--- title: "The Power of Portfolio: Top Operators Stack Brands to Unlock Growth and Efficiency" url: https://burnaze.com/article/d3e696d2-1219-4efc-8911-250543e7d4fb source: "Franchising.com" original_url: https://www.franchising.com/articles/20260606_the_power_of_portfolio_top_operators_stack_brands_to_unlock_growth_and_.html author: "Leon Stafford" category: "Franchise Industry" industry: "Franchise Industry" topics: ["Development & multi-unit"] published: 2026-08-01T08:00:00.000Z modified: 2026-10-31T16:10:51.277Z image: https://imgs.franchising.com/art/articles/10524_plate.jpg --- # The Power of Portfolio: Top Operators Stack Brands to Unlock Growth and Efficiency **TL;DR:** Multi-unit, multi-brand franchisees are growing in number, attracted by the ability to diversify investments, share resources, and scale businesses. Entrepreneurs like Beth Georges and Kal Gullapalli have found success in operating multiple franchise brands, including Club Pilates, YogaSix, and Orangetheory. *By Leon Stafford, originally published in Franchising.com on 2026-08-01. [Read the original](https://www.franchising.com/articles/20260606_the_power_of_portfolio_top_operators_stack_brands_to_unlock_growth_and_.html).* ## Key facts - Multi-brand operators can unlock growth and efficiency - Mastering one brand is crucial before expanding - Building strong systems and teams is essential for success ## Story ## Multi brand operators It’s been eight years since Beth Georges, a former news anchor and California State University at Fullerton professor, did a career about-face to become a franchisee. Some in her social circle still don’t understand her decision. “Every single person thought I was crazy,” says the Orange, California, resident. “People think I’m absolutely nuts.” Crazy like a fox, maybe. Georges is in the final months of opening a Club Pilates in Melbourne, Australia, the first of five locations she has planned for Down Under. She also operates two locations of YogaSix, another brand under the umbrella of San Diego-based health and wellness giant Xponential Fitness. She is among a growing number of entrepreneurs who operate multiple franchise brands. Entrepreneurs are attracted to multi-unit, multi-brand franchises so that they can diversify their investments, share resources, and scale businesses. They can also facilitate better real estate deals, share marketing platforms, and streamline human resources, accounting, and training needs. Ben Lawrence, director of the franchise entrepreneurship and innovation program and the Aziz Hashim Professor of Franchise Entrepreneurship at Georgia State University in Atlanta, says multi-unit, multi-brand operators (MUMBOs) focus on building systems that can run efficiently under any model. That gives the operator room to step back from day-to-day tasks and look at the big picture. “They have some hierarchy that allows them to focus on making investments,” he says. “Regardless of the business, it can run efficiently as long as the model works.” Branching out into other brands is also beneficial if a franchise operates in an area that is saturated by a brand that doesn’t offer room for growth, Lawrence says. Owning a second brand allows franchisees to keep expanding while staying close to home. “There’s only so many of one brand you can fit in a geographic area,” Lawrence says. Making it work Operating as a MUMBO comes with challenges. Brands have different cultures, marketing strategies, and operational systems that must be carefully managed. Compatibility is key. A barber shop franchise generally has nothing in common with a restaurant chain, so adding both to a portfolio is less attractive because shared services between the two would be limited. ## Operational challenges The trick for any multi-unit entrepreneur ready to make the transition to becoming a multi-brand operator is to have perfected the operations of a single brand, says Kal Gullapalli, CEO of Built Different Brands. “Don’t add a second brand until the first is genuinely healthy,” he says. “Growth exposes weakness; it doesn’t fix it. Build the corporate team ahead of unit count, not behind it.” Gullapalli says being a MUMBO has significantly scaled his business. Built Different Brands began with two locations of fitness brand Orangetheory in 2017 and then quickly jumped into a four-store acquisition of European Wax Center in 2018, he says. Now Built Different Brands operates seven brands, Dave’s Hot Chicken, Marco’s Pizza, PopUp Bagels, Restore Hyper Wellness, Hand & Stone Massage and Facial Spa, Vio Med Spa, and Sandbox VR, in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Tennessee. “We’re