Cousins Maine Lobster franchisees and brothers Yunus and Thameem Shahul recently signed an expansion deal with the brand to open five food trucks and two restaurants in the Chicago area.
Yunus Shahul remembers clearly the day he first learned about Cousins Maine Lobster. The year was 2018 and he worked in a food truck for a vegetarian Indian food company at the time.
“I was at a New York food truck event and I saw this beautiful black truck called Cousins Maine Lobster parked there,” recalled Shahul, “and what I saw was a long line of people waiting to place their orders at the truck after closing time at 5 p.m. I walked around the truck, to try and understand what the excitement was all about.”
Seeing the hype, Shahul inquired online and, “not long after that agreed to put a Cousins food truck in Connecticut,” he said. Cousins sells lobster grilled cheese, lobster tacos, New England clam chowder along with its most popular item, its signature lobster roll,
With nine Cousins food trucks operating in Connecticut, New York, Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., Yunus Shahul and his brother Thameem Shahul are one of Cousins Maine Lobster’s most successful multi-unit franchisees. The brothers signed a deal recently to add seven units in the Chicago area. The Shahuls will open five food trucks and two brick-and-mortar restaurants starting early next year.
Yunus Shahul looks back on the day he first discovered Cousins Maine Lobster as the turning point in his and his brother’s business careers. Up until then he was a struggling entrepreneur, putting in long days working near his home in Long Island, New York.
“My India food truck wasn’t making much money,” said Yunus Shahul, who immigrated from South India in 2005,
The Shahuls still work long hours, but they now have 73 full-time employees, including 10 in their corporate offices on Long Island to support their growing franchise business.
They are also reporting big profits. Average unit volume for the Shahul’s New York trucks is higher than $1.5 million and their best-performing truck made $2 million. Their newer markets are making more than $1.1 million, Yunus Shahul said. “We really couldn’t be more pleased,” he said.
A key to their franchising success was partnering with a hot brand that is run well, has name recognition and serves quality seafood in its trucks and restaurants, said Shahul.
“It’s all about people’s cravings for the freshest and tastiest lobster, and we do that every day, six days a week,” said Yunus Shahul. He opened his first Cousins food truck in Connecticut in 2018 and then opened another in Midtown Manhattan the following year.
Cousins Maine Lobster, which started with a food truck in Los Angeles, first earned national exposure when founders and cousins Jim Tselikis and Sabin Lomac struck a partnership deal with investor Barbara Corcoran on “Shark Tank” in 2014.
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Tselikis and Lomac asked the “sharks” for $55,000 in exchange for 5 percent of the company, specifically targeting Corcoran because of her history with food industry investments. The cousins walked away with a $55,000 investment from Corcoran for 15 percent equity in the business.
Since then, Cousins has experienced rapid national growth. The company has about 60 units across the U.S., with more than 50 food trucks in 16 states and nine brick-and-mortar restaurants in seven states. Cousins Maine Lobster restaurants offer expanded menus with items like whole-belly fried clams and fish and chips.
The initial investment range for a Cousins Maine Lobster franchise is $187,150 to $492,850, according to the company’s franchise disclosure document.
Yumus Shahul believes Chicago will bring the same success for them as the Northeast: “I have no doubt that people in Chicago will have the same craving for our lobster, too, very soon.”