[SpotOn Series] Acquiring a Company Without Jeopardizing the Original Brand Model With Sherif Mityas

Experienced executive leader Sherif Mityas is the CEO of BRIX Holdings, a Dallas-based franchisor of award-winning food brands including Souper Salad, Smoothie Factory, and RedBrick Pizza. His demonstrated work history in retail and customer interaction earned him the accolade of Global CXO of the year in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. Additionally, Sherif was named one of the top 10 innovators in the restaurant industry in 2020 by Nation’s Restaurant News.

Here’s a Glimpse of What You’ll Hear:

Sherif Mityas talks about how he broke into the restaurant industry
How did he transition to BRIX Holdings?
BRIX Holdings’ impact on popular food brands
The difference between a RedBrick Kitchen Cafe franchise and a frozen yogurt franchise
Sherif’s goals for BRIX Holdings
Sherif’s proudest moment in the restaurant industry

In this episode…

Mergers and acquisitions are big business these days. Unfortunately, it’s a common side effect of acquisitions for the original business model to be lost in the transition. So how can companies going through a M&A prevent this from happening?

Executive leader Sherif Mityas explains the first step is to get back to the grassroots of the original business model once it’s acquired. Many times brands peak beyond their growth cycle and become stagnant. So, how can this be rectified? When reestablishing grassroots, it’s essential to reevaluate the brand’s target consumer and its original end goal. Want to learn more?

Join Chad Franzen of Rise25 in this episode of the SpotOn Series. Chad speaks with the CEO of BRIX Holdings, Sherif Mityas, about how the company impacts brands once it is acquired. Additionally, Sherif discusses how he broke into the restaurant industry, how to become a BRIX franchisee, and the company’s future.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Sponsor for this episode

SpotOn:

Today’s episode is brought to you by SpotOn. SpotOn has transformed the merchant service industry by providing the tools and support your business deserves at a price that puts money back into your pocket!

SpotOn’s team wants to empower all of their merchants by merging payment processing with simple customer engagement tools, all in one easy-to-use platform. As a business owner, you are focused on managing your daily operations and engaging your customers. You don’t have the time, energy, or excess funds to devote to multiple complicated platforms! That’s why SpotOn is focused on helping you build long-lasting customer loyalty while saving you time and money through our all in one system.

Whether you are a merchant or a consumer, SpotOn wants to be more than an average payment processor. SpotOn aims to exceed your expectations by valuing simplicity, maintaining flexibility, and celebrating innovative collaboration. Let SpotOn help you do business the right way.

Partner with SpotOn today! Visit spoton.com today to schedule your free demo or to view SpotOn’s products. You can also call SpotOn at 877.814.4102 at any time. Let SpotOn help you make the difference with your business!

Rise25:

At Rise25, we’re committed to helping you connect with your Dream 100 referral partners, clients, and strategic partners through our done-for-you podcast solution.

We’re a professional podcast production agency that makes creating a podcast effortless. Since 2009, our proven system has helped thousands of B2B businesses build strong relationships with referral partners, clients, and audiences without doing the hard work.

What do you need to start a podcast?

When you use our proven system, all you need is an idea and a voice. We handle the strategy, production, and distribution – you just need to show up and talk.

The Rise25 podcasting solution is designed to help you build a profitable podcast. This requires a specific strategy, and we’ve got that down pat. We focus on making sure you have a direct path to ROI, which is the most important component. Plus, our podcast production company takes any heavy lifting of production and distribution off your plate.

We make distribution easy.

We’ll distribute each episode across more than 11 unique channels, including iTunes, Spotify, and Google Podcasts. We’ll also create copy for each episode and promote your show across social media.

Co-founders Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran credit podcasting as being the best thing they have ever done for their businesses. Podcasting connected them with the founders/CEOs of P90x, Atari, Einstein Bagels, Mattel, Rx Bars, YPO, EO, Lending Tree, Freshdesk, and many more.

The relationships you form through podcasting run deep. Jeremy and John became business partners through podcasting. They have even gone on family vacations and attended weddings of guests who have been on the podcast.

Podcast production has a lot of moving parts and is a big commitment on our end; we only want to work with people who are committed to their business and to cultivating amazing relationships.

Are you considering launching a podcast to acquire partnerships, clients, and referrals? Would you like to work with a podcast agency that wants you to win?

Rise25 Co-founders, Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran, have been podcasting and advising about podcasting since 2008.

