Penn Station East Coast Subs, the fast-casual restaurant known for its grilled, made-to-order sub sandwiches, hand-squeezed lemonade and fresh-cut fries, has announced the addition of Ammy Harrison as Vice President of Development and Strategy.
“Penn Station has a lot to offer potential franchisees with our strong level unit economics, brand longevity and an unparalleled focus on return on investment for franchisees,” says Craig Dunaway, president of Penn Station. “With the help and development experience of Ammy, we fully expect to grow quickly in new and existing markets with multi-unit and multi-brand franchisees. Ammy is filling a new key position that we created to spark aggressive growth in the next five years.”
Harrison was previously director of new business development at Papa John’s. During her 20-year tenure at Papa John’s, she served in various franchise development roles, including international franchise sales, U.S. traditional franchise business development and North America non-traditional business development. She has extensive experience with franchisee recruitment and overseeing the store opening process.
“Leading development and strategy at Penn Station will allow me to use my industry experience to grow the brand to the next level,” Harrison says. “I am thrilled to be a part of Penn Station, which has such a strong commitment to product quality, operational simplicity and franchisee success. This brand has huge growth potential, which is very exciting. Many restaurant operators, including multi-concept franchisees, will find adding Penn Station to their existing business portfolio very attractive.”
Before the addition of Harrison, Penn Station planned to open 12 to 15 restaurants in 2021.
“With the addition of our new executive team member, we now fully expect to grow well above our conservative projections in 2021 and beyond,” Dunaway says. “We hope to sign a mix of single and multi-unit deals with new and existing franchisees for a total of at least 20 new units in 2021, setting the tone for the next several years of rapid growth.”
The brand will focus on building out available territories throughout the Midwest, specifically targeting Kansas City, Kansas; Omaha, Nebraska; Detroit and Grand Rapids, Michigan; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Richmond, Virginia; Knoxville, Tennessee; Cleveland, Canton, Akron and Youngstown, Ohio; and Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh, North Carolina.
