Angry Chickz: How a Compelling Story and Emphasis on Franchisee Support Led to Brand Expansion

In this episode of “Meet the Zor,” Nick Powills, publisher of 1851 Franchise, interviewed Mike LaRue, vice president of franchise development of Angry Chickz. 

Throughout the podcast, the two discussed the world of franchising with a focus on the challenges and nuances within the industry. LaRue first stumbled into franchising through an unexpected opportunity at Rockin Baja Lobster. He went to the restaurant and was intrigued by the concept, so decided to have a look at the brand online.

“Baja Lobster was looking for a franchise development person — and, honestly, I had no idea what that meant. I wasn't looking to get into restaurants, but my curiosity just enticed me to click on the ad and it was talking about franchising, franchise development, dealing with entrepreneurs and that was it,” LaRue said.

LaRue jumped into the franchise world, and learned a lot of lessons quickly. Reflecting on his initial years in franchise sales, LaRue emphasized the importance of understanding the pitfalls and negative perceptions surrounding franchising while highlighting the need for a shift towards responsible franchising, especially in providing transparency for franchisees.

“If you go in and say, ‘We've sold 400 franchises in the last like five months,’ what does that actually mean?” LaRue said. “A lot of times it's for press. You could say, ‘We sold 400 units of development,’ and is that 50 franchisees that are each developing four units or is that five franchisee groups who are doing massive territories? You never know. You never  get those details. Then it goes back to, ‘Okay, well how are you going to support these people?’”

LaRue and Powills critiqued the prevailing culture of franchising, where the focus often lies on selling franchises without adequate consideration for support and operational realities. Powills took a similar stance on how franchises should approach transparency and make plans to responsibly support their franchisees, offering some guidance to those who are looking to invest.

“When you hear a brand talk about how many deals they've sold, make sure that aligns properly and responsibly back to the number of individuals that it was sold to,” Powills said, “so they can scale the right way and it's not all smoke and mirrors.”

They also talked about the complexities of franchise development, contrasting the allure of rapid expansion with the practicality of sustainable growth. Using baseball as an analogy, the pair discussed how most players will enter at a lower level, but Triple A players can advance to the Major League if given the support and opportunity.

"We have five major league franchises... they are making money... they've opened up their third units... if we give them a little bit more support, we can actually lift them up and give them the tools and scaffolding to get to the major leagues," Powills said.

LaRue delved into the backstory of the Angry Chickz: Nashville Hot Chicken brand, where an entrepreneur decided to take a chance, and ended up surprising himself with the level of success he achieved. The brand has 25 locations and, while the food is great, LaRue put much of the brand’s success down to its culture and its compelling story.

“If you can create a feeling with a brand, you will attract the people who believe in that,” LaRue said. “If you can create a feeling of what you're about, you'll attract the people who resonate with that.”

To watch the full video, click here.