Episode Transcript

Intro 0:04

Welcome to the Top Business Leaders Show. Powered by Rise25 Media. We feature top founders, executives and business leaders from all over the world.

Chad Franzen 0:20

Chad Franzen here, cohost for this show where we feature top restauranteurs, investors, and business leaders. This is part of our SpotOn series. SpotOn has the best-in-class payment platform for retail and they have a flagship solution called SpotOn Restaurant, where they combined marketing, software, and payments all in one. They serve everyone from larger chains like Dairy Queen and Subway to small mom-and-pop restaurants. To learn more, go to spoton.com This episode is brought to you by Rise25. We help b2b businesses to get ROI clients referrals and strategic partnerships through done for you podcast. If you have a b2b business and want to build great relationships with clients referral partners have thought leader in your space, there is no better way to do it than through podcasts and content marketing. To learn more, go to Rise25Media.com or email us at Support@Rise25Media.com. Sherif Mityas has over 25 years of experience in the retail and restaurant sectors currently serving as the president of BRIX brands, a leading restaurant portfolio company spanning six brands with over 200 locations across the country. Prior to his current role. Sherif was the Chief Experience Officer for TGI Fridays at TGI Fridays, and CEO for Hollywood Video and Movie Gallery. Hey, Sherif, thanks so much for joining me today. How are you?

Sherif Mityas 1:31

Great. Thanks for having me.

Chad Franzen 1:33

Thank you. Hey, so tell me how you how did you break into the restaurant industry?

Sherif Mityas 1:39

Yeah, I mean, a lot of my career has actually been in the retail space. But, you know, obviously, it’s a very incestuous industry. Folks move between retail and restaurants and hospitality pretty easily. And so some of the folks that worked with actually in the movie business, moved into the restaurant space, and was able to join the TGI Fridays group, and and help them out for a few years.

Chad Franzen 2:05

Yeah, I mentioned you were the chief experience officer for TGI Fridays, what were kind of your main objectives in that position?

Sherif Mityas 2:11

Yeah, at that point, I really had responsibility for anything that touches the guest. Right? So it’s not just marketing, culinary innovation, but also technology, digital. And so my main focus was how do we really create a different type of experience? Whether a guest is coming into a restaurant or whether they’re sitting at home? And so to me, it was really how do we take a 50 plus year old brand? And really make it new again, make it relevant again, and really think through? How do we engender the brand to a newer generation? Yeah, obviously do that through technology. And, you know, my big mantra when I came in was, you know, we want to be a technology company that happens to sell beer and ribs.

Chad Franzen 2:53

So what were some kind of changes you made maybe to enhance technology?

Sherif Mityas 2:57

Yeah, so we did a lot around, obviously, the digital platform that we put in place, really be able to, again, connect with guests, wherever they were, when they overdue, we’re thinking about a food and beverage occasion. So you know, improving our digital content, improving our app, or website or mobile capabilities. But even going further to we were the first restaurant chains interact with Amazon, Alexa and Google Home. So people could sit at home, open their Fridays, you know, by speaking to Alexa and get ribs delivered to their house by just not even using their thumbs on their phone. But talking and interacting even when you’re in a car and you know, the on demand system and all those marketplace systems that you have in your car, to be able to not only find a Friday’s maybe make a reservation, but also order and have it ready for you when you want to come and pick it up on your way home from work. So those types of things, were just trying to improve the experience and truth and trying to improve the convenience and the awareness of the engagement between our brand between our locations, our team members and our guests was really our focus.

Chad Franzen 4:02

Very nice. So what brought you to BRIX Holdings?

Sherif Mityas 4:05

So the BRIX Holdings opportunity was very interesting to me, because it was kind of in taking what we were doing in one brand, but now doing it across a portfolio of brands. And, you know, being able to really think about how do you grow? Not just, you know, from a consumer perspective, but how do you grow kind of the, the, the, the units from a from a brand perspective, right? How do you get, and we’re all franchise so how do you get the opportunities to bring on more great franchisees, owner operators that are able to have these great businesses that you’re able to support? To me was an interesting opportunity and to be able to kind of take some brands that are across a number of different cuisine types, I mean, we have everything from sit down casual dining to salad, the phase two frozen yogurt shops, right and be able to really think through how do you create a portfolio group that’s really allows people to, to invest in different ways to interact with guests in different ways. And at the end of the day, it’s just state people’s livelihoods.

Chad Franzen 5:09

So So for people who aren’t familiar, you kind of alluded to it. You guys have a bunch of franchise franchises. Tell me more about what BRIX Holdings does.

