QSR Magazine: How Sbarro’s CEO is Revitalizing the Brand

David Karam has been working in the franchising industry for a very long time. At age 14, he started his first foodservice job at Wendy’s with founder Dave Thomas where he was able to see a small brand grow quickly. His father became a franchisee and had 13 stores before Karam came on to help grow their number of stores to a whopping 215 Wendy’s. He then went on to run the brand from 2008 to 2011 where he brought the brand back on track overtaking Burger King in market share, before being recruited by Sbarro investors.

Karam explained in a recent Nation’s Restaurant News article that when he assumed the role of CEO in 2013 the business was heavily overleveraged. With a large amount of debt after a company restructure, Karam developed a plan to recover with a second restructuring. By eliminating over 30 menu items and focusing on pizza, the brand closed close to 170 restaurants and shed nearly all of its debt.

In three years, Karam has started to turn the brand around and bring on new franchisees to continue on a path to growth.