Penn Station’s Director of Development and Franchising Greg Goddard Is Prioritizing Franchisee Success

Greg Goddard, the Director of Development and Franchising for the Ohio-based sandwich franchise, Penn Station East Coast Subs, didn’t follow the average path into the franchising industry.

**During Goddard’s time selling boats 20 minutes outside of Cincinnati, Ohio, one of his customers was then-president of Papa John’s Pizza, Bill Van Epps. When Van Epps retired from Papa John’s, he was quickly recruited by Procter & Gamble to launch Agile Pursuits Franchising,Inc., a P&G wholly-owned subsidiary.

** Proctor & Gamble and Agile Pursuits Franchising Inc, were responsible for pairing CPG iconic brands with the fragmented service industry—leading to the Tide Dry Cleaners franchise organization and the license arrangement with the Mr. Clean Car Wash **franchise. He asked Goddard to come along and join the team.

Franchising experience

Goddard worked his way up to the position of Senior Franchising Specialist at Agile Pursuits Franchising, gaining experience integrating brands such as Tide Dry Cleaners with consumer market knowledge and the world’s leading entrepreneurs to increase brand equity, engage consumers holistically, and create a sustainable and scalable business and increase shareholder revenue.

**“I provided key leadership contributions and management in the realm of business development, franchising, market development, compliance and other ancillary initiatives,” said Goddard. “We had an incredible and diverse team at P&G; it was a mixture of franchising executives brought from the outside and internal P&G people. I learned so much in that time; not just about franchising, but branding and marketing, real estate, and leadership, too.

I had the good fortune of being put on projects in which I did not have any previous experience. I believed in the products and the leadership team believed in me. It provided an invaluable experience to learn and gain keen insights from some of the best and helped set me on a great career path.”

Although Goddard loved being a part of the P&G team, he felt a desire to get involved in something more small-scale in order to focus on the people-centric aspect of the franchising business. Eventually, an opportunity at Penn Station East Coast Subs caught his eye.

“Since I grew up in Cincinnati, I was familiar with the Ohio-based brand,” said Goddard. “The fact that it was a founder-held business that had been around since 1985 was very impressive. I knew that Penn Station had a strong core product and opportunity for both the franchisee and the consumer. When a franchise features such a strong P&L, corporate support, infrastructure and a streamlined operational model, there is an exciting opportunity to expand beyond the current regional brand status.”

Penn station role

Goddard joined Penn Station in 2012 as Director of Development and has since been promoted to Director of Development and Franchising. Goddard’s multifaceted role includes leading the discovery process, the real-estate analysis and approvals, franchise development, compliance, and consumer marketing.

“In this role, development, franchising and real estate go hand in hand,” said Goddard. “It is important to not only identify target markets but to plan and develop strategies in place to find the right franchisees in those areas, and develop the marketing plan that supports the growth. It has been great developing and overseeing the strategy to expand the brand beyond our core market and to plan for the future.”

While Greg demonstrates his expertise in diverse ways at Penn Station, he is able to use these tools to ultimately accomplish a single overarching goal—to enhance the tools that help increase the ROI of Penn Station’s franchisees.

Franchisee success

Penn Station has perfected its methods for keeping costs down for franchisees. Despite rising food and real estate costs across the foodservice industry, Penn Station’s food costs remain steady—with some of the lowest the system has seen in the history of the brand. Furthermore, the brand doesn’t currently offer any discounts or delivery, meaning franchisees never have to deal with those common encroachments on profit.

“Throughout my experience, I have learned how important it is to have a balance of brand equity and franchisees’ success,” said Goddard. “In my past it was all about brand equity but that didn’t always provide strong unit-level economics. With Penn Station, I’ve been able to focus more on the success of the franchisee and deliver ROI through a combination of initial and ongoing cost savings and sales **drivers.

In order for a business to be successful and scalable, it has to be a win-win situation for both the franchisee and the franchisor and** Penn Station is known for its franchisee longevity. **Since the first day I met with ownership at Penn Station, the constant unwavering theme has always been ROI. Integrating into an organization where everyone’s daily job is to increase the franchisees’ ROI has been fulfilling.”

Craig Dunaway, President of Penn Station observed, “When Greg joined the Penn Station team, he could read a Profit and Loss Statement, but he didn’t intimately understand how concepts or franchisees necessarily made their money. He recognized we were selling return on investment (ROI), but I asked him to get into the weeds and understand and articulate what we did and why we did it a certain way. Today, he’s as comfortable walking a prospective franchisee through the details and nuances of Item 19 (Financial Performance Representations) as he is discussing key terms on a lease with a landlord or developing an overall arching social media marketing strategy.”

Goddard has helped Penn Station position franchise partners for success by ensuring that the relationships between real estate brokers, marketing agencies, prospective franchisees and internal departments remain intact. As a result, Goddard has been an agent of change for the brand, propelling invaluable growth for Penn Station through the addition of dedicated franchisees into the system.

With nearly 315 units up and running throughout 15 states, Penn Station continues to experience steady franchise growth and Goddard is excited to see what lies ahead for the legacy brand.