Sherif Mityas 5:16

Yeah, so BRIX Holdings is again, and we have a collection of great brands. So the biggest one that probably people know of, if you’re in the northeast at all is Friendly’s. So Friendly’s is an 80 plus year old brand. We know what kind of ice cream and you’ll be there as a kid. And we have about 100. And so locations of Friendly’s that are up and down the Northeast, and great brand and really reemerging in a new way. Back we just opened a new fast casual Friendly’s, so a very different model again to extend what that brand can do and what it stands for. We have a couple of frozen yogurt concepts. So everyone might know again, if you’re in the east or the Midwest, Red Mango, you might see him in airports, see them on college campuses, they’re also on streetside. And then we also have Orange Leaf if you’re down kind of either again, in the Midwest, or now in the South Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt, very kid friendly kind of toppings and sugar high. We have a soup and salad. So Souper Salad is our soup and salad buffet concept. Great opportunity for kind of great value lunch and dinner. And then we have a couple others, we have our Smoothie Factory. So again, very healthy, great smoothies bowls that we have mostly in the Texas market. And then we have a smaller group called RedBrick Pizza. So our kind of 900 degree pizza oven and concepts and Humble Donuts. So just rounding out all the cuisine types.

[continue to page 2]

Chad Franzen 6:43

So these are all brands that BRIX Holdings is acquired, none of them were they were already developed by the time

Sherif Mityas 6:49

Exactly right. That’s right.

Chad Franzen 6:51

Can we go through some of them and maybe talk about how BRIX has impacted has impacted the brand? Like Like, how is BRIX kind of impacted Red Mango into it’s been, you know, kind of acquired by BRIX Holdings?

Sherif Mityas 7:03

Yeah, I think in a couple of different ways. So one of the, one of the big things that we try to do when we acquire a brand is really think get back to its roots, right? why would why did it exist in the first place? And you know, sometimes when we buy brands, they’ve kind of gone through their growth cycle. And they’re, they’re either stagnant, or they’ve been decreasing. And so it’s kind of going back to the core trying to uncover, you know, what was the brand essence? Who are the target consumers? What are we trying to actually achieve with this brand that differentiates it from all the other, in this case, frozen yogurt concepts? And so doing that first and then putting everything around that again, from an experience perspective? So do we need to update what the store looks like, we need to update the menu, do we need to update the marketing around it? And so kind of that’s what we bring to bear is kind of from a consumer driven perspective and experiential perspective, how do we want to ensure that we’re still true to the core of that brand, but we’re, let’s call it remodeling it, right, we’re kind of giving it a new, a new face a new look a new life. And so that’s what we do. And then we take that, and we then grow it right, we kind of go and get new franchise partners, new development partners, and to be able to kind of extend where those locations are brand awareness to the guests, and create an opportunity for that brand to grow and thrive again.

Chad Franzen 8:20

So there are there franchise opportunities available with each of those brands.

Sherif Mityas 8:25

There absolutely is. So if any of your listeners are looking to, you know, join the BRIX Holdings family, we’d love to know please go to brixholdings.com. And we’ve got an opportunity for folks to really go in at different financial levels to right it’s not like you have to have millions of dollars to build a big restaurant. You can spend a little bit of money and open a great fantastic, very profitable little frozen yogurt shop or a little donut shop and so they’re being able to be again have different options for different folks depending on where they are in their life. Do they want to start being a franchisee? We have certain we have a great, you know, franchisee she’s a mother of five down in San Antonio. She started with one Orange Leaf and now she has three. And you know she’s building a legacy for her children to take over those stores someday hopefully continue to grow those stores. But that’s the opportunity that you can sometimes put in place and for people with these franchise businesses is to be your own boss and create something that’s just yours.

Chad Franzen 9:31

What what makes maybe how is RedBrick Pizza Kitchen Cafe a different type of franchise opportunity that maybe a frozen yogurt shop?

Sherif Mityas 9:40

Yeah, well it really comes down to two things. One is financial requirements. Right the pizza shop is clearly more of a sit down restaurant more equipment. It’s more of an investment upfront, but operationally to right. We tend to want to have folks that run RedBrick Pizza or super salads or Friendly’s. Obviously I’ve restaurant experience As you’re dealing with more staff, you’re dealing with more backup house kitchen, a larger menu. And so the capabilities required, in our opinion to operate those more effectively and be successful means that franchisee needs to have not just financial wherewithal, but also operational experience in the restaurant space. Now contrast that with a Red Mango or an Orange Leaf, excuse me. And that’s it’s a lot easier, right? There’s no really heating elements. There’s no cooking, it’s frozen yogurt machines and toppings. And so it’s an opportunity for someone that doesn’t have restaurant experience, but wants to get into the hospitality space, wants to do something fun, build something on their own to kind of ease into the restaurant sector with a frozen yogurt shop?

