Young Ones to Watch: Liz Bazner, Senior Director of Marketing at A&W Restaurants

For more than 100 years, A&W has been one of the most iconic names in franchising, but in recent years, the brand has experienced something of a renaissance, reinvigorating its development efforts and implementing new store-level supports to help franchisees increase sales. As a result, the legacy franchise brand, known for its Root Beer served in frosty mugs, has experienced a 33% jump in sales across its 500-plus locations since 2011.

That decade of growth aligns with the tenure of Liz Bazner, who joined A&W’s corporate team as a social and digital communications strategist in 2012 and has since worked her way up to become the brand’s senior director of marketing.

We spoke to Bazner to learn about how she got into franchising, what challenges from the pandemic the industry still needs to address, her advice for up-and-comers in the industry and more.