Brad Beaverson, a
44-year-old York, PA native was a stockbroker by day and pretzel aficionado by
night.
Brad worked for a
brokerage firm for seven years alongside Philly Pretzel Factory CEO, Dan DiZio.
Seeing DiZio’s success, and wanting to break from his career as a broker, Brad
decided to join Philly Pretzel Factory and opened up his first location in 2002 in Bryn Mawr, PA.
He has since sold that location, but in 2006 opened one in Upper Darby, PA and
one in the 69th Street Bus Terminal in 2007.
Brad, along with
his partner Matt Simon, are currently working on opening a first-of-its kind
location in Montgomery Mall. This particular location is unique as it’s the
first Philly Pretzel Factory to open up in a mall and be co-branded alongside Rita’s Italian Ice, a
Philly staple.
Technology has also
played an unprecedented role with this particular location. After a couple of
years of prototyping different ovens, Philly Pretzel Factory was finally able to reduce the size
of the equipment they use to bake their delicious pretzels, allowing them to
branch out into smaller locations and further develop the brand.
How did you learn
about the brand?
I worked alongside Philly Pretzel’s now-CEO Dan for a
while when we were both stockbrokers. I’ve seen the evolution of the brand
since the beginning.
Why did you choose
an opportunity with Philly Pretzel Factory?
This has been something in front of me and I saw DiZio’s
vision firsthand. I know how he ran things the hours, and the overall feel and
potential of the company. I worked at his store before becoming a store owner
to familiarize myself with the process and the inner-workings on all ends.
Why did you choose
a mall location?
With a mall, you get a lot of foot traffic. My other
location is in a transportation terminal so that particular store has gotten a
lot of great business due to the sheer amount of people that pass by it.
The other piece of it is new technology. Philly Pretzel Factory
was able to downsize the oven the used to bake their pretzels, something
they’ve been working on for the past couple of years. Before this year, the
oven was seven feet wide, so franchisees needed bigger spaces to accommodate
all the equipment. Now, we can downsize our operations and get away with 400
square feet as opposed to 1500 square feet. We test piloted these ovens at
places like the Philadelphia Zoo and we saw how well it worked. So over the
last 12 months, we were able to start incorporating the new technology into our
concepts. By making the oven smaller, we’re able to progress and evolve into
bigger things.
What challenges
have you overcome to get where you are now?
Owning a small business is not an easy task. There are
tough times when you’re trying to pay your bills and market the locations. I
work seven days a week, 90 hours a day. Hours and affordability have definitely
been our greatest challenge.
What are your
expansion or development plans? What is your end goal with PPF?
If this concept works in a mall,
we’d like to expand into additional malls throughout the area with the model.
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