After Wienerschnitzel founder John Galardi died last year, his former wife, Cindy Galardi Culpepper, stepped in as chief executive, working with the existing management team of parent company Galardi Group Inc.
Culpepper, who was married to Galardi for almost three decades, said she aims to expand on her former husband’s dream for the more-than-50-year-old hotdog brand — to grow while maintaining family ownership.
At some point, the Galardis’ son, John Ross Galardi, known as J.R., will likely take over the business, as was his father’s dream. But for now, the 25-year-old is learning the ropes and helping to move the brand into the future as chief visionary officer.
Irvine, Calif.-based Galardi Group operates and franchises 325 Wienerschnitzel locations, most of which are co-branded with the soft-serve ice cream brand Tastee Freez, along with 13 Hamburger Stand restaurants and the recently opened fast-casual Two Madres Mexican Kitchen.
The mostly-franchised Wienerschnitzel — known for its chili dogs, caramel- and chocolate-dipped ice cream cones and quirky marketing around a mascot known as “The Delicious One” — is the company’s focus for growth.
Galardi Group is testing a new prototype design with the original Wienerschnitzel A-frame build that has drive-thru and walk-up service only. The unit is scheduled to debut in El Paso, Texas, in September.
Culpepper recently spoke with Nation’s Restaurant News about the new prototype and the company’s plans for growth.
John Galardi planned for you to take over the business?
Yes. He and I divorced back in 2009, and one of the conditions of the divorce was that if I were to die before John, he’d take the voting stock, but if he died before me, I had all the voting stock. I’d been involved in the business. I knew John for 33 years and we were married for 27, so I was his silent partner.
Having been with the founder of the company that long, you learn a lot about the history. You learn a lot about what their goals are and what the thinking is. My management team was also with John, so that really helped with the transition.
Did you consider hiring someone else to run the company?
Over the years, John had opportunities to sell. But this was his baby. He could never dispose of it. His dream was to live long enough to see our son John Ross take over. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. But he put me in this position, and it’s a perfect fit at this point because I’m so familiar with the management team. Most have been here well over 20 years, and some 30. Basically, I’m fulfilling his dream. I’m expanding the company, growing the company and getting ready for John Ross to take it over at some point.
He’s [John Ross] only 25. He started working at Wienerschnitzel at 14, and he’s grown up through the system. When he was 2, he carried a briefcase around to pretend he was going to the office with his father. He’s his father’s son.
What’s his role now?
His background is marketing, so he started a “visionary department,” and their primary focus is on Millennials and younger generations. So it’s about social media and attire and exposure with the community. He’s working on bringing this brand to the younger generation.
You can’t just stay with your very loyal customers. You have to continue to generate traffic, and that’s got to be through this younger generation.
So will we see mobile ordering at Wienerschntizel someday soon?
You might!
Next steps and growth plans
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What’s the next step?
We are in an aggressive growth mode. We have many studies going on right now to look at what we should be, what we should be doing and who we should be serving. As soon as those studies are complete, then our plan is to start building and encouraging many of our franchisees to build, and also to look for new franchisees. We’re one of the few QSRs with month-over-month growth, and we have seen that for the last three years.
Can you elaborate?
We’ve been averaging 3 percent to 4 percent growth in systemwide sales each year for the past three years.
To what do you attribute that?
The recession hurt everybody. But the great thing about our brand is we basically are the only chain in the industry that specializes in hot dogs. We have a very loyal following. Although our numbers decreased for a few years because of the recession, as soon as those loyal customers began doing a little better they started coming back because they know we have the best hot dogs in the world and we’re the largest hot dog company in the world.
Wienerschnitzel is positioned as a value brand, but there are more gourmet hot dog concepts popping up. How have you addressed that?
We’ve been around since 1961, and we are known as a value brand. For us to compete as a gourmet brand and raise our prices, that would be like starting over. We have a barbell menu with value choices at one end and the more-premium items for those who want to trade up.
We’re going to keep our philosophy of doing business. We may change some of the toppings. We added an all-beef Angus dog a year or two ago, and that’s done very well. We added Tastee Freez, and the ice cream has been fantastic. Right now we’re doing an apple-smoked bacon with barbecue sauce, fried onions and chili, and we have a Blue Cheese Angus Dog with apple-smoked bacon, sprinkles of blue cheese and blue cheese sauce on a sesame seed bun.
Company officials in the past have said Wienerschnitzel is looking at different restaurant formats. Is that still true?
We’re really open to exploring new things. We have a new building called the Heritage and we’ve tried to incorporate the traditional A-frame architecture. It’s strictly a drive thru/walk up because the vast majority of business is through a drive thru. It has a much smaller footprint, so the cost of entry is much lower. The overhead is much lower and we can go on small sites that others can’t. The cost of entry, including equipment, is $420,000.
But we’re also offering the same basic model with inside seating. We also have other prototypes that are of a different configuration.
We want to offer to new and old franchisees a variety of options, so when they’re looking at a property they can maximize that real estate by the type of building they put on it.
What are the chain’s growth plans right now?
We’re doing the research now, but we’re in the process of building just maybe four stores. Our franchisees are so excited about their volumes and about the Heritage prototype that they’re also building, but I can’t give you an exact number. We have plans for amazing growth over the next five years.
Are other family members getting involved in the business?
I think this company could be around another 50 years. I have a grandson who’s interested. He’s 16 and he’s working in a Wienerschnitzel this summer. You never know!
Contact Lisa Jennings at [email protected]
Follow her on Twitter: @livetodineout
