Mark Mele With Paris Baguette

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Lee Kantor: [00:00:32] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Franchise Marketing Radio, and this is going to be a good one today on the show, we have Mark Mealie with Paris Baguette. Welcome, Mark.

Mark Mele: [00:00:42] Hi Lee, how are you?

Lee Kantor: [00:00:43] I am doing great. I’m excited to catch up with you and learn a little bit about what’s been going on lately with Paris Baguette. For the folks who don’t know, just give them kind of the elevator pitch.

Mark Mele: [00:00:55] Sure. So Paris Baguette is a French inspired bakery. Bakery cafe, we’ve been baking and going back to our roots in baking since 1945. So 70 plus years of baking has given us the know how to manufacture the dough that goes into each and every one of our pastries, our pastries. And the menu includes fresh bread, daily cakes, slices of cake pastry. There’s Chris Sants. Obviously baguettes, so sandwiches I mean a full menu that is really fresh and delicious, made every day, day in and day out. So Boston products and this is the bakery like you have in your head, like when you were a kid, you had a bakery in your neighborhood. This is this is the same kind of bakery. We’re doing things fresh every day there.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:01] Now, talk about kind of your journey in the is kind of how you’ve evolved in the franchising industry, you’ve worked for a number of brands. I believe this is your first food, but you’ve worked with a number of brands in different industries. Talk about how that’s kind of helped you navigate the waters and helping Paris Baguette grow.

Mark Mele: [00:02:24] Wonderful. Absolutely. So leave for me, it’s this is all franchising. This is basic blocking and tackling, right? This is I’ve been in franchise development for thirty five plus years. I go back a while, as you said, several different sectors. A handful of brands over that time span. And for a brick and mortar concept like this, it’s Paris Baguette. That is, it’s really about starting off with the quality franchisees that you bring in. So you’ve got to have quality franchised sales, you’ve got to have quality real estate because they’ve got to have the perfect location and quality design and construction. And then of course, we development will take it from prospective franchisee to ribbon-cutting. That’s that’s the department that I’m in charge of at Paris Baguette. So we’ve got a lot of people on hand to make sure that that franchisee is going to be successful from the day that we say hello to them and approve them as a prospective franchisee to be a new franchisee all the way to the ribbon cutting and then we transition them over to the operations team. So yeah, for me, it’s it’s having a great brand. Being a part of a great brand is is the most important thing to me in my career. If I can speak about my career, and that’s really why I think I chose Paris Spaghetti and why Paris forget chose me. You’ve got to. You’ve got a great brand that wants to expand in the U.S. and I was certainly up for the challenge. And you know, with it’s a global brand with nearly four thousand units and what an exciting time and what an exciting opportunity to be able to to expand this. In the U.S. past a thousand up to a thousand plus more units. It’s very, very exciting.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:31] Now, when you’re looking at a brand to get involved with, you mentioned the operations, you mentioned real estate, you mentioned kind of the selling. Are there a certain kind of red flags for you or green lights for you when you’re kind of analyzing a brand to see what’s the right fit? Because I would imagine in your experience you’ve seen a lot of things that maybe looked OK in some areas, but maybe had some warning signs and then other things maybe look too good to be true. Can you help the person who’s because I think a potential franchisee is almost in your situation? When you chose to work with Paris Baguette, you were vetting it also from probably a lot of the same places. They’re vetting it because you had to believe in the brand and you had to believe that this is something that you can proudly, you know, sell to others.

Mark Mele: [00:05:25] You’ve hit it right on the head. You’re exactly you’re spot on. That’s that’s exactly. And we want prospective franchisees to do just that. Complete your due diligence. Look at the brand, speak to our existing franchisees. What? What does the brand? What’s the perception of the brand globally? What’s the perception of the brand locally here in the states, in each city? Who are the franchisees? Are they profitable? Those types of questions need to be asked. And what does your franchise disclosure document look like? Do you have lawsuits? Do you have this? Yeah, I I spent a lot of time doing due diligence on the brand, and everything came up and very, very positive. And I and I love that because. At the end of the day, you have to be able to have the confidence in the brand and hopefully you can hear it in my voice. I am in a in a year’s time now with the brand very, very optimistic and excited as I was from the first day I joined the company. Even more so because I’m seeing the incredible response that the audience, the prospective franchisees are having for this brand.

