Eagle Boys operates a total turn key operation and the vast majority of stores operate on leased properties.

Franchise opportunities: The pizza chain identifies the ideal location, negotiates the leasing agreement and completes store fitout for the franchisee.

There are three key things Frank Day, property manager at Eagle Boys Pizza considers.

“Gone are the days when you rely on gut feel. What you really need is user-friendly data at your fingertips. We use a geo-demographic web-based tool to analyse an area to see if it is viable. We break an area down to things like household numbers, income and competition analysis. From this we can see if there is an opportunity there for us.”

The next step is to narrow the leasing options using Google Earth and Google Streetview, along with leasing information and the company’s own database. “This means you don’t have to leave your desk, can go through sites, plot competition, drive times, see if there is parking and eliminate a lot of sites before you leave the office and your site visits are much more productive,” explains Day.

Finally he conducts a hands-on evaluation. “I physically look at the site, walk the street, look at the other shops in the area, drive the area, drive to the competition, and talk to locals to get some terrific honest information about a site.”

Eagle Boys has a property selection criteria checklist for such things as signage, parking, tenancies, and location and each criteria is weighted.

“When I visit a site I go through and score each criteria. If the location doesn’t get a particular score, I walk away from it. I’m not going to put our franchisees in a position where they are in an inferior site. Location is everything – particularly in business. We’ve walked away from areas because we simply couldn’t find the location we know we needed to succeed.”