PioneerPlanet / St. Paul (Minnesota) Pioneer Press
Friday, September 22, 2000
When franchisees cut the cord with corporate, they're
free to do their own thing. Often, such independence is a mixed blessing.
GITA SITARAMIAH
The co-owner of what's now Tizzo's
in St. Paul remembers asking the Colorado take-and-bake pizza chain
Nick-N-Willy's for walking papers two years ago.
In the beginning, Johnson and his
partner Dave Sandberg liked the advantage of buying a concept that was already
in place and knowing that if things went wrong, they'd have corporate help.
But they soon tired of having to get
permission for any and every change. They got sick of forking over a percentage
of sales. And they were fed up with the supply glitches that sometimes left
them unable to get products required by the company.
``It's hard to run a pizza joint
without cheese,'' Johnson says.
As it turned out, the Boulder-based
chain was ready to cut the cord, too. It had only one store in Minnesota, and
that store wasn't worth their while. ``It wasn't doing them much good,'' says
Nick-N-Willy's president Keith McQuillen. ``It wasn't doing us much good.''
Last summer, nearly three years
after opening in St. Paul, Johnson and his partners took down the
Nick-N-Willy's sign and came up with a new name and a new take-and-bake pizza
menu.
But leaving a chain is hardly ever
so simple. Chains count on a percentage of sales from each branch, so why let a
profit maker go? They also stand to lose name recognition. The more branches,
the more visibility and allure.
A lesson franchisees have learned is
that a corporate name is only worthwhile if it's instantly recognizable. ``The
name McDonald's is going to mean a ton to someone,'' says Ron Gardner, a
Minneapolis franchise attorney. ``The name Bob's Burger Barn doesn't
necessarily mean diddly.''
Another pitfall: Owners who buy a
piece of a chain and have never worked in the restaurant business often don't
realize the amount of work they need to put in to make their outpost a success.
When Kevin McGregor started an
Erbert & Gerbert's franchise at St. Paul's Union Depot five years ago, he
thought being part of chain would mean fewer hours than running a restaurant on
his own. He quickly learned otherwise and decided he might as well go solo.
Last month, his sub shop became Blink Bonnie.
What happens once a restaurant
breaks away from a chain?
For Johnson and other owners,
liberation means a whole new set of problems. Tizzo's has been suffering from
an identity crisis ever since the split. As Nick-N-Willy's, the Grand Avenue
pizza shop had built up a steady stream of customers. But once it became
Tizzo's, business suddenly dropped. The fundamental take-and-bake concept was
still in place, but customers thought it was a new business with new owners.
Even Johnson's old roommate quit showing up.
``When we took Nick-N-Willy's off
the building, we lost all our regulars,'' Johnson says. ``If a guy I lived with
in college isn't stopping in to see what's new, you can bet the general public
isn't going to.''
Husband-and-wife team, Daniel Hubert
and Shannon Trout-Hubert, purchased a Ciatti's restaurant in Edina three years
ago with the intention of going independent. As a partner in Chez Daniel Bistro
in Bloomington, the couple felt Daniel's name and French-culinary training
could give the Edina restaurant some cachet. And they liked the tony Galleria
setting.
Last year, the place turned into
Daniel's Italian Restaurant, serving lasagna and fettuccine Alfredo as well as
a rotating list of French specialties. Sales plummeted. ``It was one decline
for a whole year,'' Trout-Hubert says.
It's too early to predict how sales
at Blink Bonnie will be affected by last month's independence. McGregor expects
to pocket $20,000 more than before now that he doesn't have to pay royalties.
That's money that he believes will help the business break even and then some.
As for Johnson, an outdoorsy type
who left corporate sales to make pizza, he's glad that Tizzo's is on its own,
problems and all. He was never really hot on the franchise idea, anyway. His
partner was eager to join the chain, and Johnson went along, even though he was
a little skeptical.
``It's come full circle,'' he says.
``And here we are busting out of the franchise to do our own thing.''