Great Harvest to Show off Popular Hub and Spoke Franchise Model at Multi-Unit Franchising Conference

With more than 200 locations open across the United States and plans to grow further with multi-unit partnerships across the country, Great Harvest Bread Co. will be exhibiting its new, innovative "hub and spoke" franchise model at the 2017 Multi-Unit Franchising Conference. The company announced earlier this month it has signed 30 new cafe locations with existing owners thanks to the new hub and spoke model and have 50 units set to open over the next two years.Taking place April 23-26 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, the 17th annual Multi-Unit Franchising Conference is the premier event for franchisees looking to expand their businesses. The event is designed to be a platform for continued education and one that sets the stage for upcoming trends that can inspire franchisees.Great Harvest executives will be at Booth No. 623 to meet with prospective franchisees to showcase the company's growth plans and strategies throughout the United States and beyond.
At the convention, Great Harvest will use its newly-implemented Buxton Scout Analytics program to analyze potential sites, identify franchise territories and create unlimited market expansion scenarios for prospective franchisees."We are giving prospective franchisees a unique opportunity to complete his or her portfolios with an affordable business model that allows for multiple locations under one franchise fee," said Great Harvest President Eric Keshin. "With the purchase of a single territory, franchisees can then open up as many individual cafe units as they desire in surrounding towns.
We offered the new opportunity at our convention and our existing franchisees jumped on the growth opportunity right away to expand their businesses. It's a testament to our already strong franchise system and overall direction of the company. "The overarching theme behind Great Harvest's hub and spoke franchise model is that a franchisee can control and develop an entire region, with one Great Harvest bakery operation serving as the primary distributor to multiple cafe-only units in towns within the territory. Bakery locations are equipped with ovens and ample space to produce and deliver hand-milled breads to nearby cafe locations throughout the day.
"Big chains in the bakery segment have one big location every 10 or 15 miles that don't bake breads fresh," Keshin said. "These chains are par baking from frozen loaves that are mass-manufactured by machines. They don't mill the wheat berry in-store and make everything from scratch like we do."With the franchise model, a Great Harvest franchisee can cover large territories for a significantly less investment than competitors, but still make and serve fresh bread made from scratch, by hand, every day. With control over a single bakery operation, franchisees can maximize coverage while still allowing them to be hyper-local with a personal touch in smaller communities.Dubbed "Bread Heaven" by fanatic customers since 1976, Great Harvest Bread bakeries make bread from whole grains milled right on the premises, a five-hour process that can start every day as early as 2:30 a.m. Great Harvest also offers breakfasts, sandwiches, grain bowls, soups, salads, pastries and desserts during all three dayparts.Great Harvest also operates with a "Freedom Franchise" model where a franchisee can personalize their decor and menu offerings to suit their local markets. The total average cost to open a Great Harvest bakery-cafe is about $315,000, compared to more than twice the amount for competing larger footprint concepts, such as Panera. The company is looking to sign dozens of franchise agreements in 2017 and is primarily targeting the Northeast. While the new bakery-cafe model is ideally suited for multi-unit operators, single-unit franchises in smaller territories will still be available.

About Great Harvest Bread Company
Great Harvest Bread has spent the past 40 years perfecting the combination of ingredients to make the freshest and authentic breads and pastries, as well as the newer sandwiches, grain bowls and soups, growing to over 200 locations, all of which continue to mill their own Golden Triangle wheat every morning from scratch. Providing local communities with authentic breads and pastries made fresh daily, the brand is now growing through franchising with a new bakery-cafe model ideal for multi-unit ownership. Open during three parts of the day- breakfast, lunch and dinner - the menu has grown beyond a wide variety of soft, delicious breads to include soups, sandwiches and grain bowls.

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