Ep. 28 - Principles of Restaurant Franchising with Cheryl Bachelder

Cheryl Bachelder is a legend in the Restaurant Franchising Space. She is currently on the Board of Chick-fil-a and US Foods. She has held senior positions at Domino’s Pizza and KFC. Most notably, Cheryl was the CEO of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen where she launched a franchise driven turnaround that drove the stock from $11 to its ultimate sale of $79 in 2017. Learn Cheryl’s background, how she fixed franchisee relations and so much more.   To learn more about Cheryl please visit www.cherylbachelder.com. To learn more about Richard or to request a transcript of the podcast please visit www.thinkaen.com. Amazon Book Link: Dare to Serve Show Notes: (01:50) Cheryl’s Background (02:51) First Job at Procter and Gamble (03:31) How Cheryl got her start in the Restaurant Industry (04:45) Domino’s Pizza and Tom Monaghan (06:55) Investor Franchisee Due Diligence; Channel Checks (09:07) Yum Brands and Kentucky Fried Chicken, KFC and David Novak (11:21) Joining Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen; Frank Belatti, John Cranor and John Hoffner (15:13) First steps as Popeyes CEO - Building Alignment and Trust + P&L’s (17:15) Franchisee Mistakes and taking operating profits from 17% to 24% (22:21) Comparing Dominos, KFC and Popeyes (24:19) Class Action Lawsuits from Franchisees (29:01) Drilling down on Popeyes Franchisees / Taking Franchisee Notes (33:28) Biggest Franchisee Relationship Challenges (35:41) Being a Public Company CEO and Huge Stock Market Win; Near 10 bagger (38:55) Stock Investor Annual Meetings and Quarterly Conference Calls (40:43) Favorite Foods and Answering the Toughest Question (43:12) Cheryl’s Book: "Dare to Serve: How to Drive Superior Results by Helping Others" + Turnaround at Popeyes; Link to Book can be found here.