Five Guys Burger and Fries Restaurant

Five Guys Burgers and Fries restaurant started as a 1 restaurant operation located in Arlington Virginia. As an alternative to college Jerry Murrell decided he would build a family business that his sons would help run. He then told his two older sons if they opted not to go to college he would use their college money and put it towards a business and they would stay behind to build and help run the business. His sons agreed. The two younger sons also joined the family business and in 1986 Five Guys Burgers and Fries restaurant was launched. (Monte 2012)
Although not the least expensive burgers in town Jerry Murrell, his wife and their sons were determined to create a place where people can go and have good home made to order burgers and fries. They set themselves apart from traditional fast food burger restaurants such as McDonalds and Burger King by not cutting corners and using the best and the freshest ingredients. Good high quality meats are always used to make burgers and put between daily fresh baked buns and lots of topping. Their hand made fries are cut from fresh patatoes cooked fresh every day. Nothing on the menu starts out frozen. Making these good dishes would not only put smiles on their customer's faces but keep them as returning customers time after time with family and friends. Their customers would become the advertisment for Five Guys.
The Murrell family were believers in the keep it simple approach to doing business and have always stuck to their core compenticies of making good burgers and not use frozen or already prepared dishes they had to warm. Their menu pretty much stays the same and they don't add more to the dishes. It's just simple good home made burgers. Although there were attempts to add more food items to the munu unfortuately not all made it as menu items. However, the hotdogs and grilled cheese sandwiches were among the few items that did make the list. But never the less they did not stray away from their signature burgers and fries everyone came to know and love.
Five Guys take a lot of pride in the food they serve to their customers. They have been asked to make other food items including shakes and it also has been suggested to use more processed food like frozen fries as apposed to using fresh items. But the Murrells are very adamant about what goes on the menu and the ingredients that goes into their foods which makes it always good tasting. Changing what they do is not an option because of the trust their customers have in them. They have always used higher quality food and there are no deviations. Their customers will continue to trust that what they eat at Five Guys Burgers and Fries will have the same consistent taste every time.
The company not only takes pride in their food but in the people they hire. They take really good care of the employees. Unlike the traditional burger and fries fast food restaurant they pay their employees higher than the minimum wage. In addition the employees are given bonuses (Joiner, 2012 ). The bonuses are an incentive to keeping a good, clean and heathy environment starting with a clean kitchen to a clean bathroom. Through their secret shopper program the bonuse are based on the reports that are written about the restaurant locations.(York 2009) This is not something that is not typical in an fast food restaurant. They are usually paid minimum wage and given short hours. The Murrells believe if you are good to your employees they will take pride in working for you and appreciate what they do. So far it has paid off.
Although the business is doing well now, growing their business was not easy at first. Luckily they had money saved up which opened their first location. Once they saw how well that location was doing they decided to open other locations which required additional funds they did not have. Jerry Murrell requested money from banks but was denied loans. Since he was not able to obtain a loan from banks he chanced borrowing money form a few friends and acquaintes to open another location. Opening another location actually was a good choice. The new location flourished and their repution continued to grow. To keep his good relationship with the people he borrowed money from their debt was paid back and on time.
In these economic times where some business are finding it difficult to stay afloat Five Guys seem to find a way to take advantage of the situation. They were able to employ people who had experience in the food industry as cooks as well as the corporate offices helping to run the business. In addition he was able to find good real estate finding locations to open additional restaurants and because of their growing popularity and the strong encouragement from his sons Five Guys has also ventured out into franchise their business. Now they have over 1000 locations within the U.S and in Canada. And they are considered to be the fastest growing restaurant in the business. (Monte, 2012)
It wasn't easy at first to run the business because there were times where employees would steel and there would be family squabbles at the store. But because of the tight family unit they were able to get pass it and and move on.
Five Guys is good honest business and they are not only able to keep their customers but they are able to get very high reviews and those reports helped in obtaining more customers.
Franchising was not a choice that Jerry Murrell was happy about. At first he did not want to franchise but his sons encourage him to franchise knowing it would help to get the restaurants open in more locations and generate more income for the business. Jerry Murrell agreed. They were able to capitalize on income and through the franchise the owners of the franchise locations pays Five Guys for using business as their own and follow the Murrells method of operation. It's a way of buying into the business without buying shares of the business.
Franchising does presents it difficulties because the owners of the franchise locations sometimes wants to make a changes and introduce items that Five Guys does not have on their menu. But the Murrell family has a very tight agreement where owners are not able to make changes to the menu. Which is the signature of the restaurant.
One of the things that seems to be an ongoing request is to become public. But this is not something they are considering because going public open the doors for part owners to potentially have more control over the business than the Murrells. (Yu 2009) To keep control of the business the Murrells have decided to keep it a family owned business with each son owning an equal share. Jim helps manage the operation of the business, Matt is in charge of opening new locations, Ben is in charge of IT and Chad is in charge of employee training and all decisions are made unanimously . (Monte, 2012) As a family they have agreed that all have to part of the decisions making and must be done with a unanimous vote.
For now there doesn't seem to be any plans to scale down on Five Guys or make any changes to the menu items. The family close unit, the savvy business decisions and just plain good ole' burgers and fries will continue to grow the business. It seems like it will be a successful business for years to come.

References

Burke, Montey (August 2012). All In the Family (Volume 190 issue 2) p92-97 EBSCOhost. Database: Business Source Complete

Weise, Karen (August 2011). Five Guys (issue 4242) p70-73 EBSCOhost Database: Business Source complete

Lottie L. Joiner (July 2012). Five Guys family keeps it simple. EBSCOhost. Database: Academic Search Complete

Yu Roger (June 2009). Five Guys is simply successful taken from EBSCOhost. Database Academic Search Complete

York, Emily Bryson (2009) Five Guys. (Volume 80) Issue 39, p28-28 taken from EBSCOhost. Database Search Complete