restaurant development + design: Famous Toastery's Real Estate Strategy Sets it Up for Success

Real estate can be hard to find these days for rapidly expanding brands like Famous Toastery, a better breakfast franchise concept out of North Carolina. In order to maximize what is out there, many brands have decided to take over spaces previously occupied by other restaurants, according to a recent issue of restaurant development + design.

Famous Toastery's first location, in fact, was previously a different breakfast spot, and since then as the brand has expanded they've turned to reclaiming spaces previously occupied by failed restaurants as part of their growth strategy.

"It's much cheaper in the beginning to do this," Robert Maynard, co-founder and CEO of Famous Toastery, told restaurant development + design. "In fact, our three or four most popular restaurants were all in failed restaurant spaces."

Maynard examines and picks apart each space inside out before moving forward (using the intel as part of the negotiation), and then works with JWL Management out of Wisconsin when redesigning the space. Through this process, Famous Toastery has been able to cut costs on new locations, for both the corporate team and the franchisees growing with the brand.