During its first quarter, full-service family restaurant franchise Huddle House experienced strong franchise growth, signing agreements for 15 new restaurants across Georgia, Illinois, New York, Texas and Virginia. In addition, many current and new Huddle House franchise owners are purchasing existing locations to remodel and re-open with the company’s refreshed prototype design. The eight franchise deals for new Huddle House locations will result in ten new restaurants in Long Island in New York, one new restaurant in Hahira in Georgia, one in Mount Vernon in Illinois, one in Forney in Texas and one each in Newport News and Virginia Beach, both in Virginia. In addition, the company reports that several more are in the pipeline to be announced in the near future. With over 380 locations, the growing chain attributes much of the recent interest in the brand to a new ‘Evolution’ prototype introduced last year, which features a signature tower entrance, plush seating, contemporary furniture and lighting. Those remodeled locations are experiencing significant comparable sales increases. Currently, 21 percent of the Huddle House franchise system has the new Evolution look. With about $2.5-million set aside to encourage other franchisees, the chain expects 30 percent of the system to be remodeled and the entire chain by 2019. Based in Atlanta, the Huddle House features a variety of comfort food items, including signature Big House breakfast and sandwich platters and favorites such as country fried steak with green beans and marinated grilled chicken with sweet potato fries. Typically open 24-hours, Huddle House serves breakfast, lunch and dinner all day. Huddle House is a flexible concept that can be adapted for most markets targeting areas with a minimum population of 12,000. The restaurants locate in freestanding units, travel centers off busy interstates, end caps in strip malls and shopping centers. The company can locate with convenience stores as well as in casinos and hotels that need 24-hour locations. Freestanding locations require a lot size of at least 25,000 square feet and lease premises in centers and plazas are a minimum of 2400 square feet.
CATEGORY: Full Service Family restaurant, 24/8
Chain Name: Huddle House
Company Name: Huddle House Inc.
Street Address: 5901 Peachtree-Dunwoody, Suite B450, Atlanta, Georgia 30328
Tel: 770/325-1300 & 800/868-5700 Fax:
Email: Website: www.huddlehouse.com & www.huddlehousefranchising.com
Menu Specialty: A variety of comfort food items, including signature Big House breakfast and sandwich platters and favorites such as country fried steak with green beans and marinated grilled chicken with sweet potato fries. Typically open 24-hours, Huddle House serves breakfast, lunch and dinner all day.
Introduced: 1964 by John Sparks. Franchising since 1966.
No. of Locations: Over 380 restaurants in 21 states throughout the Southeast, Central, Midwest and Southwest United States.
Areas of Operation: Southeast, Central, Midwest and Southwest United States.
Types of Location: Freestanding, travel centers, center and plaza end caps, with c-stores, hotels, casinos, etc.
BusinessType (corp., franchise, jv): Franchise
Size Req’d: Minimum 25,000 sq ft lot size for freestanding, minimum 2400 sq.ft. for lease space in center, plaza, etc.
Special Requirements (patio, drive-thru, etc): Minimum 12,000 people within five-mile radius, minimum 12,000 daily traffic count at intersection or major highway, minimum daily traffic 24,000 on interstates, WalMart, Kmart, Lowes, Target, etc within one mile.
Contact Name: Michael Abt – CEO
Tom Cossuto – CFO
Tyrone Counts – COO
Jonathan E. Benjamin – Chief Development Officer (770/325-1331 )
Alison Glenn Delaney – Chief Marketing Officer
Melissa Rothring – General Counsel
Jim Carr – Sr. Director, Franchise Development (West of Mississippi 214/649-9839 jcarr@huddlehouse.com)
Billy Evans – Director, Franchise Development (NE of Mississippi 404/372-5633 bevans@huddlehouse.com)
Jennifer Nolan – Director, Franchise Development (SE of Mississippi 678/779-1789 jnolan@huddlehouse.com)
Brian Kendrick – Director, Development Services
Trey Ziegler – Sr. Director, Franchise Operations
Jeremy Lee – Sr. Director, Field Marketing
Mike Mann – Director, Field Marketing
Jocelyn Miller – Director, Training
Nathan Ballard – Sr. Vice President, Distribution Center
Heather Ballard – Sr. Director, Supply Chain
REAL ESTATE REPRESENTATIVES:
FRANCHISE REPRESENTATIVES:
PARENT COMPANY: Sentinel Capital Partners, 330 Madison Ave., 27th Floor, New York, NY 10017 (tel-212/688-3100 fx-212/688-6513 email- info@sentinelpartners.com )
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Last Report: Restaurant & QSR Expansion Report #114 Last Update:
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