Jan Newton and Waverly Newton-Kenny opened their Nothing Bundt Cakes franchise in Santa Rosa in 2021. [All photos for this story by Duncan Garrett Photography]
“I called my husband and told him I’d found my next venture.”—Jan Newton, Nothing Bundt Cakes
For many entrepreneurs, starting a business doesn’t have to involve coming up with a concept, but building on the success of established brands through franchising. Through this process, owners offer licenses to franchisees to operate the business themselves, essentially as a small business owner.
Starting a franchise can be costly, considering franchise purchase fees and royalties which, according to Forbes.com, can be anywhere between 4 and 12 percent of the business’s profits.
Additionally, a franchisee must maintain brand standards, signing agreements with detailed restrictions and limitations.
Locally, franchisees are making big moves, teaming up with well-known brands and taking on both the risks and rewards.
Here’s a look at local franchises and the franchisees taking business to the next level here in the North Bay.
Nothing Bundt Cakes
After tasting a Nothing Bundt Cake for her first time at a party, Jan Newton wanted a piece of the pie.
“I was invited to a party, tasted the cake and was obsessed,” says Newton, an Arizona local at the time.
“After I tried it, I had to drive down to the nearest location in Scottsdale. I immediately knew it was my next job,” she says. “I called my husband and told him I’d found my next venture.”
With no prior baking experience, Newton was confident that she would have nothing but success as a franchisee for the business. She took the next steps, got vetted by the company, and eventually launched three successful Nothing Bundt Cakes in Arizona.
Her daughter, Waverly Newton-Kenny, also joined in on what would become the family business.
“I have experience with the franchise business on both ends,” says Newton-Kenny, who was brought into the cake biz following a career in retail marketing and events.
It was the vice president of operations for Nothing Bundt Cakes who asked if Newton-Kenny would be interested in joining the company as regional manager in California. Having seen her mother build a strong and supportive working relationship with company execs, it felt like a perfect fit.
“I got the job as regional manager for the northwest [covering five states and 35 bakeries]. It was a lot of travel, but a great opportunity to build relationships in the business,” she says.
Not long after, the mother-daughter duo jumped at the opportunity to open the Santa Rosa location, together as franchisees, in 2021.
“We’re blessed with a wonderful general manager and staff at the Santa Rosa bakery, who allow us to get involved with the community,” says Newton-Kenny.
“We’re lucky to be in Wine Country, surrounded by custom bakeries that have been in business for 100 years or more,” she says.
Newton acknowledges the challenge in tearing down negative assumptions about franchises, especially the misconceptions that they’re not local business owners.
“There’s a misconception sometimes that we’re not local,” says Newton. “We’re as local as they come. We didn’t create the brand but it came from two women’s hearts and it allowed us to become small business owners and be involved in our community,” she says.
Though they didn’t create the brand, they do have their own LLC and value the support that comes from those at the top of the company.
“We have our own LLC, so we are the business,” says Newton. “Along with that, we get guidance and support with marketing for nationwide efforts from the company,” she says.
“Many of us who put our life savings into this are doing the best we can and making our communities stronger.”
In doing so, the two are heavily involved in such local nonprofits as the Humane Society, Sutter Health and local chambers of commerce. Newton-Kenny was recently recognized as emerging leader of the year at the Healdsburg Chamber of Commerce’s annual business awards event held in August.
“We’re so proud of her and her service to our Sonoma County community,” says Newton.
The two plan to continue serving the local area with their heartfelt community efforts and, of course, delicious cakes.
Shaking up the Shack
Recently, Mary’s Pizza Shack restructured its business by launching separate ownership groups for its nine locations. Now, each location is owned and operated by one of the extended family members of its founder, Mary Fazio. All the pizza shacks are under the umbrella of Three Albano Sisters, an LLC company owned by Terri Albano-Williamson, Marie Albano-Dito and Nanette Albano-Lane—all Mary’s granddaughters.
While it may seem like each location is a franchise, the company insists that’s not the case.
“In some ways, the restructure is similar [to franchising] in that each owner is bound to an operating agreement that keeps the core menu intact, centralizes the brand’s intellectual property and enables each owner to operate as Mary’s Pizza Shack,” says Jacob Perez, marketing director for Mary’s Pizza Shack.
“Limitations are generally there to ensure the guest experience doesn’t change from one location to the next, and it’s basic common-sense stuff like not making changes to the core menu, or changing the brand colors on printed collateral,” says Perez.
While there are limitations and company standards, each individual owner can express limited forms of creativity, within reason.
“The biggest advantage is an owner can do things like offer special food items for their own location,” he explains. “An owner can make immediate adjustments to their operations without a big corporate process. Owners also have control of their local store marketing, giving them the opportunity to create close connections with the organizations and businesses and schools in their area, just like Mary did with her original Shack.”
Unlike traditional franchises, the owner of each Mary’s is either family or considered family through a long history with the business.
“Where we differ, is the owners are either a part of the Mary Fazio family or extended members of Mary’s Pizza Shack who have worked with the company for decades,” says Perez. “That familiarity creates a cooperative environment where decisions on marketing initiatives or menu specials are decided together rather than through a franchising corporation.”
