some liquor at the restaurants. There was some worry that expanding from beer and wine to include serving mixed drinks would turn the family-friendly Beef ‘O’Brady’s into a scene out of “NationalLampoon’s Animal House.”
“Our core customer is mom and dad with the 8-year-old or 10-year-old coming in after a soccer game,” he says. “We certainly do not want a bunch of 24-year-olds at the bar trying to pick up chicks, getting hammered and cussing.”
Though Vojnovic did not want to alienate the customers that made the company a success, he was willing to try to change while still keeping core customers satisfied.
“You’ve got to keep changing,” he says.“You cannot keep doing what you have always done. At the same time, you cannot lose that core, or you cannot ever alienate your core customer, or you could possibly go out of business.”
