Tijuana Flats is back in the franchising game.
The brand relaunched its franchising program this spring following a turbulent stretch marked by bankruptcy, restaurant closures, and a change in ownership. Now, the 30-year-old chain is emerging from that reset period under the recently formed Latitude Food Group.
Latitude was created after &pizza acquired Tijuana Flats last fall, forming a two-brand platform built around shared services and multi-brand franchising. The premise is to preserve the distinct personalities at the core of each concept while combining back-end resources to improve economics and create a more scalable foundation for operators.
Tijuana Flats has taken a winding path through franchising. After beginning to franchise in the early 2000s, the brand halted new development in 2007 following a challenging early period and leaned more heavily on company-operated growth. It resumed a selective push in 2019, but that effort was paused a few years later. The company last filed its FDD in 2023, according to Latitude’s chief development officer Brett Willis.
Tijuana Flats filed for bankruptcy in 2024 and closed dozens of restaurants. Under then-CEO Jim Greco, the company sought to stabilize operations, sharpen its positioning, improve menu offerings, and tighten restaurant-level costs. It emerged from bankruptcy in early 2025 before becoming part of Latitude later that year and officially relaunching franchising this spring.
The immediate plan is twofold: refranchise select company-operated restaurants and pursue new development from both existing and prospective operators. Latitude is offering corporate stores in packages of three to five locations, with opportunities for larger packages, while conversations with existing Tijuana Flats franchisees are also underway.
“Right now it’s heavily corporate owned,” Willis says. “We really want to take that more into a traditional franchising equation, meaning that 80 percent of the restaurants will be franchised and 20 percent will be corporate. We’ve kicked off an initiative alongside restarting our franchising program to sell some of our corporate shops to help spur some of that growth.”
The company aims to sell about 20 restaurants this year—roughly 20 percent of the existing portfolio—and secure another 20 to 40 development commitments through a mix of new-build agreements and deals tied to refranchised locations. Initial development attention is centered on Florida and the broader Southeast, where Tijuana Flats has its deepest brand recognition and operating base.
Latitude does not intend to eliminate its corporate footprint altogether. It expects to retain a core group of company-operated restaurants, particularly around its Orlando headquarters, to test new menu items, technology, and operational initiatives before expanding them throughout the system.
For prospective franchisees, Latitude’s main selling point is the platform behind the brand. While &pizza and Tijuana Flats remain separate consumer-facing concepts, their parent company can consolidate purchasing, marketing, technology, training, HR, creative production, and vendor relationships. The goal is to lower recurring costs, strengthen support, and create more dollars for franchisees to either retain or reinvest in growth.
“At the core, the shared-services model allows us to really leverage economies of scale, which ultimately result in better unit economics,” says CMO Sergio Perez.
That can mean savings on everyday operating expenses or additional resources for revenue-driving initiatives such as loyalty, media, catering, and third-party delivery. Perez says the integration work has already surfaced practical opportunities to eliminate duplicate costs.
“When we acquired Tijuana Flats, we had two of everything—two different POS services, two different printers,” Perez says. “Just the standardization and consolidation of that side of the business certainly creates real dollar savings for franchisees.”
The platform could also give franchisees a path toward portfolio diversification. Willis says there has already been cross-pollination between the concepts, with Tijuana Flats franchisees exploring &pizza and &pizza operators considering Tijuana Flats. For operators, that creates the possibility of adding a different restaurant category while maintaining access to the same broader support system.
Still, Latitude is trying to draw a line between sharing infrastructure and flattening the brands into one another. That is especially important for Tijuana Flats, whose recovery depends in part on restoring the identity that helped it become a regional favorite.
“While we are creating some standardizations and some synergies, it doesn’t mean that we are creating two of the same,” Perez says. “Each brand remains with its own identity and its own brand persona.”
For Tijuana Flats, that identity centers on reclaiming its place in Tex-Mex. Perez says the company recognizes the brand lost ground over time as competition intensified and its positioning became less clear.
“Coming out of bankruptcy and the acquisition, it’s no secret that Flats certainly has had some challenges,” he says. “Our focus is to generate growth and really reclaim our position as the leader in Tex-Mex.”
That effort will become more visible this fall. Tijuana Flats is planning a broader brand relaunch in mid-September, with refreshed creative, uniforms, packaging, and menu work rolling out through the balance of the year. The menu will lean more heavily into traditional Tex-Mex, bolder flavors, and higher spice levels, while the company also explores smaller portions suited to changing consumer preferences, including GLP-1 users. A revamped beverage program will bring margaritas back to the menu as well.
The company is also investing in guest-facing technology and restaurant systems, aiming to make the brand easier to find, engage with, and order from across all channels. That work reflects a changed franchise landscape. Perez says prospective operators today are significantly more sophisticated, moving beyond basic questions about restaurant-level margins to interrogate a brand’s long-term viability in a rapidly shifting economy.
“Now you’re getting a lot more questions around brand stability, technology transformation, GLP-1, and AI technology,” he explains. “Are you future-proofing brands to ensure that they’re keeping up with consumers? They’re thinking about these investments more from a longer-term perspective.”
The company is avoiding the explosive growth traps of the past, opting instead for a steady-state climb, he adds. The goal isn’t to sign “1,000 units in a matter of minutes,” but to achieve sustained growth with a targeted annual unit-count increase of 10 to 20 percent.
“We’re committed to making this work,” Perez says. “We have a clear line of sight as to our growth strategy, and we’re on our way.”
