Business View - March 2015 75
spread across 27 additional countries, including Bra-
zil, Malaysia, Honduras and more. Although focused
on franchising, nearly 10 percent of the system is
owned and operated by the corporate headquarters,
which reflects a desire to continue to grow the brand
internally while maintaining connection to the franchi-
see experience.
“Our corporate restaurants are a great source of rev-
enue and EBITDA for the company, providing added
profitability to the brand. With that said, our main pur-
pose of operating corporate restaurants is so when we
talk to franchisees about best practices and market-
ing operations, we have skin in the game and under-
stand what has worked in the various markets. This
has helped us immensely in providing the franchisees
in our system with the best-in-class operations training
and marketing support.”
And in terms of competition, Johnny Rockets will con-
tinue to play to its strengths.
“Not only are we a better burger concept, we’re a big-
ger burger concept,” Walker continues. “In most cas-
es, our fresh, never frozen hamburger made of 100
percent domestic farm-raised beef, is larger than our
competitors on a patty by patty basis. From a quality
standpoint, that makes our burgers a point of differen-
tiation. And then, when you add the entertainment ele-
ment, there is no other brand out there like us. Johnny
Rockets is as hot today, if not hotter, than we were in
FRANCHISE
