Franchisee organization Doherty Enterprises has a wide view of the restaurant industry.
The company, which has been around since 1985, has footholds in fast food, fast casual, and casual dining with roughly 160 restaurants across Applebee’s, Panera, Wendy’s, JINYA Ramen Bar, Chevys Fresh Mex, and its own concepts, The Shannon Rose Irish Pub and Spuntino Wine Bar & Italian Tapas.
Given this diverse perspective, QSR magazine recently sat down with president and COO Tim Doherty to talk about how the franchisee group is working through changing consumer habits, economic pressures, and increased competition in the food and beverage space.
What do you make of the current QSR environment?
I think that the QSR environment in general has some issues and concerns that we need to work through, but if you have a great brand and great leaders in the brand, plus great franchisees, I think that brand, and in our case, Wendy’s, will always be successful. Ultimately, it is a collaboration between the franchisor and the franchisee. The franchisor works to develop a strategy to drive business, hopefully, and when it works well in my experience, the franchisee supports them and pushes back and has hard conversations and then ultimately the franchisee’s responsibility is to be the best operator that they can be. And I’m very proud of what my team does every day to wow every guest, every time.
What would you say have been the most intense challenges or the ones that are front of your mind right now when running the QSR businesses?
I think that the biggest issue currently is the macroeconomic environment. I think that’s a real issue and people are concerned about their take home pay and them and their families being able to make it through the week. In addition to that, I think that there has been a value perception change that QSR in general is struggling with. If you look at the Applebee’s of the world with 2 for $25 or the Chili’s with 3 for Me, you really have great value in some of their offerings. And I think that the QSR brand, Wendy’s in our case, needs to focus on how we bring value and experience to our guests to drive that.
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What do you make of all these value deals flooding the market and how hard that makes it to operate?
I’ll answer it this way. As you frame the question, you use value for what I consider a discount. I don’t think value is just the price of food and so any brand or any segment in the restaurant industry needs to figure out what that brand drives in terms of “worth it” value—why I want to go to Wendy’s versus some other restaurant in the QSR space or some other restaurant in fast casual or casual dining. And that is the proposition. It’s not just price. Price is a portion of it, but it is, why do I want to go to you for price, for food, for experience, and that’s how I perceive that. How we do that in my mind is menu engineering to make sure that we can price a deal at a compelling price where it drives traffic, but at the same time and just as importantly, if not more so, is how can we drive an experience that you want to get off the couch and come to our restaurants because you know that we will deliver 100 percent of the time on the experience you’re looking for.
Costs…are they still hard to get a handle on or have they stabilized?
It’s only becoming harder to operate within the restaurant industry because of costs or other factors, but in my mind that provides opportunity to myself and our company. Because if we can be smarter, be better operators, it provides you opportunity to grow and build brand loyalty and ultimately build long-term status. So yes, operating today is not easier than it was a year ago or five years ago, but it’s part of the business that you need to manage through. And the people who are focused on the right things within this industry, will always be successful.
Where are you guys are at in the development process? Have you guys dealt with any permitting delays, construction delays, or higher construction costs?
We currently have four or five restaurants in construction right now with a number of leases that we have signed already, and we will go throughout 2026 and 2027. One of our goals within our company is to always be growing all of our brands to provide opportunities to our people so that they can grow within Doherty Enterprises, but also to serve our guests in communities that we’re not currently in. You need to be smart around development. You need to make sure that you choose the right locations for the right brands.
I may not build an Applebee’s where I build a Panera Bread or a Wendy’s or vice versa, but you need to have a key understanding of the brand, and then you have to have a key understanding of the neighborhood and then you need to be smart enough to make a deal that makes sense for your business. And you have to build the right building at the right cost too so that you can receive a return on your investment. Now I think Doherty Enterprises, one of our unique things is that we are local to New York and New Jersey. We operate 159 restaurants and 174 units across all of our brands all within New York and New Jersey. That gives us comfort. Why I think that’s a competitive advantage is because we are local. We know every neighborhood and every community throughout the areas where we operate, and that gives us opportunity because we’re so connected with our communities.
Put in perspective to me the benefits of operating in different sectors. What kind of different view or different perspective that gives you? How much does that help you?
I think it offers a couple of things. One is when we become a franchisee of a brand, it starts with the brand. Do we love the brand? Does it offer something unique and special? That’s why we became a franchisee of Applebees, Panera, and Wendy’s and JINYA. Now Applebee’s is all around the neighborhood. Doherty Enterprises believes in supporting our communities. We believe we will be successful long term because we are connected to the communities that we operate in. Panera Bread is all around the artisan bread and the fact that it is a unique brand within the fast-casual segment.
With regard to Wendy’s, we love the quality hamburger, and we love the quality hamburger space and we think that Wendy’s has become the No. 2 player in QSR [burgers] because of their focus on quality. I like being across all segments within the industry from a diversification standpoint. That’s a strategy that’s already in the process employed to make sure that we have restaurants in all three major segments of the industry. And then finally it gives us an opportunity to work with a lot of great executives and understand the perspectives, which helps formulate ideas internally and externally on how we can do an even better job.
How are you seeing consumers behave differently with QSR, fast casual, and casual dining? Is one hurt more than the other?
I think that Applebee’s, Panera, and Wendy’s have all been extremely successful brands over the course of many decades because they appeal to a large audience. People eat Applebee’s-style food every day of their life, same as in Panera, same as Wendy’s. That has been key to our success from my point of view. Separate from that, each brand appeals to a slightly different demographic and as such, we market to people who love those brands in different fashion. So, sometimes there are challenges either on a macroeconomic side or strategy side as you execute that strategy over the course of time. But we’ve been very fortunate and continue to be very fortunate because we’ve got great brands, great strategy, and I feel very confident about the direction of all three of those major brands as we move forward.
You were mentioning earlier about Applebee’s and Chili’s, the value deals that they have. Does it seem like casual dining is starting to maybe steal some market share from QSR?
I think that Applebee’s and Chili’s and some other casual-dining restaurants have been very astute in how they built their strategy in terms of developing a value proposition, which has appealed to a very broad audience. Historically, QSR offers the most discounted price in terms of cost in the restaurant industry. I think that the strategy that casual dining has employed makes a hell of a lot of sense and has driven significant traffic to them. And so ultimately, I think they’ve been very successful. Now I’m also privy to the strategy that Wendy’s is employing and Panera is employing and I’m very positive about the direction of those brands as well. So I think ultimately it is a fight for market share across any segment of the restaurant industry. And if you align with the right brands and you support the franchisor—the executives at the franchisor—all of these brands can be and will be successful long term.
Any final thoughts?
We have been a franchisee of various brands going back to 1985, and we have been successful as a brand because of our culture, in my opinion. We have aligned with great brands such as Applebee’s, Panera, and Wendy’s, but we have been so successful on the operation side and the execution side because of our passion for culture, and that comes down to our vision, which is to be the best foodservice company in the communities that we serve and wow every guest every time, to wow our people, to wow our communities, to wow our suppliers. And if we do that, we’ll wow our sales and profits. And “OK” is not a wow. And I believe that we have been so successful for 40 years in this industry in the New York, New Jersey metro area because we have so many people who understand what that means, believe in the culture, and execute it every single day across all of the brands that we’re involved with.
