The Fast Casual Nation Podcast offers exclusive interviews with experts ranging from top chefs and brand makers to executives and restaurants who work in one of the fastest-growing segments of the restaurant industry. In this episode, host Paul Barron chats with Chris Dull, chief executive officer at Freddy’s Frozen Custard and Steakburgers to discuss the brands growth and insight on franchising.

Dull says, “today Freddy’s operates four hundred and fifteen restaurants. We operate in thirty four states really spanning all the way from California to New Jersey and as far down as Florida and and all throughout California.” He adds, “Our footprint we have thirty company owned restaurants and the remainder of our units are operated by franchisees.”

When Barron asks Dull about his thoughts on franchising, he says, “I think that franchising is an excellent vehicle to growth. I think that Freddy's is a great example of a brand that's been very responsible in the way that they've franchised their concept when done right, I think you end up with excellent committed operators that know local markets better than a corporate entity that are based in the singular state and so I really think that franchising is a smart way to expand a brand and drive excellence in operations.”

Dull talks about the three pillars of operations of partnering with a franchisee, which he says revolves around the concept of extreme cleanliness, the highest quality of products, and genuine guest service. Dull adds, “when you visit a Freddy's location you should experience something that's out of the ordinary good all the way around and we have people that we like to affectionately refer to as FredHeads who just absolutely love our concept. Love our brand. Love our food.”

The bulk of Freddy’s business historically came from their dining rooms although ninety nine percent of their restaurants have drive-thrus. Dull says, “over the last two and a half years there's been a real focus on shifting some of our operational development and technological development to being fast and being accessible via drive-thru which very fortuitously for us was you know in the crosshairs when we rolled into Covid where our dining rooms were closed in totality and so Covid was a compounding effect. It forced us to be even better and to focus even more so on how we were able to serve our guests outside of our dining room.”

To hear what Dull says about shifting from their old ways, focusing on technology, and adopting third party delivery providers, tune into this episode of Fast Casual Nation podcast on Spotify.