opening around 15 locations a year with a pipeline through 2028, run by a corporate team of about 25,” he says. “That ratio doesn’t work for a single-brand operator. You are either drowning or overstaffed. Multi-brand spreads fixed costs, strengthens vendor leverage, and smooths the cycles when one category softens.” He says he became a multi-brand franchisee because of leverage and risk. “Once you build real corporate infrastructure, a single brand usually can’t fully utilize it, and concentrating everything in one concept felt fragile,” says Gullapalli, adding that when he evaluates a new brand, he looks for category leadership, unit economics, and a franchisor that behaves like a partner. Maximizing real estate and leadership teams also helps build the business. “With multiple concepts, a site that doesn’t fit Marco’s might be perfect for Dave’s or PopUp Bagels, and landlords value that,” Gullapalli says. “And our shared services model means every marketing dollar and recruiter gets leveraged across 80-plus units instead of being siloed. The same goes for technology: We’re building an operational intelligence platform across our systems, so every brand runs off the same scorecards. That’s only worth doing at scale.” Staying focused Tanner Holmes says being a multi-unit, multi-brand franchisee requires a lot of focus and no ego. He learned that lesson through experience. The current owner of four Perspire Sauna Studio locations and two Sola Salon Studios units in the Chicago area, Holmes started in franchising a decade ago with a 12-unit portfolio of European Wax locations and served as director of operations. It didn’t take him long to realize he was in over his head. “I had never been to Chicago before. I knew nothing about waxing, nothing about owning a business, managing a team,” he says. “It was a total mess.” He had not done enough research on European Wax. Though he worked hard, he didn’t know what he didn’t know. The mistake makes perfect sense in hindsight, but at the time, he was excited about the opportunity and dove in. What saved him, he says, was the franchising system itself. “The beauty of franchising is that franchisees in the system are super willing to help each other out,” he says. “I was this young, hungry kid just trying to figure it out.” That experience reshaped how he approaches growth. Instead of chasing “shiny objects,” he began looking for opportunities that resonated with his goals. “If it doesn’t align with who you are and what you want in life, then you’re likely chasing something that is someone else’s dream,” he says. Moving into the health, wellness, and beauty space was a deliberate choice to scale by creating overlap in customer base and staffing. While each brand has its own systems, culture, and operational demands, it’s easier to focus because of the similarities, he says. “There are still so many nuances from one business to the next,” he says. “More legal, more liability, more insurance, more payroll. It all adds complexity.” While scaling is one of the most attractive aspects of operating multiple brands simultaneously as a franchisee, he cautioned that it is not easy. Every new location is a learning experience, and not all perform to expectations. “With more, you can cast a wider net and catch more fish,” he says. “But on a rainy day, you need a much larger umbrella. The good days are better, but the bad days are worse.” A MUMBO must learn when to walk away. If a store is underperforming, it’s critical to understand what happened, learn from the misfire, and move ahead, he says. “There’s a skill in knowing when to push and when to throw in the towel,” says Holmes, adding that managing time wisely and hiring strong leaders are top priorities. “Sometimes, you’re just going to have more fires burning than you can put out,” he adds. “It’s about finding the most critical ones, the ones that threaten the business the most. And you learn to strengthen the team by giving them autonomy to make decisions.” He encourages new operators to start with one location and truly understand the business before expanding. “You can show up to one location and fix every problem,” he says. “At two, you can’t be in two places at once.” For Holmes, success is not measured by the number of locations but by how they align with the mission. “The number always gets bigger,” he says. “For me, that’s more of an ego metric. It’s more about the health of the business, the health of the team, and impacting the community.” ## Growth strategies Pumping the brakes Alex Karcher, operating principal of Oregon-based JCK Restaurants, says growth is the obvious