Article

French Fry Heaven looks to capitalize on snacking trend

Regarding expansion plans, the company's goal is to be "everywhere people are hungry."

April 17, 2013 by Alicia Kelso — Editor, QSRWeb.com

Look out pretzels, popcorn and cookies, there's a new player in the quick-service snack space. And it just so happens this concept offers one of America's favorite fast food staples — french fries.

French Fry Heaven is a Jacksonville, Fla., company created by CEO Scott Nelowet, a former university leader who was inspired by the popularity of french fry stands throughout the streets of Europe. Nelowet's fledgling franchise business features gourmet fries and more than 50 topping choices, from garlic parmesan to cinnamon and brown sugar.

The first French Fry Heaven location opened in October 2011 in Jacksonville after Nelowet successfully tested his idea at a few local festivals. In 2012, he signed two franchise deals and then went on to sign an additional 23 units for Florida and Georgia.

In the first three months of officially offering franchising opportunities, French Fry Heaven signed agreements for Texas, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York. Three are now open and 69 franchised units are in the immediate pipeline.

As for further expansion plans, French Fry Heaven's mission statement states that the brand wants to be "everywhere people are hungry."

"That means everywhere; we want to be in transportation centers, military bases, casinos, bar rows, college campuses, malls, amusement parks, etc.," Nelowet said. "Our intent is to grow only through franchising."

Initial target areas include Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, New York, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Texas and along the Eastern Seaboard.

"The key is that the more dense we are the more we can leverage scale locally to profit our franchisees. We have stores going up all around the country and these have us the most excited so far," Nelowet added.

However, the company is cautious about oversaturation that may compromise franchisee profitability. French Fry Heaven is, therefore, open to international expansion as well.

"For some other companies, international expansion is just too daunting. However, our concept is so streamlined, organized and simple, if would be incredibly easy to expand overseas. We would simply need to source fries, not the hardest thing in the world to find," Nelowet said.

The product

The company uses proprietary cooking methods to give it a point of differentiation. At the base of the menu are Belgian-style fries, or "Angels," that are crunchy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, and sweet potato fries, or "Saints."

The fries come topped with a choice of 50-plus flavors from salty to sweet. Customers can choose from the most popular menu item — Belgian-style fries topped with garlic parmesan and black truffle salt, or opt for something sweet such as the Festival, which dresses up sweet potato fries with toppings that make the fries taste like a funnel cake. The menu also offers a cheeseburger option, which uses the Belgian-style fries and is created to taste like a cheeseburger without using beef or beef flavor, Cajun fries with remoulade sauce, coconut curry with Thai peanut sauce, and the "Thanksgiving," which is created to taste like sweet potato pie.

All of the fries are cooked hot and served in a cone, traditional to how fries are served in Europe.

"We of course have stuck with the three European basics of mayo, vinegar and ketchup. We also serve in a cone to ensure the European feel that so many are used to. The biggest carry over is our Belgian cooking method which yields a crisp on the outside, soft on the inside fry that retains very little oil," Nelowet said.

The fries are gluten-free, and the company's sauces are 90 percent gluten-free as well. Additionally, the menu is 95-percent vegetarian, MSG and GMO free.

"We put in some effort to be as healthful as possible, but ultimately, it's about the flavor," Nelowet added.

French Fry Heaven has two sizes — Cupids and Perfects, for the suggested prices of $3.99 and $5.99, respectively. There are also some extras that can be added to fries, such as Ghost Pepper Salt, which is known as the hottest salt in the world, as well as beverages such as its proprietary strawberry lemonade. Some stores will also carry beer and milkshakes, as well as a variety of merchandise.

The marketing plan

As it grows, Nelowet noted that French Fry Heaven will drive traffic through its 13-step marketing process created to spread the word for each new location.

"French Fry Heaven is an absolute beast when it comes to marketing. One store alone generates $2.5 million in free marketing buzz following our well-defined 13-step marketing program. French Fry Heaven itself inspires interest, and then when you add this with our ready-made materials, fry cartoon (frytoons), designs and social media savvy, you have a marketing goliath," he explained.

The company lays the program out for each franchisee and creates 90 percent of the necessary materials for them, including pre-written tweets. At one store, for example, this marketing program resulted in 23 television interviews, 19 radio interviews, 15 newspaper articles and more than 200 online posts.

As a former Peace Corps volunteer, Nelowet has also infused charitable service into the brand. The company specifically seeks franchisees and employees who have a history of charitable or community service. To drive the idea of charitable values, corporate requires franchisees to use one-third of their advertising fees to go directly toward funding local charitable service.

"Franchisees would have to spend that money anyway, and we think it's awesome to be able to spend it on doing positive work in their community and enhancing their reputation," said Nelowet, noting that the remaining two-thirds of advertising fees are split in half for corporate and local advertising.

In addition to having a consistent marketing strategy in place, French Fry Heaven will also leverage the growing snack space between lunch and dinner dayparts.

"After decades of only having cookies, pretzels and popcorn in the snack segment, French Fry Heaven is a long-awaited new alternative treat for U.S. consumers," Nelowet said. "We are filling a niche in the industry. It is a terminally unique brand with very little competition, and we're quickly being recognized as the best concept in the snack category."

Check out some of French Fry Heaven's creations.

Read more about operations management.

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