Salsarita’s—the Fresh Mexican Cantina—is pleased to announce Chris Bailey’s addition to the corporate team as vice president of franchise development.
Bailey has more than 25 years of sales experience, the last eight years of which were spent with Bojangles’ Restaurants, Inc., where he was director of franchise development. During his tenure with the popular chicken-and-biscuits chain, Bailey was instrumental in growing the company from 34 franchisees operating 157 restaurants to 85 franchisees operating 316 restaurants.
In addition to helping the chain more than double both the number of franchisees and restaurants, Bailey played a key role in developing a franchise support culture that resulted in Bojangles’ having one of the most successful franchise systems in the quick-serve segment.
In June 2011, franchising industry veteran Phil Friedman acquired Salsarita’s and spent the past year reorganizing the brand by improving internal systems, repositioning the brand, and strengthening Salsaritas’ sales-to-investment ratio.
“In addition to our rebranding initiatives at Salsarita’s, we also invested countless hours and resources building an exceptional franchise support team,” Friedman says. “Now that we possess the talent needed to provide excellent support, Chris is going to lead our effort to find multiunit operations groups that share our vision for success. We are fortunate to have him on the team.”
Salsarita’s expects to have at least two or three new franchise agreements signed before the end of 2012, with long-range projections calling for more than 300 locations nationwide over the next several years.
Salsaritas’ growth focus is on increasing penetration in existing markets as well as further growth opportunities at non-traditional restaurants such as universities, airports, businesses, and others.
Growth is expected to come from existing franchisees, as well as experienced multiunit developers and/or investment groups who have at least one partner with multiunit experience that can commit to opening a minimum of three to five restaurants in a designated territory.
