Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue II, 2016 | Page 58

MULTI

BRAND

BY KERRY PIPES

Winning Combination
Pizza and subs fuel growth for Jerry Heath

W

hen we last profiled Jerry Heath
in 2010, the Michigan native
was busy operating 11 Hungry
Howie’s pizza restaurants and
had recently become involved with Jimmy
John’s, opening 5 units. As you might expect with an entrepreneur in the franchise
business, things have changed.
“I’ve sold two Hungry Howie’s, relocated my first store, and opened one new
store,” says Heath. “I’ve also remodeled two
of my older locations and will have the rest

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of them remodeled by the end of 2016.”
But it’s with the Jimmy John’s brand that
things have really taken off for him. He’s
more than doubled his number of units since
2010, opening six new Jimmy John’s with
another scheduled to open within weeks.
In all, he now operates 9 Hungry Howie’s
and 12 Jimmy John’s (with two more set to
open, one in May and one in June).
All this growth has taken his annual
revenue from around $7 million in 2010
to $16 million last year.

Heath says he has been very strategic
with his business plan. In 2014, he recognized he had two underperforming Hungry
Howie’s stores. “They were in a couple of
smaller markets and were not doing well.
I wanted to concentrate on the more profitable markets,” he says. So he sold them.
Then came the relocation and the remodels. “It was time to renew my franchise
agreement. I had to either do an extensive
remodel or move one store, so I decided to
move it about 1½ miles down the street to

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