5 Ways Cheba Hut Sets Franchise Owners Up For Success

As a marijuana-themed sandwich shop concept, Cheba Hut is quite comfortable setting itself apart from other food concepts. Not only does Cheba Hut enjoy offering a unique consumer experience, but the brand’s corporate team also takes several steps to ensure that Franchise Owners are set up for maximum fulfillment and success.

While the steps to crafting a masterful sandwich are numerous, Cheba Hut only needs five to help its franchise owners thrive.

Franchise Owners can customize their locations for a hyper-local feel.

While Cheba Hut Franchise Owners must stick to certain brand standards, including decor, they’re still afforded a great deal of creative freedom. Not only does the brand give its owners a variety of corporate-approved store designs from which to choose, but Franchise Owners can also incorporate local flavor into their stores, in the form of local beer options, wall murals by local artists, and more.

“As we continue to grow, we want to make sure our stores don’t feel cookie-cutter,” Cheba Hut Chief Relationship Officer Seth Larsen said. “We have 28 locations, and we’ve done a really good job of making sure that they all feel distinct from one another yet still uniquely Cheba Hut. We want each store to give off the sense that it’s the only Cheba Hut store in the area. That’s where franchisees come in—there’s no way to know a market like a franchisee who’s lived there for two decades does.”

All changes go through corporate store testing before systemwide implementation.

Before implementing any systemwide changes, Cheba Hut thoroughly tests new products and concepts at its company-owned stores.

“If you’re a Franchise Owner and you’ve bought into a franchise system, you shouldn’t be treated like a crash-test dummy for new products or procedures,” Larsen said.

Larsen noted that Cheba Hut is currently in the process of rolling out Restaurant 365, a complete restaurant management software that will make life easier for owners and general managers. Restaurant 365 is linked to the store’s POS system and can do a plethora of things, including automatically uploading invoices to providing real-time food costs.

“To roll that program out without thoroughly testing it would have been a nightmare,” Larsen said.

The brand provides the tools and support for a thorough real estate selection process.

As Cheba Hut has grown, the brand has invested an increased amount of time and capital in the real estate process to help Franchise Owners see immediate returns, Larsen said. The Cheba Hut team in Fort Collins also works with a master broker with the capability of assisting Franchise Owners as they pursue real estate in cities across the nation. While use is not required, the resource is valuable for Franchise Owners to have on-hand.

“The real estate process for Cheba Hut is about making sure the deal is right and the location is right. That takes time and patience,” Larsen said. “We don’t want our franchisees to sign any lease that we personally wouldn’t sign for a company-owned store.”

Cheba Hut also takes additional steps to make sure it is a valuable tenant. Larsen noted that Cheba Hut does a great job of owning the 18 to 40-year-old demographic, which allows it to generate both an excellent lunch crowd and a thriving bar business in the evening.

“Ultimately, a landlord wants a great mix of tenants,” Larsen said. “Cheba Hut is in a unique spot in that our stores can range from 900 to 2,500 square feet, which allows our model to work in a few different layouts.”

Company training programs extend to store managers and employees to uphold brand standards at all levels of the business.

Cheba Hut’s team can be summarily described as a bunch of brand enthusiasts, meaning everyone involved in new store training is committed to ensuring a perfect customer experience—and repeat business. The nature of Cheba Hut alone attracts curious diners, but that singularity is never going to be enough to create loyal customers, Larsen said.

> “Our trainers have been drinking the Kool-Aid for a long time, and they’ve vastly improved our training practices,” Larsen said. “What we do has to be executed at a very high level. We’ve created a great hospitality experience in a sandwich shop and our training team instills that in new crews. The bar is raised with each new store opening.”

Cheba Hut also works hard to understand its employees and the issues and concerns they face in their day-to-day work.

“Our employees are also our customers, and a lot of brands miss that,” Larsen said. “If your employees aren’t stoked about, for example, the quality of ham, they’ll tell their friends not to order the ham sandwich. If we’re not stoked about the ham at the corporate level, that trickles down to the customers. You have to make sure there is buy-in from the top down.”

Franchise Owner support doesn’t have an expiration date.

When it comes to supporting its shop owners, the Cheba Hut corporate team prides itself on being available at all times.

“That’s pretty rare for a company with 28 locations, $40 million in sales and an AUV above $1.5 million to be just a call or text or email away at any time,” Larsen said. “If we can’t talk at that moment, we’ll get back to you pretty damn quick.”

Cheba Hut requires a 10-year commitment of its Franchise Owners, and Larsen and his team are constantly working to make sure Franchise Owners remain as excited about the brand in year 10 as they are in year one.

“We hope their investment shows great returns and that franchisees will want to open more stores,” Larsen said. “We’ve always wanted to be the brand that has fewer franchisees but more units open. We actually say no more than we say yes to prospective franchisees, which is a cool spot to be in. We would never sell franchises just to make payroll for headquarters. We want to be around for another 21 years and continue to call our own shots and feel good about it.”

With such a hyper-focus on Franchise Owner success at every level of the organization, Cheba Hut ensures that everyone involved is having a high time.