For example, Kyle Reese, who owns the Vacaville and Fairfield locations, isn’t part of the family bloodline, but has been with the company since the 1990s, previously operations director.
Mayra Martinez is another long-time employee and manager, who will soon be partnering with Vince Albano, Mary’s grandson, to open a new Napa location this fall.
The question is: Could anyone sign on to open a Mary’s Pizza Shack, as a franchisee, in their neck of the woods? The short answer, no. At least not right now.
“We’re currently focused on the communities we’ve been in for decades to ensure that Mary’s legacy and business continues to future generations.”
Chandi Hospitality Group
Known for its innovative restaurants like Beer Baron and Bollywood Bar & Clay Oven, Chandi Hospitality Group is a local leader in food-and-beverage development. They’re also the force behind the franchise success of Mountain Mike’s Pizza—with its 17th location due to open this year.
“In beginning, when we first started with Mountain Mike’s Pizza [in 2007], I knew I wanted to own multiple restaurants,” says Sonu Chandi, president and founder of Chandi Hospitality Group.
“Normally, when you enter a franchise system, the company doesn’t allow you to expand within your market,” he explains. But Mountain Mike’s gave the Chandis the ability to grow within five counties under their agreement, bringing them to a jaw-dropping 17 locations, from San Rafael all the way to Humboldt County.
The unique agreement the Chandi Group has in place with Mountain Mike’s allows the company to grow and expand within the community and beyond.
“Franchising allows us to grow and develop our team,” he says. “That’s one thing we have that a typical franchise doesn’t. It’s rare that franchises do the agreement this way, and I’ve done it since 2014.”
Since then, he’s not only grown his team, but helped his community in the North Bay by working with charities like SOS Community Counseling, Active 20-30 Club, Center for Well Being, and more.
“What makes us successful is being involved in the local community,” he says. “We live and work here and raise our kids here and are integrated in the community.”
As for the continued growth of Mountain MIke’s, Chandi is looking forward to the future development of new locations.
“We have a few more locations to go, otherwise we have built the locations we’ve needed,” he says.
But it doesn’t stop there. The Chandis are gearing up for the opening of their newest franchisee venture with Chicken Guy—Planet Hollywood and Guy Fieri’s new chicken restaurant concept. With the first location opening in American Canyon in early fall, chicken fans can anticipate 10 locations in total to open within the next 10 years under the Chandis’ operations.
Crumbl Cookies
Mollie Berg knows a thing or two about franchising, mastering both the business of pizza and cookies for more than two decades.
She and her husband, Jim Berg, were franchisees with Little Caesars Pizza in Ukiah for 20 years. It wasn’t until the pandemic that the two decided to change out their pizza aprons for rolling pins, stepping into the Crumbl Cookie franchise to dish out sweet treats throughout the North Bay.
“We were already introduced to Crumbl as a customer,” she says. Their son, Chris and wife Casey, were already Crumbl franchise owners in Oregon. The Bergs enjoyed the brand so much, they decided to join in on the California expansion.
“As they opened up franchising to California, we instinctively jumped in,” says Berg. “Caley‘s a local to Petaluma, and the opportunity to bring them back home to California as well as Crumbl to Sonoma County was so exciting to us.”
On the day the Bergs sold their Little Caesars store in April 2021, they also got the keys to their new flagship Crumbl Cookies store in Santa Rosa.
“We were now stepping into a new franchise with partners, my son Chris and his wife Caley,” she says.
For the Bergs, franchising with a newer brand at the time was out of their comfort zone.
“Our situation is unique, because we were at the beginning of a new brand in its first 150 stores, that now have more than 800 in just a short seven years,” she explains.
“Another advantage is we also have the benefit of larger-scale marketing that I simply couldn’t afford to do myself,” says Berg. “Crumbl Cookies has found some truly talented individuals to create the best imagery of cookies I’ve ever seen.”
However, there are some areas of franchising that may present disadvantages to an owner. While entrepreneurs invest their time and money into an already established brand, limitations are set.
“Some disadvantages in growing a brand and being part of a franchise, is you’re more limited to what you can do within your own community,” says Berg. “For example, I don’t have the freedom to add things to my menu or change my menu. However, these things are understood as a franchisee in the beginning, so they are non-issues moving forward.”
Berg also points out the importance of franchisees operating under strict guidelines.
“In these days of social media, one bad operator can bring bad press to every operator,” she says. “It’s important for each franchisee to respect and protect the brand we’re representing and take good care of our crew.”
Thanks to Berg’s passion for cookies and community, guests can rest assured these sweet treats will continue to crumble into their mouths as long as she’s at the helm.
“At Crumbl we are really about bringing friends and family together to create and celebrate meaningful moments, so to be any part of doing that within our community is such an honor.”
Support your local franchise
If not for the entrepreneurial spirit of franchise business owners, communities in and around the North Bay would be lacking some of the best and most trusted brands to enjoy. Don’t hesitate to support your local franchise owner next time a hot new business opens in the neighborhood.
