Firehouse Subs, the fast-casual submarine sandwich chain based in Jacksonville, Fla., has enlisted the former chief operating officer of Lone Star Steakhouse and Texas Land & Cattle Steakhouse to develop 80 Firehouse Subs locations in Dallas.
Ryan Franklin will own and operate one restaurant, which will be used as his training restaurant to assist in future expansion in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Firehouse Subs, which started in 1994, has 432 locations and aims to expand to 2,000 units by 2020.
Firehouse Subs currently operates 18 restaurants in the Dallas area, which Franklin now oversees. Once Franklin’s development agreement is fulfilled, Texas will have the third largest concentration of Firehouse Subs outside of Florida, the company said.
Other areas with high concentrations of the brand are Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia.
“We are extremely excited to welcome Ryan Franklin, who has more than 20 years of restaurant experience, to the Firehouse Subs family,” Greg Delks, director of franchise development for Firehouse of America LLC, said in a statement.
Franklin said the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex is an ideal market to grow the Firehouse brand because the area has more company headquarters, workers with higher incomes and higher employment rates than other metro regions.
“The Dallas-Fort Worth area is an actively growing area,” Franklin said. “There is a lot of economic growth along the periphery.”
Average unit volumes range between $600,000 and $625,000, he said.
New Firehouse Subs locations in the Dallas area will be opened by a blend of both current brand operators and new franchise owners, Franklin said. He said he anticipates that the cost to open units will range from $205,000 to $375,000, depending on the location.
The average ticket is $5.50 to $8, Franklin said. He noted that even though the brand is known as a lunch destination, Firehouse Subs is looking to increase traffic at dinner and on the weekends.
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