Finding a location to put a franchise restaurant isn’t as easy as popping a Raising Cane’s in an old Krystal. Nick Binnings is a franchisee for Southern Classic Chicken , and he’s been scouring New Orleans over the past 18 months in search of a spot to place a franchise location.
Binnings brings an impressive background to the search, with 30 years in the hospitality industry. He also helps to scale early-stage franchise restaurant concepts. Binnings recently told What Now New Orleans that he met the Fanning family who owns Southern Classic Chicken, and grew to like the concept so much, that he and his business partners became franchisees. He said the strong foundation of corporate stores that chains like Southern Classic Chicken allows for robust franchise growth.
“The bigger a foundation you can build, the more you can continue to support your franchisees and the more know truly know about the inner workings of your brand,” he said.
Binnings added that many early-stage franchise concepts make the mistake of expanding to far-flung locations, instead of pursuing regional organic growth: “You really gotta grow within your own footprint, and that’s something Southern Classic Chicken is very focused on, which means growing in Louisiana , Texas , Mississippi , Arkansas , and Tennessee .”
The franchisee called his current search for a New Orleans spot “frustrating” but said he’s been a part of several promising negotiations. While he wouldn’t set an opening date for a Crescent City location, he did say a store could open within a year after a location was established.
“We’ve got dots on a map, per se, across New Orleans,” he said. “Now, it’s about: How do we find that right spot? We have to find an acre-plus of land, and finding an acre of land on Veterans Highway, or Carrollton or Claiborne avenues is like finding a needle in a haystack.”
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