Mark Mele: [00:06:38] So we’re we’ve got a huge push on to open a thousand units in 10 years or less. And look, I’ve been in the business for a long time. As I’ve mentioned in you here, you hear this all the time. One brand will say, Yeah, we want to get to four hundred units in X number of years or six hundred units. And it sounds good and it looks good. It’s a nice soundbite, but it’s a heavy lift and you need to put you need to have number one, the brand that is well liked, well perceived. And I think we have that and we have that global presence and I think we can drive the sales and I think we can find the best locations. And I think this, I think it’s going to be explosive and we’re starting to see it already. We’ve executed already year to date almost a hundred franchise agreements, 90 through the third quarter, 90 agreements and very, very proud of that. We’ve got a good, good sales team, good real estate team and a good construction team too. So a lot of a lot of good energy this year.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:42] Now, from a potential franchise standpoint, explain to them why it’s an advantage that Paris Baguette has such a strong global brand already and how that’s going to help them as it expands in the United States.

Mark Mele: [00:07:57] Well, a couple of things. Number one, global presence is in the success of that. Global presence is very, very important from a name recognition standpoint, but also from an operating standpoint when you look at the way that we’ve been able to refine the operations, the brand been around since nineteen eighty eight Paris Baguette. We own and operate other brands as well, some that we’ve created overseas and some that we just bought into where we’re master franchisees of other brands globally too. But Paris Baguette since nineteen eighty eight, has had an opportunity to refine the operational model for doing business here in the States. We started to franchise the brand in two thousand fifteen twenty fifteen, so. But we’ve been operating here corporately since 2005. That gave us a 10 year start to have 40 operating corporate units to be able to say, OK, you know, over the last 10 years, we’ve been able to figure it out and we’ve taken what they’ve operated overseas now since 1988 and refined that model and made it work here in the U.S. and that’s what prospective franchisees want to hear. You guys know how to run the business and we continue to operate. Lee, we continue to operate corporate units here and we will always operate corporate units. I love when franchise stores have units, whether it’s five units, two units or in our case, we still operate over twenty five units.

Mark Mele: [00:09:35] It’s just it gives us that knowledge base and I’ll tell you what else it gives us. It gives us a an operational bench, if you will, for of of human capital, right? When we have strong general managers and district managers, they can be moved up and moved over. They can help franchisees. They could be on the franchise ops team. They can be, you know, it’s just we recruit from internally as well when you have those kind of numbers. So I would think perspective and I know prospective franchisees are especially excited when they hear that, that we still own and operate a number of the units ourselves corporately. So that’s that’s what you want to look for, that operational excellence, that that makes that brand a reality. It’s one thing to have a wonderful break every day inside the cafe, which we do. Our products are just amazing. The cakes are just phenomenal. The pastries are amazing like you’ve never tasted before, but it’s it’s another thing to say wow. Operationally, they they believe in. They know how to operate and they believe what they do. Every day matters. So prospects see that they love it.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:50] Now, how have you seen an evolution of the franchisee have? Is the is the person that’s a franchisee today the same as it was when you started in franchising?

