Launching a Mobile Franchise Model
A simple Old World recipe started it all. A century later, Repicci’s Italian Ice is hitting the road.
By Frank Repicci
My grandfather, Dominic Francesco Repicci, immigrated in 1911 to southern Philadelphia from Messina, Italy. Along with his Italian heritage, Dominic brought his family’s Old World recipe for Italian Ice to the New World. At first, he shared our family’s delicious traditional treat with friends and neighbors in his new American home, but it wasn’t long before he found himself working to meet an overwhelming demand for the dessert.
That was when Repicci’s Italian Ice was born. Our century-old company has thrived in the 21st century’s mobile franchising concept, and currently has 48 franchisees across the United States.
I was raised in Tennessee, but our family would travel across the country to visit my grandfather in Pennsylvania every other year throughout my childhood. It was during these precious times with family that I was taught the recipe and process for making our Real Italian Ice.
As an adult, I requested and received my grandfather’s blessing to use his recipe to reinvent the company on a larger scale as FDR Enterprises Inc. I assumed the role of CEO and decided to open a manufacturing plant, which initially supplied concessions for Chattanooga, Tenn. parks, recreation facilities and surrounding distributors.
Our Decision to Enter Franchising
In 2005, FDR Enterprises launched Repicci's Franchise Group, selling event-based franchises. Our first franchisees saw success using seasonal tents at spring and summertime events. But the company wanted to find a way to make Repicci’s a full-time and year-round revenue opportunity for our franchisees.
In 2010, we decided to add mobile trailers to our franchising model, making it easier and more efficient for franchisees to attend events located further apart. This expanded their opportunities and increased their revenue potential, but the value of mobile vehicles became apparent. In 2012, we developed a food truck platform to begin testing and performance validation in our Birmingham, Ala. franchise territory.
We are now able to serve as a vendor at all types of events, such as the Steel City Jazz Festival, the Hangout Music Festival to the SEC Baseball Tournament at the Hoover Met, as well as being a fixture at Barber Motor Sports for events such as the Indy Grand Prix of Alabama.
Our food truck enables us to set up outside businesses that invite us to offer refreshments to their employees during the workday or become part of the “going out” scene by frequenting popular downtown corners. Because of these successful results, since August new Repicci’s Italian Ice & Gelato franchisees have purchased Mercedes Sprinter food trucks to launch their new territories. We have three active trucks as of Nov. 1.
Choosing a Food Truck that will Increase Efficiencies
Selecting the Mercedes Sprinter was a long and arduous process. Not all food trucks are created equal, and we were looking for one that would fit our needs exactly. We wanted a model that was totally self-contained, meaning our franchisees could safely store and serve our Italian Ice and Gelato and be approved by local health departments. By doing this, franchisees are able to sell longer before heading back to their business’ home base to re-stock and clean up.
When considering your business’ POS flow, it’s important to think about ways to make the process of serving customers convenient and streamlined. The food truck we selected allows up to four employees to work comfortably inside. Because our truck operators are having a blast serving customers at concerts and community festivals, the fun atmosphere may be too loud for employees to shout orders back and forth. So, we can use video monitor ordering screens to help ensure accuracy and minimize customer wait time. Outdoor menu screens on the side of the food truck can be changed as needed to show updated flavors and prices, as well as serving as a rolling message center.
Helping Customers Find You
The beauty and the challenge of having a food truck business model is its mobility. Without brick and mortar, you are free to take your products to wherever your customers are, evolving with geographical and event-based demand. But your constantly changing location can make it difficult for new or returning customers to find you.
We have partnered with an SMS-based marketing service and a schedule-posting, web-integrated service to help us overcome this obstacle. By empowering franchisees to collect customers’ contact information, they are able to create a database of loyal followers, while keeping fans updated on new product promotions, coupons and, of course, where food trucks will be and when. Messages are sent out via short texts, with the possibility of linking to our corporate websites or microsites built for specific products or events.
Our schedule-posting, web-integrated service creates a more efficient process for franchisees to announce where they will be and when across all their digital platforms. Initially, we tried to get weekly schedules posted to our corporate websites by manual entry, but the process was time-consuming. By November, we will have launched the system that allows franchisees to post their schedules once and populate websites and social media simultaneously.
Looking to the Future
We will continue to discover new challenges to overcome as we continue unrolling (pun intended) our food truck model. Just as Dominic Francesco Repicci learned to adapt to a new country during the Industrial Revolution, Repicci’s Real Italian & Gelato is adapting to a new marketing structure based on wheels.
Frank Repicci is CEO and a franchise owner of Repicci’s Italian Ice & Gelato. Find him at fransocial.franchise.org