Potbelly is looking to franchising as their next growth avenue, and has been hiring teams of people to do just that.
Potbelly is changing its growth strategy as the sandwich chain looks to expand via franchising after a focus for many years on developing company locations.
CEO Bob Wright joined the company in July 2020 after working at other restaurant concepts including Wendy’s, where he was executive vice president and chief operations officer.
“Potbelly in particular is a brand that I’ve had a great affinity for a very long time,” said Wright. “Potbelly is a uniquely positioned and uniquely strong brand.”
When he started with Potbelly, Wright was already thinking of ways to improve the brand and help it grow. While the company is widespread with 400-plus locations across the United States, more than 350 of them are corporate stores.
Related: New York Deal Marks Beginning of Potbelly’s Refranchising Effort
As part of its “five-pillar strategy,” as Wright dubbed it, the Potbelly team has been preparing for a franchise push since late 2020. This included putting together new marketing strategies and hiring people with experience in franchising.
“There’s deep customer love for Potbelly and it shows up in all the metrics that we look at,” said Wright. “The big pillar is pivoting towards franchise growth.”
Lynette McKee is Potbelly’s new senior VP of franchising.
That’s where the new hires come in. Lynette McKee, senior vice president of franchising, and Patrick Walsh, chief people officer, were announced today as the newest members of the senior leadership team.
McKee’s responsibilities will include franchisee recruitment and vetting, and she will oversee franchise sales. Since 2012 she’s operated her own consulting firm, McKeeCo Services, with a focus on franchising and business development, and she’s held similar roles with Checkers Drive-in, Burger King and Dunkin’.
“Lynette is a person that I’ve known for a long time and somebody I trust to take our franchising processes and our franchising efforts to the next level,” said Wright.
Potbelly’s chief development officer, Larry Strain, will continue to support the brand and its franchisees in market planning, brokerage services and other areas through his market development advisory firm, Restaurant Development Experts.
As chief people officer, Walsh will develop and maintain Potbelly’s culture from top to bottom. That includes helping integrate the new digital options the company is offering, creating training programs for staff and creating a support network for the franchisees. He comes to the brand from manufacturing and supply company Oil-Dri Corporation of America, where he was head of human resources.
Patrick Walsh is the new chief people officer at Potbelly.
The teams reporting to McKee and Walsh were formed in recent years, noted Wright. “The message with these hires is as we continue to grow, we will continue to invest in strong leaders with specialized responsibilities to keep up with that growth,” he said. “Franchisees are going to look to a strong franchisor for the systems to apply to their organization.”
Over the next decade, Potbelly will focus exclusively on franchise expansion. When Wright joined the company in 2020, there were 24 franchisees who combined to own fewer than 50 units. Company restaurants, meanwhile, will serve as pilot stores for new strategies, products, technology and anything else that will impact franchisees.
“Franchisees evaluate the type of company culture that they step into,” said Wright. “They do business with people they like to do business with.”