Growth has come at a pretty good clip for Harrison, N.Y.-based Apple-Metro Inc.The franchisee of Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar and Chevys Fresh Mex restaurants and owner of its own Zanaro’s fast-casual Italian brand built 28 restaurants in 13 years—26 Applebee’s, three Chevys and one Zanaro’s. A 29th unit, another Applebee’s, is under construction, and the company recently signed leases for four more restaurant locations. Apple Metro does more than $100 million in annual sales, and one of its Applebee’s is the highest-grossing unit in the nearly 1,950-restaurant system of fran-chisor Applebee’s International, which is based in Overland Park, Kan. The kind of growth Apple-Metro has recorded, however, cannot be sustained unless the company develops a pipeline of future managers to fill new positions, said Zane Tankel, its co-founder, chairman and chief executive. By offering various perks and benefits and through in-depth training, Apple-Metro has been able to lower turnover among its management ranks and develop employees to move up in the company, Tankel said.
How do you keep hourly and management employees interested in management careers with Apple-Metro?
Every general manager and kitchen manager who has been with the company for 18 months gets a [leased] car. We pay the taxes and the insurance. Our rationale is those are the two guys, or girls, we could not run the restaurant without. They also get a cell phone for personal use, with 3,000 free minutes.We also take every manager and his or her spouse on a cruise about every 18 months or so. We have virtually no turnover among our GMs and kitchen managers.
How has stability in management impacted your hourly employees?
Turnover is a part of [the managers’] bonus program. We assign a certain percentage of their monthly bonus on a variety of things, such as sanitation, guest counts and turnover. If you just follow sales, it will kill you.That’s pursuing a short-term goal at the expense of long-term goals. Sure, you can keep labor down if you give a server seven or eight tables, and you’ll get a bonus, but by the end of the year, you’ll be out of business.
Because customers won’t return for lousy food and service?
Right. You can manage a restaurant down as you get fewer customers, or you can manage it up by making the investment in labor and in the kitchen so people will keep coming back.