Chad Franzen 15:32
Yeah, I’m sure having all those systems in place, are very, very valuable to you, especially now that you’re, you’re kind of branching out, you’re more than branching out, you have branched out into a national franchise program. What kind of led you to go in that direction?
Mehdi Zarhloul 15:46
Well, well, many, many reasons. One, I wanted to create a legacy, right? I want to move from a lifestyle to create a legacy and kind of see my company growth. And see it thrive in different globe and different parts of the United States. First, I wanted to do it one day, they upgrade me to a first class and they showed me what first class looks like. I’m like, wow, this is great one pita restaurants are gonna make it we need to open few more. But demand actually one of them is the demand, I get a lot of people that asked me to bring Crazy Pita to them, to their territories to where they live as here in Vegas, a lot of people move out a lot of their transition. So they move in, they always call me Medicom and open one for us. So from the demand side, we know it exists, there is an plus, I would like, I want to see Crazy Pita thriving in many markets. I want to see, I want to offer my experience and my food to others. I like to the one of the things that sets me apart earlier, is the connection. And we believe in kindness. I’m not only promoting my food, but I’m also promoting kindness to every community that we do. And that’s why we’re strong. And my my system is designed based on kindness, like the Be kind, we run a foundation for quite a long time. And we want to take that with us. So we’re not just promoting only the food you can nowadays you can get food anywhere, but want to see somebody as a restaurant, somebody who is enjoying your food, with kindness, and somebody who’s taken pride of a job that is cooking it for him or the servers serving it to them. And that’s what makes me happy. That’s why I wake up every day. Right? That’s my goal. The money will come later you will automatically shows up. So that’s that’s one of the main reasons I do this. I I tried to go become a doctor is a little too late. Or an architect or an engineer, I’m not smart enough. But that’s why we went ahead and we set up all the system from the technology side. We do our economics are great. Our first franchisee that I’ve known for a while has been my customer he has we knew each other and when he wanted to go in his own venture he called upon and he said I want now we’re lucky that he signed 14 units in sugar. So who I was planning to sell 10 units within three years. My first is has 10 units. So we’re going to focus now on opening the first one, Nick, the first week of November. We have so many things in line it’s going to be in Sugarland, Texas, so many things happen in for that area, maybe we’ll do a barbecue pizza or you know that it’s so the the possibilities are you know, they’re infinite you can do so much to to enter that community and so far before opening, we’ve been welcomed with open arms from the neighbors and we’re looking forward to do business with them you know, and be part of their, their their family connection, connection connection. We seem to establish that and when we’re gonna repeat it we are known for our hospitality. And that’s the kind of business that we do come in from having a background every deal you make is around the table. Every discussion you have is around the table. So the food you serve better
Chad Franzen 19:52
yeah,
Mehdi Zarhloul 19:53
you want to break a deal?
Chad Franzen 19:56
Yeah, definitely. Definitely. So you have one franchisee who’s opening 10 locations, that’s obviously huge, especially for your first your first franchisee as you mentioned, that’s a big undertaking, but you know, eventually I’m sure you’ll start to look for more franchisees. What, what are the kinds of things you look for maybe who would make a good franchise?
Mehdi Zarhloul 20:17
Well, we look for business savvy experience, that’s the number one. And then we look at their financials, they have to be, you know, it’s not easy anymore. Just to go ahead and, you know, open the restaurants, you know, the prices. And, there is more than just having a look for somebody who understands the business, we prefer somebody who’s been in business, somebody will already have management in place. Not that I’m saying we won’t go to first timer, but if it’s in a small town, yes, we will look at somebody with the first time. But we can have the time to coach them and teach them. But it makes it easier at my stage of growth, is to find a motor unit to do at least five to 10 units in one big city. And if they were existing operators, for a bigger company already, that’s great, because they understand the business side of the restaurant, or, or if they have also a management in place, that makes things a lot easier. So we both can benefit. And you know, when they have, that they work with us on growing Crazy Pita to take it to another level, because at the end of the day is to people around you, who’s going to make it grow and thrive. So we’re very careful selecting who we do business with, we can just go ahead and if the key to anybody that walks in, they gotta be part of our vision and work and strive hard to make it successful. That’s the goal. And that’s the plan.
Chad Franzen 21:55
Are there some ways that Crazy Pita utilizes technology, maybe that other restaurants don’t, to kind of enhance the customer experience?
