Bob Andersen of UFG On The Great Greek Mediterranean Grill's Growth

Bob Andersen has worked in restaurant franchising for over 25 years. He’s been an area developer, a master franchisee, a development consultant, and even a CEO. Since 2019, he’s worked at United Franchise Group (UFG), where he started as Director of Sales for the food division before rising to Executive Vice President. He’s also served as President for The Great Greek Mediterranean Grill brand since July of 2021.

Since Bob joined the team, The Great Greek has been growing rapidly, including an ongoing international expansion. We sat down with Bob to discuss what’s so special about the brand, his expert read on current marketplace conditions, and what’s got him excited about the future of restaurant franchising.

Rapid growth phase

When I started seven years ago, we had just literally opened the fifth location. It was the second franchise store, and we were about at that $5 million. Today, we’re trending about $130 million and we’ll probably end this year closer to $150 million. So, we continue to grow at about 40% a year, and that journey really starts with having a great brand.

The Great Greek just celebrated its 15th birthday, so it’s not a new brand. Nick Della Pena and Trent Jones really took that business and professionalized the systems, and then we started franchising it in 2018.

When I joined the company, we really focused on building the team and building our systems; the journey starts with the people. We had a few really good franchise operators for our early adoption period, and we continue to grow with some amazing operators. And as we’ve been doing that, we’ve built our team and, when I look at our team today, I would put it up against any team in the industry. We have some really terrific, experienced, knowledgeable executives who are committed to delivering the tools necessary that our operators need to really thrive in the business.

Our vision is to lead the Mediterranean category throughout the world. We are really fortunate to be a part of United Franchise Group, which has over 40 years of experience. Much of that they’ve been internationally franchising and doing master franchising around the world. Four of our brands are worldwide leaders in their category. We have the knowledge inside our organization to be able to do this much more seamlessly for a brand of our size, and obviously we have the resources.

I have a global team that spans Australia to Europe, and it’s a tremendous advantage for us that we can be local in a worldwide expansion. We’ve had interest from the very beginning to take the brand internationally. People want to eat healthy; they want great flavorful food that’s simple, that they can relate to. That same trend is happening throughout the world, so it’s a unique opportunity for us in our category to take advantage of that.

Our partner in Egypt is a franchisee here in the states, which is excellent. Our partner in Canada was a master franchise partner with another brand under the UFG corp. But we also have partners that are just hearing about the business. They want to get in this category — whether it’s fast casual or Mediterranean. More recently, we signed a deal for Guyana and seven Caribbean countries with a large franchisee that we’re really excited about and getting ready here to hopefully open our first location there before the end of the year. It’s been really exciting.

We’re continuing to push the initiative with our global team. But we’re also highly focused on developing here in the States as well. We have a two-pronged approach going to grow our business.

Post pandemic trends

In my career, and from what I understand from people before me, we just went through the most challenging time the restaurant industry’s ever seen coming out of the pandemic — from supply chain challenges to rising costs. As I look forward, I see us moving into what could be the absolute best period that I’ve spent in the restaurant business. We’re very optimistic and excited about that.

A lot of that has to do with where we see the consumer going. The consumer is continuously looking for convenience, personalization, and customized food, and they want healthy, better-for-you options that are really flavorful. We check all those boxes.

Being in the Mediterranean category and The Great Greek, we’re able to meet those desires at every point. We’re also finding people love to come to our restaurant and eat, but there’s a lot of people who want to pick it up and bring it home or have it delivered. Also, in a catering environment, we’re able to meet the dietary requirements of diverse employment bases.

That has me really excited about where the space is going and where we are.

People come from all different walks of life. There’s always a lot of emphasis on whether a prospective franchisee has restaurant experience, but as I’ve gone through my career, I can tell you that’s not always the key factor that determines success.

Franchisee success factors

Our best operators inside the system are the ones who align with UFG’s organizational principles and then the principles of the brand. At UFG, we’re a continuous improvement organization. We want to lead categories; we want to drive top line revenue and profitability.

And then, of course, at the brand, we want to serve a better-for-you product that’s made in our restaurants, fresh, flavorful and customized to your tastes. We want people who are committed to that. If someone’s not committed to that in our business, then whatever other experience or qualifications they have don’t seem to matter.

After we’ve established that, it comes down to the people part. Can you build a team? Are you customer-centric? Our best franchisees and most successful operators are continually proven to be the ones who have built the strongest teams. We like to say, “Put the right people in the right place at the right time.” And when that gets executed in the restaurant industry, it’s really a powerful advantage.

And then the last thing is resources. You need a certain amount of resources to be able to develop, whether you want to be a single-restaurant or multi-unit operator. It requires a different type of resource base.

Those are the main three things that we look at as we go down the journey with somebody.

As I mentioned, I think the category’s at its infancy stage, and we feel like we’re at the front of that. We’ll continue to drive it here domestically and internationally. We’re also really excited about what’s going on with technology and how we can use that now to enhance the customer experience. There’s a lot of talk about data, and AI has been great for that, and we continue to try to improve our systems and our efficiency and productivity by deploying AI there.

Moving forward, it’s really about how we can use the technology to create human-centric benefits. We don’t want to just insert bots and agents into the whole customer journey, but we do want to combine the use of AI technology and human touchpoints to create the smoothest possible experience. I think that’s where brands are going to win at this game, because ultimately the consumer still wants a human touchpoint. I’m truly excited about what that’s going to bring. I look forward to learning how we can stand out by delivering an even better customer experience that feels human and convenient.

That’s our biggest challenge, and I would say it’s our biggest opportunity. And it’s probably the most exciting thing that’s gone on in this business since the internet.