goal for every company, but it’s also important to pump the brakes if systems are not keeping up with expansion. A franchisee of Carl’s Jr., Jersey Mike’s Subs, The Human Bean, Dave’s Hot Chicken, and Hawaiian Bros Island Grill, Karcher says he is judicious about growth when it comes to getting his company’s accounting house in order. In 2019, JCK Restaurants had three reporting systems, which had become so complicated that team members weren’t closing their books each month. “And we’re like, ‘Okay, we’ll get caught up. We’ll get caught up,’” Karcher says. “Well, then, we brought on another brand, and things kind of got further and further behind. Those cracks really blew open during Covid because not only could we not report and close, we couldn’t even sit face-to-face to figure it out.” Eventually, the company built its own “agnostic” reporting tool for accounting that was independent of the brands. Karcher and team started automating processes and brought in a new CFO with experience in guiding multi-unit, multi-brand businesses. In hindsight, he says, the company should have slowed down until it figured out a more streamlined system when trouble first started. “If you allow yourself to grow too big without setting up your systems, you’re going to be trying to hire yourself out of a hole, and that’s way more expensive than leading with the right people and the right support up front,” he says. Karcher says JCK, which has roughly 2,200 employees, is focused on building the internal infrastructure needed to support its next phase. Future growth won’t be measured by store count alone. “We try to measure our growth in people,” Karcher says. “If you have more great people than you have restaurants, it’s a clear sign you can open another one.” That philosophy is already shaping expansion decisions. Newer brands like Dave’s Hot Chicken and Hawaiian Bros. Island Grill are attracting internal talent eager for advancement. “We have a surplus of talent,” he says. “People are chomping at the bit for new opportunities.” The food industry has been in his blood since he was a child watching his parents follow the footsteps of his legendary grandfather, Carl Karcher, founder of Carl’s Jr. While Karcher initially worked in the world of finance after going away to school in San Diego, the lure of working with his family proved too much to resist. The family began investing in brands outside the Carl’s Jr. system in 2013 after the brand had been mostly built out in Oregon and Washington. While becoming a MUMBO is about developing efficiencies that lead to growth, success ultimately comes down to providing high-quality service to customers. No amount of business acumen can make a multi-unit, multi-brand franchise work if the product being offered underwhelms. “It always starts with great food,” Karcher says. Multi-Brand Playbook Multi-brand franchising can accelerate growth but only if operators stay disciplined, build the right systems, and scale with purpose. What works: Master one brand first. Build a strong, profitable foundation before expanding. Invest in systems early. Leadership, tech, and shared services must scale ahead of unit growth. Choose brands carefully. Look for operational fit, strong unit economics, and aligned franchisors. Leverage the portfolio. Diversify risk, maximize real estate, and spread fixed costs across concepts. Build strong teams. Empower unit-level leaders to avoid becoming the bottleneck. What to watch out for: Complexity multiplies fast. Different brands bring different systems, cultures, and challenges. Growth exposes weaknesses. Expansion won’t fix operational gaps; it will highlight them. Chasing “shiny objects.” Adding brands without strategic fit can derail focus. Scaling without infrastructure. Growing too fast without systems creates costly problems. Key mindset shifts: Think like a portfolio builder, not just an operator. Prioritize business health over unit count. Know when to push and when to walk away from underperforming units. ## Entities - Franchising.com (publication) - Multi-Unit (sector) - Xponential Fitness (company) - Club Pilates (company) - multi-unit expansion (topic) - operational efficiency (topic) - YogaSix (company) - Perspire Sauna Studio (company) - Orangetheory (company) - European Wax Center (company) - franchise portfolio (topic) - Sola Salon Studios (company) --- Originally reported by Leon Stafford, Franchising.com (https://www.franchising.com/articles/20260606_the_power_of_portfolio_top_operators_stack_brands_to_unlock_growth_and_.html). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/d3e696d2-1219-4efc-8911-250543e7d4fb).