Mark Lyso spent nearly 14 years on the franchise development side of the business at Minneapolis-based Famous Dave’s before leaving to relaunch franchising at Culver City, Calif.-based Sizzler USA. Lyso, director of franchise development, is hoping a menu overhaul, new value pricing and a redesigned prototype will stimulate franchise sales. He recently told Chain Leader what else the 189-unit restaurant chain had to before a single agreement could be signed.

You came on board in September ’09 yet only now launch the franchise program. What were you doing in the meantime?

Some background is in order. [CEO Kerry Kramp] stopped all franchise sales when he joined the company [in July '08] and cleaned up some underperforming units. During this time, we also revised our franchise documents, put in place an interactive virtual brochure and created a strategy mainly focused on the Pacific time zone but moving east.

Can you elaborate on that strategy?

There are two strategies. One, we want to continue to develop our California markets to gain stronger media efficiencies in Sacramento, Southern California and San Diego. At the same time, we want to launch into markets that are prime for us. Denver would be a good market for us [if we can find] the right multiunit franchisee.

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