Franchisee profitability is top of mind at Sandwich Chefs, the premium lunchtime chain which takes inspiration from delicious deli sandwiches made-to-order.

Marketing, the costs of goods, and menu choices are key to delivering the best food at the best price to taste-driven customers.

Sandwich Chefs is so committed to ensuring the best options are available, it involves franchisees in the fine-tuning process.

Franchisee feedback helps change agendas

Take the focus on brilliant food choices…every quarter Sandwich Chefs’ operations team are out in the market conducting research on competitors’ menus. The teams visits premium sandwich outlets and boutique sandwich shops, as well as national chains.

The findings can have a real impact on franchisee’s bottom line.

Cameron Noble, marketing manager, says “Last year we learned we had the biggest sandwich, so we reduced our sandwich size by about 20 per cent and increased the price by 20 per cent. 

“That saved about 40 per cent for our franchisees and had very little impact on consumers.”

The team then meets with a group of franchisees to play around with the ideas, many of which come from franchisees. 

Every six months franchisees vote for four or five fellow franchisees to join a menu-development committee which the franchisor then approves.

“The rule is franchisees cannot serve on the committee twice. That way we get a fantastic representation from across the network.”

The high-performing individuals are chosen from a cross-section of the community – regional and metro locations, a high turnover and COGS, different format stores and servicing different customers. 

“We’ve found that what works in South Yarra doesn’t work in Wagga Wagga,” says Cameron.

“Our head office team is out in stores everyday. We get to see what our stores are doing, we look at our data all the time. We know what’s working.”

A laser focus on trends

While there is a national approach to the menu which means underperforming items are dropped, occasionally the rip-roaring success of such an item at a single store will surprise the team. The business’ approach is to customise menus for local tastes to keep driving franchisee profitability, so a store’s best seller will stay on the menu board.

The menu development is part data driven, and part informed by the wider hospitality trends. 

“We keep a laser focus on trends,” says Cameron. “In 2020 everyone was taking paninis off the menu. More recently the trend has been for gourmet bread rather than wraps. Now we have Laurent Bakeries providing artisanal bread for premium sandwiches. The constant vigilance of costs is also important for Sandwich Chefs.

“Last year we did a major change to try and drive volume. We overhauled our costs of goods sold (COGS) and reduced prices for featured products.”

Franchisees’ COGS dropped a few percentage points as a result.

Once the volume drive achieved its goals, Sandwich Chef swiftly returned prices to a long term sustainable level.

The team nurtured supplier relationships during Covid, introducing monthly meet-ups to keep on top of continual changes.

“We have really strong relationships with all our suppliers, and that gives us room to negotiate and more freedom to explore different products and pricing.”

Once again, high performing franchisees play their part in ensuring viability by trialling new products before network-wide rollout. 

And when it comes to the crucial art of smart marketing, outstanding franchisees lead the way.

Franchisee engagement in marketing

Cameron says “I put together an annual marketing plan and meet with the operations team, and two or three top franchisees voted in by their peers.

“A lot of our marketing campaigns have come from local area marketing in high-performing stores. These franchisees are really engaged with marketing so when we add their programs in to a national campaign, other franchisees have buy-in.”

The franchisee who originated the campaign can demonstrate with hard numbers how much it boosted their business.

The national campaigns are a mix of what worked well already and successful local area marketing campaigns.

Cameron and his team help create these neighbourhood promotions.

“I have a planning session every two to three months; half a day on the franchisee’s marketing campaign.”

A review of upcoming activities in the shopping centre and wider community leads to a program for online and instore promotions.

The head office creates the artwork for the franchisee to run for the selected three months.

Cameron keeps an eagle eye on campaign performance, to ensure franchisees are maximising their promotional potential. 

“We have key performance indicators and if something doesn’t work, we remove it and try something else.”

Leveraging brand power

Success on all these fronts – food, costs and marketing – is a result of leveraging brand power and local knowledge.

“I can read the numbers but franchisees know their stores the most. They know what people are looking for,” says Cameron.

“When it comes to managing franchisees’ profitability, keeping costs down and boosting sales go hand in hand. We are constantly looking at how can we grow individual franchisees’ stores, and grow nationally as a group.”

Find out more about the brand here.