FSR January 2023

BREAKOUT BRAND

ested in doing that,” he says “There was never any active franchise outreach. So it would have historically been guests of Eggs Up Grill that had been attracted to the brand and wanted to bring it to their community.” Under WJ Partners, the approach is more aggressive, but not overly so. For one, the brand wants to, at least for the foreseeable future, stay in the Southeast, where Richardson believes it could easily reach 400 units without becoming over saturated. Secondly, it’s still connecting with potential partners the way it did under Skodras’s direction: through word of mouth and in-person interactions. That’s how Ron Donaldson first became acquainted with Eggs Up Grill. Now, he’s on track to be the largest fran chisee in the system, planting outposts in the virgin soil of Texas. While working the graveyard shift at Subway as a teen, Donaldson prom ised himself he’d one day own his own— and he made good on that promise. For about 14 years, he operatedmultiple con cepts, including Subway units and some regional brands in both quick and full

unit count to seven times the pre-acqui sition amount in less than a decade. “Growth is always a lot of fun; there’s just an energy and an excitement that comes from growth. [It’s] a lot of work, but a lot of fun times,” Richardson says. A go for growth The origin story of Eggs Up Grill begins on Pawleys Island, a popular vacation spot along the South Carolina coast. In 1997, after about a decade working in his family’s restaurants, Chris Skodras struck out on his own to open a break fast-driven restaurant. From there, growth was organic and measured. The first franchisee agreement was infor mal at best, with Skodras’s brother as the operator. But friends who were McDonald’s franchisees turned Skodras onto the idea of a more formal structure, and a few years after his brother signed on, the brand began to take a more proac tive approach. Though, Richardson spec ifies, it was proactive in that Skodras “would entertain people who were inter

service. Eventually, he sold the business and switched to buying and building apartment buildings. It was on a work trip to Charleston, South Carolina, that Donaldson happened to dine at what he assumed was a local institution. “The atmosphere was great; the peo ple were great. Whenever I go into a res taurant, I’m always assessing things just because of my history, and I assumed it was a local concept. The more I ate there, the more I enjoyed it. Then I found out it was a franchise brand,” Donaldson says. He started doing some research and eventually connected with Richardson andWJ Partners. “We were just smitten. We were very pleased with the culture, with the brand, and the great opportu nities,” he adds. So last summer, Donaldson, along with his brother and son, signed a deal to develop 30 Eggs Up Grill locations in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth market. The first Texas store, slated to open early this year in Carrollton, clocks in just shy of 8,000 square feet and includes a training kitchen that will be used for onboarding as more locations open.

Mimosas Great American

Cheeseburger & Fries

EGGS UP GRILL (3)

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FSRMAGAZINE .COM

JANUARY 2023