| Franchisor: Jim Amos Jr. of Tasti D?Lite, a
dairy?based frozen dessert company Founded in: 1987 Franchising since: 2008 The truth is, when we [the private equity firm SPG Partners] went in to look at this business, I wasn’t very optimistic. But after some initial due diligence, it became very apparent that Tasti D?Lite stood out as an extraordinary New York concept. It’s been around for more than 20 years and grew organically with little to no advertising or marketing. That makes the product very unique. It was clearly thriving in one of the most complex retail environments in the country. And it was satisfying one of the most sophisticated and demanding consumer bases in the world. Frankly, franchising is the only vehicle that would enable us to convert a concept like Tasti D?Lite into both a national and an international brand. We bought the company in 2007 and spent about a year and a half working on trademarks, logos, service marks, store design and conducting focus groups all over the country??in Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas and New York??just to make sure that we understood the brand’s impact and its ability to be scaled outside of New York City.
At the same time, it was challenging to create a compelling program that would encourage the original licensees to convert to the franchise relaionship. We offered the franchise opportunity to 44 licensees and 36 of them converted. That’s not too bad. I have confidence that the small?business community, and business?format franchising specifically, will be the primary factor that will help heal our economy, improve it and move it forward. ??As told to Sara Wilson |
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