Entrepreneur Names Leasecake Top Franchise Supplier | CUSTOMER STORIES
How the Largest Jersey Mike’s Franchisee Cut Through Lease Admin Challenges with Leasecake
Background
Century Restaurants, Inc., the largest franchisee of Jersey Mike’s, has experienced significant growth and operational success over the past few years, growing from 30 locations to 82 today. A key element of their success has been their adoption of Leasecake, a lease management platform that helped them keep all the documents and dollars associated with their growing portfolio of locations organized, so they can focus on continuing to grow the business. With their plans to be over 100 locations very soon, it’s also one of the reasons “Century” is in their name!
Challenges
Dave Murphy, CFO of Century Restaurants, understands that managing multiple locations as a franchisee presents unique challenges, particularly when it comes to lease management and lease accounting. With 82 stores, Murphy and his team needed a solution that offered visibility into their tenant obligations, helped manage risk, ensured ASC 842 compliance, and prepared them for audits. They knew that with an ever growing portfolio of locations, it was becoming increasingly likely that something would slip through the cracks without the right technology in place.
“Franchisee support is important for ‘smart’ franchisors, and the flip side of that is they have a lot of risk, because the market has changed where all franchisors need to manage risk better. Sometimes franchise systems lose track of franchisees who are out of a lease, or their franchise agreement dates weren’t in line. So there’s got to be a better way for them to track their risk, because if you don’t then you don’t have a location.”
Chris Brown, CEO of Century Restaurants, acts as a one-person real estate team with vast experience in negotiating and securing leases. He was also looking for modern technology to help their operations scale more efficiently.
With 82 locations, Century Restaurants, Inc. is the largest franchisee of Jersey Mike's.
With plans to expand to over 100 locations in the near future, Leasecake offers a lease management platform that effectively organizes all documents and financials related to their growing portfolio of locations. This streamlined approach allows them to concentrate on furthering their business growth!
Largest Jersey Mike's Franchisee
Current Locations
Forecasted Locations Coming Soon
Solution
After evaluating several options, Century Restaurants found that Leasecake was uniquely suited to helping them manage that risk of their real estate portfolio, as well as managing lease accounting and preparing them for audits.
“We looked at two other products our CPA suggested, but it was just bare bones to help with ASC 842 compliance for the journal entries to prepare for our audit,” said Dave Murphy. “And we thought, if we’re gonna go through the pain and effort of going through abstracting all these lease schedules, and option periods, we wanted to have an operational component to it.”
Leasecake stood out as the comprehensive solution they were looking for. “Leasecake was a modern approach that would help us run our business and let our CEO sleep at night, knowing that we’re not missing any expiration dates, notice dates, stuff like that. It would get all of our landlord information, property management contact information in one database. There really wasn’t a close second after we saw what Leasecake could do,” says Dave.
"When you find a product that truly understands the daily challenges of the multi-unit franchisee business from an operating standpoint, it's really refreshing. For us, Leasecake was the perfect solution for what we needed."
Dave Murphy
CFO, Century Restaurants, Inc.
Results
With Leasecake, Century Restaurants has been able to focus on strategic growth initiatives rather than getting bogged down in lease management details. From the start, the support and service provided by Leasecake’s team have been exemplary. “Leasecake’s customer success team has been wonderful, and frankly we’ve been impressed with the whole staff. The support’s been great for us.”
Now that all their location data has been compiled into Leasecake, there is no more wasted time looking for landlord contact information or searching for renewal dates. Leasecake sends automated reminders to the team well in advance of any expiration, so they can take action and be prepared for next steps. And with all that free time, Murphy and his team have set their sights on continuing to grow.
“We started with 30 locations, sold a few, and now we’re at 82 stores with our sights on 100+ stores – we have big goals in line with our name! We’ve truly become a larger multi-unit operator that knows how to scale, and it’s through consolidation and just a maturing of the brand as we continue to grow. That’s the phase I see Jersey Mike’s in, and the potential for continued growth is tremendous,” Murphy shares.
Century Restaurants’ experience with Leasecake highlights the importance of finding a solution that truly understands the unique challenges of the multi-unit franchisee business. As Murphy succinctly puts it, “When you find a product that truly understands the daily challenges of the multi-unit franchisee business from an operating standpoint, it’s really refreshing. For us, Leasecake was the perfect solution for what we needed.”
