A restaurant franchisor with a novel offering is aiming to find franchisees in B.C.
The 49-year-old Florida-based fondue chain Melting Pot is first seeking a consultant to help the company understand the Metro Vancouver market and determine which locations would be best to lease space. It then plans to find franchisees to run two Metro Vancouver locations, CEO Bob Johnston told BIV.
The company would also work with realtors, said Johnston, who started working at the chain in 1979 as a dishwasher and then bought the company with two older brothers in 1985.
Melting Pot has nearly 100 locations including one in Canada, in Edmonton, which has operated for more than a decade, he said.
The Edmonton location stemmed from a keen franchisee who was a longtime loyal customer, Johnston said.
Both the franchisor company and the Edmonton restaurant are profitable, Johnston added.
Operating a franchise involves investing a $45,000 one-time fee, and then paying an annual five-per-cent royalty fee plus a 1.19-per-cent marketing fee, he said.
What makes Melting Pot successful is its niche of offering fondue and the experience that comes with sharing a pot of cheese or chocolate to dip meats, bread or vegetables.
The menu is limited and does not offer options for people who do not want fondue, Johnston said.
“The reason why the guests choose Melting Pot is not because they're hungry,” he said. “It's because they want an experience. They want to gather with people who they care about.”
Fondue involves having a shared pot of what is usually cheese. Guests then use forks to dip foods in the cheese, or chocolate.
The current push to find franchisees in Canada is happening in other major Canadian cities as well.
Johnston said his particular interest in Vancouver comes because the chain has three successful stores in the Seattle market.
“We’re in site-selection for an additional store there as well,” he said.
“Portland, Oregon is another location in the Pacific Northwest.”
He said most of his chain’s restaurants are in suburbs of large metropolitan areas or downtown areas. It does not seek to open in smaller centres as the concept does best when there is a larger population to draw from, he said.
Melting Pot recently launched selling its cheese fondue sauce in grocery stores in the U.S. with the strategy behind that move being to strengthen its brand recognition, he said.
Grocery-store sales are possible in the future in Canada, he said, but his first priority is to find strong franchisees to open locations.
