The ability to tap into a variety of resources including business coaching and franchisee mentorship helped Marvin Cruz and Alejandro Salas-Manzo set themselves up for success and launch their Wetzel’s Pretzels food truck two months ago in Dallas. As the first franchisees to open through the Wetzel’s Access to Equity Program, Cruz and Salas-Manzo said they are prepared to “lay the foundation” in their market and already have their sights set on more trucks and, eventually, brick-and-mortar stores.
“There is a lot of opportunity to expand here in Texas. Our goal is to take over Texas with food trucks,” said Cruz, who is a district service and parts manager at Crown Equipment Corp. He and his brother-in-law had talked for years about going into business together. When they learned about the Access to Equity Program and analyzed the Dallas market, where there are only a handful of Wetzel’s stores, they saw an opportunity to bring what they believe is a unique product to more consumers.
“We don’t compete with the average taco truck,” noted Salas-Manzo. “It’s amazing how folks love the pretzels.”
Salas-Manzo, a U.S. Army veteran who is now a Medicare specialist with heath insurance company Humana, said the support he and Cruz received through the Access to Equity program “was just amazing.” Through the company’s partnership with Operation Hope, which works to address economic inequality, financial illiteracy, social injustice and inequitable access to capital, they were able utilize a range of professional services and get financial counseling.
The program’s mentorship component also meant they were connected to an existing franchisee to gain additional insight.
Jennifer Schuler leads the nearly 400-unit Wetzel’s Pretzels as CEO.
“The whole team, they’ve shown us a lot of love,” said Salas-Manzo as he called out CEO Jennifer Schuler, Operations Project Manager Eric Cecil and Senior Development Manager Brandy Taylor for their support. “They want us to win here in our market.”
In the works for more than two years, Schuler said the Access to Equity Program is meant to serve as a platform within franchising to help women and ethnic minorities create generational wealth. After the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, “we really took a look at our organization and said what can we do to make an impact on social justice,” she said.
As conversations continued and Wetzel’s evaluated its franchisee network, Schuler said the company noted some of its best operators were women and people of color, “but that wasn’t necessarily reflected in our ownership base.” The Access to Equity Program is structured to address barriers to franchise ownership and provide ongoing support to “graduates,” as Schuler called them.
“We looked at what prevents people from becoming owners and what makes people successful owners and we built the program around that,” she said.
Access to capital is a “systemic” problem, continued Schuler—a 2021 Small Business Credit Survey found Black-owned firms were least likely to receive the financing they sought—which prompted Wetzel’s to create partnerships with several lenders, including AmPac Business Capital, Urban Strategies Inc., Capital Impact Partners, Sterns Bank, GetFranchiseCapital.com, National Development Council and CDC Small Business Finance. Those who qualify for the program also receive a 25 percent discount on the initial $40,000 franchise fee, vendor discounts and reduced royalties for the first year.
The company’s partnerships with Operation Hope and Start Small Thing Big provide additional professional and financial counseling services, and franchisees who come through the program are connected to an existing operator, who serves as a mentor.
In addition to Cruz and Salas-Manzo, two more franchisees have completed the full program and are preparing to open their first stores. The company has also approved 32 franchisees for what Schuler called “level one” of the program, which is the fee discount.
The cost to open a Wetzel’s Pretzels store ranges from $167,900 to $683,650. The investment range for a food truck or trailer is $174,525 to $304,200. Wetzel’s also recently debuted its Twisted by Wetzel’s concept, aimed at the millennial and Gen Z consumer with expanded menu options; it has an investment range of $388,500 to $775,650.
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She hopes Access to Equity serves as a blueprint for other franchisors to create their own program. “It’s not enough to just attract a diverse mix to your organization,” she said. Putting structure in place is essential, Schuler continued, as is having a “champion” in the company who can drive the project. For Wetzel’s that person was Senior Development Manager Brandy Taylor.
“She was relentless, and that’s been infectious,” Schuler said.
“We started this for a social justice reason, but it really ends up just being good business.”