Mehdi Zarhloul 22:06
Yes, technology, you know, like I say, right after COVID things have changed. Things were different before COVID. And I always say before COVID, you open, you open your door, you have your coffee, you look at the sky, you can tell what your day is going to be by the weather, right now weather plays a big factor. Well, nowadays, you have to open your computer and see how many digital things are going around, you know, your screen and you’re looking at numbers. And the last two years, I spent a big amount of time building an ecosystem for crazy people. You know, I do it with a lot of help with my friends that I met the last three, four years and the people that I know, in the industry, and we seem we’re about to we created an ecosystem that works on its own. It’s more like I feel that it’s alive. Like you know, it’s it’s more like I created that we designed an AI that it just work from from guests acquisition all the way to the retention to an aqua, EB and onboarded with you and their phase either they’re with you for a year or two years or, or a long time you can see it and feel it. And I kind of manage without me being in every location, I’m able to be there just as my laptop like I’m talking to you right now and I can see everything that is happening. So, the main thing I always say to anybody that starts this business is your POS system, your POS. POS is your core of you know, everything goes through there, every number goes through there, every employee goes through there, every customer goes through there and, and the things you integrate and you connect with and from the third parties, aggregators, on the deliveries to the loyalty program to the to the way you connect with your customers, you know, for for example, we use it to count we look what our customers are ordering. Right and who orders what and and we want to go back to them and promote them. If you have a guy who loves chicken pizza, there is no reason to send him a steak pita as an advertisement, right? Doesn’t make sense. Keep sending them about chickens and we connect with our, from the new customer to our existing customers. How do you keep your existing and this is always sell all the marketers out there, you know, a lot of agencies out there that approach you I can grow your business from 10 to 15%. Right. And they do it for a short period of time. Well then how do you get that 15% to the next 15% So that’s the part that’s a lot of restaurant tours. That’s why we can have retention keep those existing customers so like marketing has multifaceted multi ways how we do market from bringing them to the first time to the in house marketing to the way we keep them coming back. And then we use so many tools like you know text and and email blast and QR codes and indoor and we try to be in their mailboxes. My always take whatever their guest says wherever they open their mail, either in a computer or their home mailbox, I want to be there already their work mailbox, I want to be there I want to be there with them Crazy Pita would have some they open it in their Facebook or their Instagram in their trick that I do take that now Chad, can you believe it? Wow, they’re making me do things. But you know what I love it, it helps me communicate with 1000s of my guests directly. I want them to know what I do every day, what kind of promotions I do, what kind what, what’s coming up. So this way they hear it from me. You know, I’m, I’m not sure your traditional tie and suit CEO, I like to be in the front, I like to be with my guests, I like to be with my employees, technology, and how the C suite can simplify for me the C suite levels. At my stage, I cannot afford so many C level personnel, but I can do it with technology. And and so far it’s been working, it’s allowing me you know, I’m learning to open different stores in different markets. And so far, we’re about open to technology has helped me evaluate all that process. And now I’m looking. Of course we document every single thing. And I had to go to sugar and and only couple times, you know, but throughout the six month process, I’m doing everything from my laptop. So imagine and without spending a lot of labor. You know, do it doing it as we grow, we will add more people. But as for now, I still can handle and manage with the personnel that I have in house and all the other subcontractors that work with me.
Chad Franzen 27:36
So you have you know, all kinds of things going on now you’re very adaptable, always kind of learning and trying new things. If you have a vision for the next five years, what might that look like?
Mehdi Zarhloul 27:48
Well, I tell you what I want to always every time somebody asked me a question, I like to go big. If that’s next five years, I want to have number of Crazy Pita signs on the book and the number as many as I open. Ideally, I would love to see over hundreds locations open or more. Within the next five years, I would love to see 500. I have bigger goals, I have bigger plans. I would love to see Crazy Pita went global. You know, but again, before you get there, you have to open number one, number two, number three, number four, and we are not going to rush to it, we’re going to do everything as perfectly as possible. Before we move to the next level, my job is to protect you as a CEO or anybody as CEO is to protect your asset and what you have. And then you look at the growth, you know, either organically or when the opportunity presents itself. We’re gonna measure it and waited you know, so and there is there’s plenty The good thing is everybody eats. My best customer if you have teeth, you are my customer. The areas of growth, we wait them as the opportunity before we look at the channels that are here on the West Coast side, we are looking at other eastern coast channels that can be opened and always we like to hit the all the cornerstone of the states. So this way kind of create a grid that can help us succeed and can help us flourish in the future. Yeah, but that’s the plan.
Chad Franzen 29:34
Sounds great. I have one more question for you. But first, let me know how people can find out more you said you’re on TikTok. How can how else can people find out about Crazy Pita?
Mehdi Zarhloul 29:42
You know you just Google Crazy Pita you go to my website you’ll find links to sorry about this. Oops. Sorry. That’s right. You can go to LinkedIn and my name Mehdi Zarhloul or you can go to Facebook Crazy Pita and Crazy Pita on Instagram. I try to be as many channels as I can myself. But we have a great team that keeps updated with all what we do online.
Chad Franzen 30:13
Right. Sounds good. Okay, last question. for you, you developed the menu, but when you go to Crazy Pita as a customer Do you have kind of like a, like a go to item of choice or meal of choice?
Mehdi Zarhloul 30:25
Yes, well, the chicken is very popular. I personally love the chicken skewer plate and the chicken pita. We use. We started do we use a home cooked meal or warm plates? That’s the dish. We use couscous with vegetables with butternut squash and zucchini. Nobody does that. Nobody does it from coast to coast. And even in my hometown, my home country, Morocco, Casa Blanca, we do it only on Fridays, here at Crazy Pita they do it every day. And we kind of developed a process that we can do it so when we can make it happen. It’s a home cooked meal. A lot of people use it to take up for our takeouts. We want that’s what we wanted to provide. And that’s what I enjoy eating. It meets all the the healthy that the pyramids, you know from your legumes and carbs and proteins. It’s all there for you and yeah, that’s my go to Bill.
Chad Franzen 31:36
Yeah, that’s fantastic. Hey, Maddy has been great to talk to you today. Thank you so much for your time and all your insights, your great story, and best of luck in the future. Really appreciate it.
Mehdi Zarhloul 31:46
Thank you, Chad, for having me. Have a wonderful day.
Chad Franzen 31:49
You as well. Thanks. So long, everybody.
Outro 31:53
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