TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ballard Brands, whose portfolio includes PJ’s Coffee, WOW American Eats, New Orleans Roast, The Original City Diner, Boardhouse Serious Sandwiches and Ole Saint, among many others, recently signed a deal with FranchiseBlast for mobile Brand Consistency and Performance tools. The deal will impact over 155 locations.
“We are headed for rapid growth in 2020,” said Bill DiPaola, Chief Operating Officer of Ballard Brands. “Our field team will be utilizing enhanced Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and quality assurance tools to support our growing units. We’re looking forward to duplicating our most highly successful onboarding procedures for new franchisees as they enter the system.”
It is exciting times for Ballard Brands, as franchising brands dramatically expand their existing footprint. Although growth is fantastic, naturally that also comes with challenges. Managing the scaling effort is what the Executive team at Ballard Brands is focusing on with this investment.
“Putting mobile tools in the hands of field auditors will help them leverage the processes provided by head office,” said Dean Hatzitheodosiou, Sr. Business Development Director of FranchiseBlast with a strong track record of supporting companies through growth. “Benchmarking tools also utilizes the natural spirit of competition among franchisees and helps set everyone up for success.”
Benchmarking reports, measuring top strengths and top locations, for example, helps identify and encourage top performers. Top weaknesses, help drive coaching and training initiatives so that they are evidence-based, rather than improvised.
“FranchiseBlast will be a great partner for us,” said DiPaola. “They use technology to operationalize the processes that we have great confidence in.”
Ballard Brands signed with FranchiseBlast on September 26, 2019 and plans to roll out the technology in subsequent months. FranchiseBlast's experience with the specialized needs of brand aggregators helped differentiate them from other solutions on the market.
About FranchiseBlast: FranchiseBlast's Scorecards and Franchisee Field Audit Apps empower franchisors to achieve brand consistency across locations. The apps can be used by the franchise business coaches during their field visits or directly by franchisees themselves via self-assessments. Their user-friendly apps are used by over 14,500 locations including Focus Brands, Liberty Tax Service and Pita Pit.
About Ballard Brands: Ballard Brands is a hospitality and food service business formed in December 2001 by brothers Paul, Steven, and Scott Ballard after success in operating retail beverage franchises, Smoothie King and PJ’s Coffee, in North Carolina and Louisiana. After starting the company with one restaurant and two coffee house franchises, the company now owns, operates, and manages restaurants and food and beverage concepts in 30 states and three countries.
Their brands collectively total nearly 155 locations in both traditional and non-traditional models and continue to grow. Ballard Brands also operates wholesale brand New Orleans Roast Coffee, which is sold in grocery stores and featured in an array of locations, including restaurants, hotels, airports and convenience stores.
