Regional to Global EXPANSION
franchising , it ’ s really success begets success : as more units are on the ground , it will attract people . There ’ s a significant demand , not only in China but a lot of other countries , for more American brands . Our approach is to give a little more of a share to the local franchisee than maybe the average chain . By doing so , it gives more of an upside , but also puts us in a position where we may not have to offer as much direct support as some other chains do .
FDF : What are your plans for domestic growth ? Are you focusing more on domestic or international growth overall ? MP : At this point it ’ s really still more of a domestic focus for us , but the international is on the radar and we ’ re actively pursuing it . But we ’ re in the midst of a nice little boom for us – 132 units right now , with about 30 in the pipeline . What we ’ ve forecast is to do about 25 stores a year going forward . With that , we feel the momentum and things are escalating . We ’ re still predominately in Texas , but Oklahoma ’ s growing , South Carolina has had significant growth in the last couple of years with more in the pipeline , and we ’ re looking to bridge the gap by looking into Mississippi and Alabama taking us from what was once a Texas-based chain to a Southeast regional chain . Again , success begets success in Franchising .
One other piece that ties in with the international growth and bridges the two : we just closed on our first EB-5 transaction . There ’ s a great deal of interest in China , so it ’ s a marketing advantage for us to have an office in Shanghai and a restaurant in Shanghai – it ’ s a little bit of added comfort , and makes it so it ’ s not so unknown .
FDF : That way potential investors can kind of get a firsthand look at it ? MP : Yes – and again , the menu ’ s a little different , and it ’ s not a freestanding unit with drive-thru like they would find here . But at least it ’ s some familiarity and it ’ s tangible , so the concept becomes tangible to them . So that ’ s a nice tie-in . We anticipate doing a significant number of EB-5 deals , which would be corporately operated . So we have several of those in the pipeline in addition to an escalating demand and more interest .
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