Mark Mele: [00:11:01] Oh, wow, I got to think back now. You know, I think in many respects, there’s still the state they come from the same. They have that bloodline, so to speak. They have that entrepreneurial spirit, right? They they want to do for themselves. They figure why I’m I’m working, whether it’s corporate America working for another company, I can go out and spend that much time if I find the right brand that I’m passionate about, that proven track to run on where you have a franchise system and I can plug myself into that system. But what I work every day and how I work it and how long I work at the success is mind, you know, and there’s there’s something about that. So from that aspect, I would say that has stayed the same. What’s changed is back from when I started in nineteen eighty five in my career to today is there’s many more opportunities, right? You have probably four thousand franchise brands spanning across dozens of different sectors and industries and all different investment levels. You know, in nineteen eighty five, yeah, there were still there were plenty of franchise brands, but not like you see today, it’s it’s pretty amazing. And I think it makes it easier for a prospective franchisee to determine their path. They will look at the brand, the strength of the brand and say, Hey, that brand has been around for, you know, since the eighties or for the nineties. And let’s look at how successful they are, whether it’s success here in the U.S. or abroad or globally, wherever and or are they a startup? Are they brand new? Do they have 10 units? Do I want to be affiliated with the brand that has a smaller number? Maybe that’s a good opportunity for you. I don’t know, but there’s so much to choose from today. And again, you can compare yourself and your skill set to that company and something that you’re passionate about and I think be successful. So the entrepreneurial spirit, I think, is still alive and well there now.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:10] Are you finding that folks involved in franchising as it matures, as an industry are becoming kind of professional franchisees where they’re putting together a portfolio of complementary franchises that have maybe a similar customer base? So that gives them some economies of scale in their marketing, maybe. And that they can, you know, share the that client with multiple franchises that they own.

Mark Mele: [00:13:36] Yeah, you see that all the time, especially, I would say, you know, in the restaurant sector, if you look at some of the trade publications that come out every now and then, with franchisees that have gotten themselves to the point where it’s no longer, you know, a multi-unit franchisee is no longer three or four or five units, some of these multi units are spanning a dozen or more brands, and they own hundreds and hundreds of units. They built themselves up and they have that nucleus set up for for doing the operation. And yeah, they’re so successful today. You know, they do it again and again and again, and they have figured it out. And I think when they plug themselves into a system and utilize that system, you’re right. They can go into other brands, other sector brands that that they can they complement each other. So 100 percent correct. We see that all the time in the franchise industry. You’re spot on

Lee Kantor: [00:14:37] Now. Are you finding for you that franchisee? Is that person or is it still kind of like you said, that executive that wants to go out on their own and, you know, kind of carve their own path?

Mark Mele: [00:14:50] We’re seeing both and fortunately, we’re seeing both. I like I like the we like to have the business background we like if they have the restaurant operations background, we like if they’re existing franchisees in the non competing brand, but still within the restaurant sector, the restaurant industry, we’ve signed franchisees this year that own and operate other fast casual brands, other breakfast food brands, casual theme restaurants we signed. Folks that have their parents had restaurants in the past or and they operate a successful business to outside of the restaurant industry. But but they have that background and they know how to operate businesses successfully. It might be a little bit more difficult for someone, even if they were just in corporate America, saying, Yeah, I want to get out and I think I know enough about accounting that I’ll go in and look for a franchise, something that interests me. We want the business background. So we we kind of want to take the guesswork out of it for ourselves. But but also. Give the franchise a chance to be successful to knowing that they they they have whatever it takes to be successful in their background too. So. So we’ve been fortunate to to look for both and we’ve found both.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:14] Now you said you’re shooting for a thousand in 10 years. Are there areas of the country right now that you’re kind of aiming at or is it the whole country? You know, how do you attack this as a whole or do you detect it in regions?

Mark Mele: [00:16:29] I prefer, you know, if I were starting from scratch, you know, you know, ideally you’d work up and down a handful of states and do concentric development and plant a few seeds here and there by opening up corporate units. But I think what what has been put in front of me when I came aboard, you know, we existed on both the East Coast and the West Coast. We had several units on both coasts that had been there for a very long time. We had some units in in a unit in Texas, units in Atlanta, Philadelphia units in Phenix area. So so we had a few sprinkled in. But the heaviest concentration was on North San Francisco, North California, Northern California with San Francisco and then, of course, Southern California, Los Angeles and then in New York, DMA as well. So right now and in Chicago, two is big for us. We’ve got a number of units there operating for to be exact and seven more coming. But we are absolutely interested in the top 20, 30, 40 cities in the U.S. and, you know, taking what we’ve done and already expanding across the country. We will just make sure that we won’t let one unit set out there by itself, and we have the opportunity to go in corporately and invest in a marketplace. So if we ahead of executing a franchise agreement, say, for example, in Nashville, Tennessee, I’ll be there first. I’ll be in Phenix. First, I’ll be in. For example, we just signed a lease in Winter Park in the Orlando market, so so we have that opportunity. So the short answer is, yeah, we’re expanding across the country and we’re taking a freight train approach a little bit at a time. But you know, being right for the right reasons, a lot of activity happening right now to get to that 1000 units.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:37] Now did the pandemic kind of cause you to adjust maybe the size of unit? Are there now, kind of different options that maybe didn’t exist pre-pandemic regarding size?

