C&P Restaurant Co., a top-100 restaurant franchise group, has signed a six-unit development agreement for Georgia with premium quick-service chain Fazoli’s.
The announcement comes as Fazoli’s franchisees continue to break same-store sales records. In February, franchisees’ comp sales were up 5.5 percent, compared to the QSR segment’s average 2.2-percent increase, as reported by MillerPulse. It was the franchisees’ 23rd straight month of same-store sales increases.
The Georgia deal brings C&P partners Allen Peake and Mike Chumbley back to Fazoli’s. As executives and minority owners of RMS Family Restaurants, they operated 12 Fazoli’s in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. RMS sold its Fazoli’s restaurants in 2000; they eventually were closed.
C&P, based in Macon, Georgia, also is a Captain D’s and Cheddar’s franchisee. It plans to open restaurants in Macon, Warner Robins, Athens, Augusta, Columbus, and Savannah in Georgia.
“We always knew that we wanted to again be part of Fazoli’s, and now the timing is right,” Peake says. “We’ve been watching the evolution of the brand and
we really like the leadership team’s vision.” C&P is looking for sites and expects to open its first unit by the summer of 2016. “Fazoli’s did very well in Georgia, and we expect to be even more successful this time,” adds Peake, who is a state representative. Chumbley also is a community leader, serving on the Byron, Georgia city council for 12 years.
Including C&P, the brand, which was recently recognized by the IFMA COEX Innovation Award, has commitments for 15 new franchised units.
“It’s extremely rare for franchisees to leave a brand and return,” says Carl Howard, Fazoli’s president and CEO. “We appreciate the confidence C&P is placing in Fazoli’s. It says a lot about the strength of the brand and its franchisees.”
In addition to the IFMA award, Franchise Business Review recently named Fazoli’s No. 16 on its list of top 20 most satisfied franchisees in the country. The brand also is ranked No. 2 overall among large national fast-food chains in the prestigious Zagat Survey, while Howard is the No. 1 restaurant executive on the current FastCasual.com Top 100 Movers & Shakers list.
