Savvy Sliders has grown more than 40 restaurants with a wide variety of menu options, from cod and chicken to Angus beef and falafel vegetarian offerings.
Mark Wolok, VP of business development for the Farmington Hills, Mich.-based brand, said recent openings in Florida and Texas have helped prove the five-year-old concept travels well.
It started with two Michigan locations, birthed from the Happy’s Pizza concept in 2018, and has expanded.
Best-sellers, Wolok said, include “our fresh all fresh Angus beef burger or classic or chicken fingers — hand-battered fresh to order, marinated on site — we believe are the best and finest tasting chicken fingers in the industry and then of course our custard shakes. We’ve got about seven or eight different [flavors]. We have a once a month with a new shake that comes out as a limited time offer as well.”
Wolok said the brand, which is entirely franchised, expects to have a 50% increase in growth this year.
“We're doing a lot of conversions of some fast-food locations that may not have succeeded — second generation,” Wolok said. “We're also looking for end-unit drive-thrus. We've taken over several banks. We've taken over several different restaurant concepts, and that's really what we look for. Drive-thru is key for us.”
The sliders are prepared in a triple clamshell fryer, he noted. That allows for speed, he added. It “takes our all-fresh-never-frozen Angus beef burger and automatically — in about a minute and 30 seconds — completely temperature cooks the burger in and out,” Wolok said.
While most orders are in beef burgers and chicken fingers, Savvy Sliders also offers Spicy Falafel and English Cod sliders, he said.
“We have a selection of sliders, which really makes it nice. So when a family or a customer comes into Savvy Sliders, they don't have to just get a burger or a chicken sandwich,” Wolok said. “That customer can get a burger and a cod or they can get a falafel and a Steakhouse Sandwich.”
For catering orders, Savvy Sliders offers a special 24-pack, which appeals to office gatherings, graduation parties, church events, bar mitzvahs and even weddings, Wolok said.
Most of Savvy Sliders’ locations are in Michigan, but it is expanding to Florida, Ohio and Texas. Future expansion includes Indiana and Tennessee, a spokesperson said.
“We have all of our stores owned and operated by an owner,” Wolok said. “So when you're at savvy sliders, it's not an employee-run location; it's an owner operator that's present that greets you, meets you, thanks you for coming in. If there's an issue on your sandwich, we take care of it right there. We really, really strive on the owner operator running our business. … That operator is the key to the success of the location.”
About 65% to 70% of sales are through the drive-thru, he added. Units offer third-party delivery as well. “Our catering,” Wolok added, “we would like it to be probably in the 15% to 20% of sales. We're reaching there without any marketing or advertising. It's word of mouth.”
The company generally urges franchisees to seek 2,200-square-foot to 2,400-square-foot locations, though it has one unit that is 1,700 square feet, Wolok said.
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