When Aaron Johnson was looking to open a business of his own after years on the corporate side of restaurants, a previous connection came into play.
Johnson, who most recently was regional vice president at MOD Pizza, and Max Sheets, the founder of Chick N Max, overlapped at Smashburger, where Sheets was senior vice president of development and Johnson was a regional director of operations. Wanting to move on and run his own place, Johnson began looking and explored several different concepts.
One of them was Chick N Max, which Sheets founded in 2017 and Johnson now plans to bring to the Houston area with 25 units. While chicken is a saturated segment, Sheets said Chick N Max taps into a niche in the market.
“What we’ve done is come up with an array of better chicken sandwiches,” Sheets said. “We have a global flavor profile and we do that with a platform of fried or almond wood-smoked chicken.”
Chick N Max franchisee Aaron Johnson.
The fried chicken is limited to clipped tenders, while the majority of the menu is smoked, setting itself apart from others in the industry, Sheets said. It was the menu that helped Johnson get on board with becoming a franchisee.
“I visited a Chick N Max, it was really nice and I already knew Max, and then I tried the food,” Johnson said. “I said, ‘it’s done, this is the place.’ I also wanted to bring a brand from scratch to Texas. I’d had a lot of luck starting in new cities and it’s exciting, it’s what I wanted to do.”
In addition to his work at Smashburger and MOD Pizza, Johnson was an area director at Bennigan’s for 15 years early in his career. Sheets said Johnson’s background and how he performed at Smashburger makes him an ideal candidate for a franchisee.
“I got to know Aaron through all of my travels and working with the operations people, and he just has a pedigree that’s second to none,” Sheets said. Texas, he added, is a market with plenty of potential for the Kansas-based brand.
“We have a southern-bent to our menu and Houston is a dynamic market,” Sheets said. “There’s always something happening there. It’s a growing market and people down there eat a lot of chicken, and will embrace what we’re doing. We’re going to be bringing something different to there from what already exists.”
Chick N Max founder Max Sheets.
“The diversity of the city is one of the things we’re all proud of and this brand appeals to every single demographic,” said Johnson, who lives in the area. “Knowing the trade areas like the back of my hand, I know exactly where I can go with this.”
Along with the Houston expansion, Chick N Max signed a three-unit deal in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, with Brad and Max Reinke, and an area development agreement with Rusty Rathbun’s Leghorn Development for 25 locations throughout Kansas. Chick N Max has three company-owned units open in the Wichita area.
“We’re going to continue to grow at a calculated pace,” Sheets said. “We’re not out to sign everyone, or a whole bunch of franchisees. We’re going to grow slow and steady with operators.”