Spicy Pickle Franchising, Inc.’s Chief Executive Officer Mark Laramie presented an update and annual report Friday regarding the company. He commented: “We believe the company has reached a pivotal moment in its history. We are now experiencing the culmination of a year’s planning and efforts for both our brands. We invested considerable time and resources positioning us for the future, and are now shifting from the conceptual phase, to the launch phase.
“From May of 2010 to April of 2011, we invested over $1.2M in structuring our organization and positioning our brands in order to become leaders in the Fast Casual Restaurant category. From a corporate viewpoint, our management team and staff are first rate, and our organizational structure is now highly cost efficient. Our Board of Directors is strong and provides great oversight and guidance. Our funding is secured and our financial position is steadily improving, largely due to the commitment and investment by some of our long term board members.
“In this first year, we conducted exhaustive research and development on both our Spicy Pickle Sandwich Company, and BG Urban Café, brands. We conducted research with our guests, our franchisees, our staff, our board members, various culinary experts, our supply chain resources and our advertising agencies. The result is both our brands have undergone extensive modernization and improvements in décor, menu development, product quality, operational consistency, supply chain efficiency, cost of entry capitalization expense, advertising and branding methods, and most importantly sales and profitability.
“Now in May of 2011, we are re-launching both brands, SPSC and BGUC. We have converted all the BGUC to a new image, new menu and, new brand identity and plan to begin our BGUC advertising campaign in May. We plan to kick it off with a Gala Celebration at our Pender location in downtown Vancouver on May 9th.
“For the Spicy Pickle brand, our new image and store design, with warmer decor and the aforementioned improvements, kicks-off with the first Grand Opening in our River Oaks franchised location in Houston Texas, also on May 9th. Additionally, we have four more new reimaged SPSC franchised locations in various stages of construction, and all are scheduled to open in 2011. We are now extracting a “reimage” package for our existing location’s remodeling needs, as they arise.
“Furthermore, we have embraced technology as a pillar of branding and advertising for the future. We re-designed our websites for both brands, and in May we are launching on-line ordering and mobile marketing for our Spicy Pickle brand. We partnered with Mobile Fusion for our mobile advertising integration platform and Munchaway for our on-line ordering capabilities. Both are leading edge providers in their fields. Likewise, BGUC will institute these programs later this year.
“We are now prepared and have begun franchising both our concepts throughout North America and internationally. Our new-design prototypes for traditional and non-traditional applications, and our initial units, such as the B.G. Urban Café kiosk in Vancouver International Airport, are performing well. There is considerable interest and opportunity in multi-unit franchising for both brands, in Canada and the U.S., as well as internationally.
“Before we began our aggressive growth efforts, we wanted to ensure that we had the brands well positioned, the concepts cost effectively modeled, and the staff adequately committed in order to reach our goals. This has been accomplished and we are now in the process of conducting many formative conversations with interested development candidates, in North America and beyond. We look forward to these discussions reaching fruition quickly.
“We sincerely appreciate the support and commitment of all our stakeholders. Our guests, franchisees, staff and investors have persevered during the recessionary downturn, and the effect on our company and the industry has been monumental. We hope and trust that we will now see a meaningful return on our many efforts and investments in this past year and will all experience a brighter future together,” Laramie concluded.