Fifteen years ago, Teriyaki Madness, the fast-growing teriyaki concept in North America with almost 130 shops in the U.S., Canada and Mexico was just an up-and-comer, surprisingly thriving in the 2008 recession and making a name for itself with seven Teriyaki Shops in Las Vegas. Fast forward to 2023, and the brand has rocket-ship-type growth, thriving on the heels of a pandemic and continuing to grow despite rumored economic uncertainties. Kicking off this year, the concept’s franchisees have 39 signed leases and are actively searching for another 45 for the year. Teriyaki Madness has signed seventeen additional franchise agreements throughout the United States. Next quarter, another 15 shops are set to open, bringing the concept’s footprint to nearly 150 locations, with another 70 owners, many with multiple shops in progress, currently in various phases of site selection and construction.
“We already have leases signed and construction started to have our best growth year ever,” explained Michael Haith, CEO. “Much of that is built on the expansion of current franchisees and referrals from franchisees to their friends and family. There’s an incredible upwelling of internal growth, with many owners signing multiple leases at a time, and that’s always been our mission: to provide opportunity for franchisees to build as large a business as they can envision by ensuring profitability for the franchisees so they can reinvest and scale up.”
In the first quarter, the brand opened shops in New York City; Cypress, Texas; Fort Collins, Colorado and Longview, Texas, and signed deals for a total of 17 new shops. Existing shops (open for 12 or more months) also saw a notable 3.97% year-over-year increase in Q1 AUVs (Average Unit Volume), plus a 2.2% year-over-year increase in Q1 SSS (Same Store Sales), a clear representation of the initiatives by the brand and the reason Teriyaki Madness franchisees continue to aggressively grow their businesses in partnership with the franchisor.
“We’re thrilled that our franchisees are happy and that they want to expand. They see that we’re heading in the right direction and that there’s truly a good partnership among the Teriyaki Madness community,” Haith said. “It’s incredibly satisfying and rewarding to watch folks expand and be able to build a business that can support their family and build a legacy.”
However, the brand’s strength goes far beyond the numbers, and the franchisees are just as enthusiastic to tell their stories.
At the start of the year, Haith began working on a podcast that will showcase current franchisees’ experiences, learning lessons and other best practices.
“It’s a core belief of our culture that the Teriyaki Madness franchisees learn from each other through the franchisor’s facilitation; that’s one of our primary roles,” he said.
>Teriyaki Madness has also been working diligently to bring new innovations to the space, further developing its best-in-class technology by partnering with Flybuy which provides advanced location awareness to in-shop pick-up, third-party delivery drivers and curbside guests.
Teriyaki Madness provides made-to-order, fully customizable bowls, which makes a traditional drive-thru model difficult. However, by integrating with Flybuy, the concept will soon offer fully-optimized curbside and in-shop pickup that will be even faster and more efficient than a drive-thru.
“With Flybuy, shops know when a customer is a few minutes away and when they’ve pulled up. For curbside customers, our team will even know exactly where they are located in the parking lot,” explained Jodi Boyce, chief marketing officer at Teriyaki Madness. “Our vision is to be faster than a drive-thru – waiting on the curb, bag in hand, as soon as the customer pulls up.”
There is also more thorough customer communication with Flybuy via mobile app push notifications, which allows the customer to have a more accurate read on when their food is, or will be, ready. Teriyaki Madness is currently piloting Flybuy integration in eight Colorado shops with plans to launch the program system-wide in mid-July.
Looking to the remainder of the year, the brand is targeting the greater San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, and Dallas areas, as well as northern New Jersey up through Massachusetts, for further expansion.
As it works to foster new, faster guest offerings and enhanced franchisee connection, Teriyaki Madness is well on its way to having an unBOWLievable 2023.
Source: Franchising.com
