Franchise Focus

Wisconsin's root beer baroness: How Deanne Wells' A&W Restaurants thrive in small towns

Deanne Wells has six A&W units in smalls towns in Wisconsin. She's paving the way for small-town franchisees to live and work in their respective communities.

A&W Exterior

March 10, 2025 by Mandy Wolf Detwiler — Editor, Networld Media Group

From carhop to root beer baroness, Deanne Wells' lifelong love affair with A&W Restaurants has fueled her expansion from a single gas station food counter to a growing empire of six drive-thru restaurants, proving that sometimes, going back to your roots is the recipe for success.

Wells' first job was at the tender age of 14 as a carhop at a local root beer stand. She worked her way up to being a night manager, and from there she worked other waitressing jobs throughout school.

Deanne Wells. Photo: A&W

"I really liked the fast pace of restaurants and such, so that's how I got started," Wells said in a phone interview with QSRweb.com.

After she married, she and her husband owned a gas station in Withee, Wisconsin, with a small food court inside with a pizzeria and a place serving chicken. They decided to add on to their building with a small dime store. When Family Dollar and Dollar General stores began entering small towns, Wells knew her little store couldn't compete.

She wanted to put something in its place that would be profitable, so they checked into fast food restaurants with drive-thru capabilities.

"When we started researching, I just instantly went back to my roots saying 'Why don't we see if A&W will come in a c-store, and so we reached out to them. The brand affirmed that it had been looking at that kind of model," Wells said.

The Wells cleared out all the shelving and made it an A&W with a drive-thru window in 2016. It worked perfectly, Wells said, because there was no fast food with a drive-thru in her town and it took off well with all the locals.

A second A&W opened in Spencer, Wisconsin in 2019.

"From there we expanded to our Altoona (Wisconsin) location, and we ventured out into a bigger town," Wells said. Altoona has a population of about 9,000 and sits right outside of Eau Claire, a college town. That location is doing well, she added.

A fourth restaurant was built in Cadott, Wisconsin and a fifth in Colby, Wisconsin, in a gas station with a former Hardee's restaurant inside.

Another Hardee's closed down in Merrill, Wisconsin, and Wells opened her sixth A&W in January 2025.

Why A&W Restaurants

Wells said she chose A&W Restaurants because she loves the brand and she enjoys its signature root beer.

"It's amazing," she said. "The cheese curds, the burgers – it's all very good product." It also harkened back to her days as a carhop.

Wells said managing employees is her biggest challenge. While she is fully staffed at all her stores, "it's a daily challenge," she admits. "People calling in, trying keep employees happy – the hardest part of my whole job is employees."

Wells offers her employees free meals, free uniforms and flexible scheduling. "We really cater to what they're looking for," Wells said. "If we see that they don't like it in the back around the grills, we ask them where they'd like to go and where they feel comfortable. So, we try to make them a place."

While some employees focus specifically on cutting and prepping, others man the registers and some do grillwork. Putting people where their strengths lie only helps the franchises grow. Treating employees with respect is paramount and Wells expects respect from them.

A&W interior. Photo: A&W

Standing out

Wells said A&W stands out in its communities first and foremost by its signature root beer and frosty mugs. It shocks customers that the franchises make their own root beer on-site with a motorized mixer. Years ago, that root beer had to be stirred with a paddle, but it's done electronically now. Root beer is also sold in gallon jugs.

"Offering that frosted mug is huge because the other people – they love it. They love remembering it, and then the younger people, when they do take it, they're like 'Oh, really? In a mug?' and I'm like 'You'll never get it any better than in a mug."

Wells said her A&W Restaurants try to provide great service and show their personalities in their respective communities.

"We show that we care, that we love our customers when they come in … and we just give them that great root beer and all our great food," Wells added, "and just promote the brand."

The employees wear A&W t-shirts and there are plenty of marketing signs. The franchise does tons of advertising, including billboards on main throughfares using the popular graphics that the brand provides its franchisees.

Love for the brand

A&W's long legacy is another reason Wells chose it as her franchise. She said the brand pioneered the bacon cheeseburger. "It's the beginning," she said. "It's the real deal."

The brand has a strong support network for its franchisees, Wells added. For example, she has a district manager and has her phone number. She will answer any of Wells' questions and if she can't she'll find the resources to give to Wells. A&W officials know Wells by name and take her calls – they don't put her off. That's one of the perks of being an A&W franchisee, she said.

A&W has implemented a new POS system by Brink that has taken the brand to the next level with its tech stack. "I can do online ordering now," Wells said. "I can get DoorDash in and in all my restaurants now I've upgraded my systems so they're all on Brink. We're on the cloud network. I can see everything from my phone anywhere I'm at. I can use my phone to figure out what these stores are doing or if my labor is too high."

Wells' has also brought in self-service kiosks, though traditional ordering methods are still available.

The community

Wells and her A&W units are involved in the small communities where her stores are located.

"We need them to try to help us," she said. "They're backing us, so I back them. We pretty well don't tell anybody 'No.' We do everything from sponsoring t-shirts like t-shirts for the school activities. We have share nights where anybody non-profit if they need a fundraiser, we'll do many of those in our stores where we actually share the profits. They get 20% of our profits. That's huge. We giveaway by the thousands ice cream cone cards. We send notes out to the schools saying 'Hey, we're in your area. We'd love to help you out.'"

The franchise also has a mascot that visits schools and the community, and it also gives away gift baskets and root beer parties.

"It shows thar we're giving back to the community. We're trying to give back to the community," she added.

The future

Wells is planning another unit in Wausau, Wisconsin, and hopes to have it open mid-summer.

Wells recommends potential A&W franchisees visit a store and spend time with an experienced franchisee to watch and see if it's something viable for a prospective franchisee. Wells said: "I'd have them in the back just shadowing me, seeing if you like it, and then if you do like it, I would say go for it and get them hooked up with A&W in Kentucky and then go for it. If you're ready to go to work and be committed, I would say it's a great opportunity."

About Mandy Wolf Detwiler

Mandy Wolf Detwiler is the managing editor at Networld Media Group and the site editor for PizzaMarketplace.com and QSRweb.com. She has more than 20 years’ experience covering food, people and places.

An award-winning print journalist, Mandy brings more than 20 years’ experience to Networld Media Group. She has spent nearly two decades covering the pizza industry, from independent pizzerias to multi-unit chains and every size business in between. Mandy has been featured on the Food Network and has won numerous awards for her coverage of the restaurant industry. She has an insatiable appetite for learning, and can tell you where to find the best slices in the country after spending 15 years traveling and eating pizza for a living.

Connect with Mandy: