Graze Craze sells beautifully arranged snacking boards like this fruit-forward offering.
Kerry Sylvester and her business partner had just opened one of their Graze Craze stores, which sell beautifully arranged charcuterie boards and boxes, when they saw a note on the door—someone wanted to buy the business. “It was very dramatic. We called to say, please don’t stick tape on our door,” she says.
Turns out it was from United Franchise Group after a franchisee of Transworld Business Advisors, one of the brands under the umbrella, tipped the franchisor about the Oklahoma City-based chain, then with only three stores.
“Relationships that you have with people is more important to me than anything else. We clicked with everyone really well, and they flew us out to the corporate offices in West Palm Beach. It was kind of like speed-dating,” Sylvester said about United Franchise Group, which has 10 brands and more than 1,600 franchises in 80-plus countries.
United Franchise Group bought a majority stake in Graze Craze’s new franchising arm and began selling units in June 2021. “We thought it was a really cool concept and a good fit for our company,” said Brady Lee, president of Graze Craze and also chief operating officer for the franchisor. “We’re looking forward to growing the brand and opening up more locations, and owning this category of charcuterie.”
Cost of investment is $150,000 to $170,000. About 150 locations are sold and Lee expects about 50 of those to be open by the end of this year.
“It’s a unique business but it’s a simple business,” Lee said. “Kerry will say it’s closer to a flower shop than an actual restaurant. You don’t need a high-end general manager who’s used to managing 50 people.”
Kerry Sylvester
Sylvester grew up in the United Kingdom. “My mom is British and my Dad was in the Air Force, so I was there until I was 13. Charcuterie was something that’s popular over there, so I did eat charcuterie as a child. When I moved to America, when I was 13, it wasn’t really a thing here. I carried that with me and as I grew up, more so in my later years, I started to make charcuterie boards.”
After a stint in the U.S. Air Force and then for 17 years in the legal field, Sylvester would make charcuterie boards for events, for after-work meet-ups or gatherings of friends. It became an expensive endeavor.
“I wanted to make sure my boards—people looked at it and said this is amazing, again and again. I’d go to the grocery store, I knew about cheeses, I knew about cured meats. All of that time, money—I’d spend hundreds of dollars—I just thought to myself, there has to be some way I can just pick this up.” But her research showed no one else was doing it in her area, except for “just one lady,” and you needed to order three days in advance.
Her boss heard about her research and wanted to be a part of it. “There were two years of test kitchens that we did to figure out our ingredients, what sizes, and after that we opened, and then COVID hit,” she recalled. “April 1 of 2020 we opened the first Graze Craze,” with the plan for just a few staff members, no seating, all pickup or delivery. “This was all created to be repeated.”
Prices vary by market. In California, for instance, a large board that feeds 10 people might sell for $185. In Oklahoma, a large goes for $140. In a month or two they plan to add a private label Graze Craze wine that customers can add to their boards.
Sylvester remains in charge of new board creations, which is an art in itself. “Charcuterie is conversational food. You don’t sit down,” she explained, adding an example. “The size of our carrots are cut a certain size for a purpose. If you eat a carrot and it’s this big piece of carrot, you’re crunching and it’s awkward.”
Sylvester retained a minority share in Graze Craze. Asked whether she expects a bigger exit down the road, after UFG grows the brand, she said she’s not thinking about that.
“I’m living in this moment, and I’m enjoying the ride that is happening right now. I never expected it to be so quick. I knew it was going to be big at some point but I didn’t know when that was going to happen.” The partnership with UFG, she said, “put us in a racecar.”