Angry Crab Shack

How i’m PreParinG our raPiDly-GrowinG seafooD franCHise for an even biGGer 2023

With 21 years of restaurant industry experience under my belt, I’ve learned a thing or two about efficient restaurant operations, processes and people. As the new Director of Franchise Operations at Angry Crab Shack, I’m bringing everything I’ve learned about operations to the rapidly-growing seafood boil franchise.

From inventory to training, technology, and customer experience – there’s a lot that goes into running a successful restaurant.

Whenever someone asks me the key to growth, I keep it simple…. give the guests what they want. From employees to our Franchise Partners, you must invest in your training processes, quality control and atmosphere to keep guests satisfied and coming back for more.

“My goal is to continually collaborate with our Franchisee Partners and employees who work in our kitchens every day.”

My ultimate goal in my new role is to open 10-15 new Angry Crab Shack locations per year while implementing the necessary programs to grow both revenues and earnings for our Franchise Partners worldwide.

Research, Planning and action

Any seasoned business person will tell you that the first step in building a successful strategy is “Managing by Fact”. It all starts with understanding the current facts and then implementing a plan that addresses the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats relative to these facts. The first thing I did when I joined Angry Crab Shack was to conduct a detailed SWOT Analysis. I took a deep dive into areas where our Franchise Partners are succeeding and into areas needing improvement. You quickly realize that certain factors, such as supply chain disruptions or the nationwide labor shortage, are out of your control, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be proactive and creative in tackling these challenges head on. Through Angry Crab Shack’s strong vendor relationships, we’re able to help Franchise Partners maintain their inventory, stabilize pricing agreements, and keep our healthy profit margins afloat. At the same time, exploring additional partnerships is high on my list of priorities. I’ve also immersed myself in the company’s culture with the goal of building strong relationships with our Franchise Partners. Collecting their feedback provides a deeper understanding of how we can continue to set them up for success. Of course, auditing is not a “one and done” process. Reviewing results monthly with each of our Franchise Partners ensures incremental improvement while cementing those relationships crucial to our mutual success. Finally, we review our long-term strategy every six months, making changes where necessary. This is especially important in such a volatile economy.

Bring on the tech

One key strategy to streamline operations is to continually improve our various technology platforms, including those relative to our point-of-sale-systems, guest loyalty programs and staff training. The days of jam-packed training binders are long gone, replaced by on-line portals. Angry Crab Shack’s on-line training resource, CrabLab, provides Franchise Partners and their employees with everything they need to know about their restaurant’s operations – from video training modules to standard operating procedures. Meanwhile, our all-in-one restaurant growth platform, Momos, has made guest engagement and marketing a breeze. Guests are always just a click away, and combined with other platforms like social media, no questions or feedback ever goes unaddressed.

We will continue to expand and improve these technologies while adding new ones to ensure continued growth in Franchise Partner revenues and earnings.

Quality control is Key

It’s hard to predict what the economy might look like in the coming years. No matter what happens, staying true to your mission and goals and never cheapening our brand or products is key. Guests should be able to walk into any of our restaurants and know they’ll be served the same, unique, high-quality seafood they know and love – whether they’re at their local restaurant or at one hundreds of miles away. Seafood in particular can be a trickier product to maintain, especially for to-go orders. Throughout the past few years, Angry Crab Shack has invested heavily in to-go packaging specifically designed to keep seafood tasting hot and fresh. We’ll continue to innovate in these areas where possible. Back-of-house operations play a major role in food quality. Efficient processes, careful handling of the food and timely delivery to our guests are all essential to a consistent, high-quality experience for our guests. My goal is to continually collaborate with our Franchisee Partners and employees who work in our kitchens every day, to innovate new ways of streamlining operations and incorporating them seamlessly with front-of-the-house operations.

achieving Financial Benchmarks

Angry Crab Shack has set the standard in the seafood boil category for restaurants that produce outstanding revenues and earnings. My job is to expand on that success by ensuring that our strategy includes all the necessary components for supporting our Franchise Partners, including a qualified team, dedicated to assisting them in achieving incremental improvement in top-line revenues and bottom-line earnings. In addition to the aforementioned programs of planning, training, streamlined operations and technical innovations, our Franchise Partners will continue to be supported by an expanding team of seasoned professionals to assist them in developing the necessary marketing campaigns to drive guest traffic to our restaurants while maximizing earnings. Finally, our support staff is fully experienced in managing critical costs such as food costs and labor. By comparing Angry Crab Shack’s benchmarks for these and other costs of operations, to actual Profit and Loss statements for each of our Franchise Partners, our support team can provide recommendations for their incremental improvement.

stay Focused on the strategy

At the end of the day, my new role comes down to two primary goals…. open new Angry Crab Shack locations while expanding revenues and earnings for our Franchise Partners worldwide. Utilizing my analysis of the facts and diverse industry experience, a well thought out plan and a dedicated team to support our Franchise Partners, I’m confident in achieving and surpassing these goals.

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