Mark Mele: [00:18:51] Not necessarily regarding size. You know, the brand itself when you walk into a Paris baguette, being a bakery, a lot of the menu. Well, the whole menu being the baked goods are all in front of you. They’re out. And as you walk around, you’re you’re you’re walking into the cafe. And whether you’re going to dine in or or place it to go or you’re basically picking up what you want, placing it on a tray. A paper lined tray walking up to the front with all your baked fresh baked goods, and if you’re leaving, they’ll kindly wrap it up for you and put everything in a bag and you’re leaving. And get your beverage and your and you’re out of there. It’s not like you’re walking up to a menu board and ordering a number five or number three to go. You’re experiencing the sights of all this fresh baked goods. You’re smelling it. You’re you just sense. Wow, this is going to be extra special. You’re looking at the refrigerated cases with the cakes and other fresh pastries that are refrigerated and keeping them nice and cool so you can buy a cake and take it home and surprise the family. But that’s that’s what makes it special and during COVID. The one thing we had to do, it’s just because who knew during that time? I remember when it was, Hey, wash your hands, wash your hands.

Mark Mele: [00:20:15] This is how it’s spreading turned into. No, you put a face mask on. That’s how it’s spreading, right? So we were wrapping and we still, to some extent, certain products. Everything has to cool down first. And then we were putting it into plastic into nice, you know, see through clear plastic. So you know, you go in and grab it and put it on your tray, but it’s wrapped. And I think that made everyone feel more comfortable. To an extent it still does today as well. But a lot of our product now is behind the glass cases. You’d open up the case, whether it’s self-serve or we’re handing it to you, it’s it’s on a, you know, it’s wrapped up. You can wrap it once. Once it is, it is put on your tray. But that’s really the only change that’s happened. We’ve used outside delivery services like the rest of the industry had pivoted with DoorDash and some of the others, whether it’s picking up orders that were called in ahead of time or place through our app, those things happen every day. You know, I don’t believe that we’ll be going out and putting in a drive thru anytime soon.

Mark Mele: [00:21:24] I don’t think that’s the Paris baguette experience, but maybe a 10 word for a preorder, something that’s there’s a lot of experimenting that we’re doing on the operations side. So. But you know, we were able to keep the cafes open for the most part, as long as the state would let us open. We were open with our cafes and and I think that did well for the brand. From a customer standpoint, they like the fact that we were choosing to stay open where a lot of brands said, now we’re going to we’re going to shut it down for a little bit here and decide what to do. But yeah, we definitely pivoted during that time, and I think we got stronger for it and got some innovation. And you know, this this year is especially good for us. I think our numbers are way up over 20, of course, 20 20, but 20, 19 as well, which, you know, there was no pandemic in the air at that time. And we’re we’re comping our stores are comping a lot better than twenty nineteen, which tells you people are out and about and it’s just a great product that we have.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:30] Well, Mark, congratulations on all the success. If somebody wants to learn more about Paris Baguette near them or if they’re interested in the franchise opportunity, what’s the website?

Mark Mele: [00:22:40] They can go to Paris Baguette family and fill out the request form, and our franchise development team will reach out to you immediately and get you more information accordingly.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:56] Good stuff! Well, thank you so much for sharing your story, Marc. You’re doing important work. We appreciate you.

Mark Mele: [00:23:00] Well, thank you so much, Leigh. I appreciate being on the show.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:03] All right, this Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on Franchise Marketing Radio.