Chad Franzen 10:46

What should somebody like that maybe somebody like me, who doesn’t have the type of experience that you would need for a pizza place? What should? What is something that I don’t know, that I need to know going into it?

Sherif Mityas 10:58

Yeah, I think the biggest thing is, is especially now in this environment is is how to create the right environment and culture for your team, right. And we’ve heard all the stories about the labor issues in the restaurant space in the hospitality space. And the biggest thing you need to have now is just great people. Right? So coming in and understanding you know, how to deal with people, not just your team members, but guests, right? If you’re going into the hospitality space, you got to be able to have that mindset that I’m here to serve. And I’m here to make sure that everyone else around me has a great time as if you were inviting them into your home. And so I think it’s that first thing is just having the right mindset, having the right thought process. And this is how I want to really own my business. This is how I want to operate my business. But my I want my culture to be in my four walls, not again, just just for your team members, but for your guests as well. And everything else we can teach you, right, we can teach you how to run a store, we can teach you how to do you know the math and the finances and one technology but you’re not coming in with that right mindset of I’m in the hospitality business, and I gotta take care of my team and my guests, then you’re not going to be successful.

Chad Franzen 12:06

What are some of your goals kind of moving forward with moving forward with BRIX Holdings?

Sherif Mityas 12:11

I think, you know, a couple things. One is to again, as I mentioned, is to organically grow the brands we have right ensure we continue to build continue to kind of refresh them and make sure we’re continuing to open new sites with new franchise partners. But secondly, and concurrently, we’re also looking at acquiring new brands, right? We’re not done with just the six, seven brands we have. We’re actively searching and looking for great new brands that are out there, maybe emerging brands, maybe folks that have 20, 30, 40 locations today that are on that cusp of I build something but I don’t really know how to scale it. Now, I don’t really know how to get it to 100 or 200 locations. Those are the folks that we’re interested in talking to and getting them into our portfolio, helping these entrepreneurs grow the part of the portfolio and growing them to something much bigger.

Chad Franzen 12:57

Okay, great. Hey, how can people find out more information about everything that you have going on at BRIX?

Sherif Mityas 13:03

Yeah, so BRIXHoldings.com is the best way to get involved and to interact and contact us through that. And we’re happy to reach out to folks are just interested in understanding more about one or more brands, and getting you started down the path of potentially becoming one of our franchise partners.

Chad Franzen 13:20

Final question for you. What’s the what’s kind of in your career, especially with the restaurant industry, maybe like a moment that you look back on that you’re particularly proud of a big success or kind of a career highlight?

Sherif Mityas 13:32

I think I think the going back, I think the one thing that I’d say surprise me, but also made me the most happy was going into a restaurant. And we had just launched kind of this new technology and new way we wanted team members to interact with the guests. And we there was all this consternation of you know, is it is it taking away from the experience is a taking away from the interaction we want to have between a team member and a guest. And I’ll never forget this one young woman came up to me and she’s like, you know, I was skeptical at first. But what you guys did here is awesome. And it’s made me a better team member. I’m making more money, I’m actually making more tips because of it. And so I can’t thank you enough for believing in us, as team members to give us these tools to make us better at what we do and what our job is and to actually give us more money at the end of the day too. And I think you know, sometimes, especially for folks that get enamored with shiny new objects on the technology side and what you need to do to you know, be different if you can make it so that it works for the team member and not just the guest but both sides. I think you’re gonna fail. And so that to me was kind of a defining moment and one that I kind of hold in the back of my head anytime someone comes to me and says we should go do X next My first question is, you know, what is it going to do for the people that we have? And not just the guests, but the people that we have in our stores?

Chad Franzen 15:09

Great. Hey, great. That’s a great story. Thank you so much, Sherif. I really appreciate your time and your insights.

Sherif Mityas 15:14

Thanks for having me.

Chad Franzen 15:15

So long, everybody.

Outro 15:16

Thanks for listening to the Top Business Leaders Show. Powered by Rise25. Visit Rise25.com to check out more episodes of the show and to learn more about how you can start your own podcast.