Chef Shuttle goes franchise route

Meal delivery firm aims beyond Arkansas, Memphis

Chef Shuttle CEO Ryan Herget says the meal delivery service’s operations center in Little Rock will continue to take orders and dispatch drivers as franchise locations open.
Chef Shuttle CEO Ryan Herget says the meal delivery service’s operations center in Little Rock will continue to take orders and dispatch drivers as franchise locations open.

Little Rock-based Chef Shuttle, a restaurant-meal delivery service that has duplicated its success in the Memphis and Northwest Arkansas markets, is ready to start selling franchises, co-owner Ryan Herget said last week.

photo

Chef Shuttle employees work Thursday at the meal delivery service’s operations center in Little Rock’s Riverdale area.

Chef Shuttle was established in 2012 under another owner, who handled one to two orders a day, mostly in regard to friends, from just a handful of area restaurants.

Herget, 25, bought the business in February 2014 and now has more than 200 drivers who deliver food from 300-plus restaurants — nearly double the number of eateries who worked with Chef Shuttle a year ago. Across all markets, the company delivers more than 600 orders per day.

Chef Shuttle charges a flat fee, $4.95 per delivery, and also makes money from a commission paid by participating restaurants. Customers order off the same menus as found in the restaurants and pay the same prices, which is unique in the industry, said Steve Vandegrift, president of FranSource International Inc. of Canton, Ohio.

FranSource worked with Herget on a 700-page document that covers every aspect of setup and operation of a Chef Shuttle franchise. The consulting firm’s clients also include Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken, We’re Rolling Pretzel Co. and Global Brew Tap House.

“There’s always been various issues with companies who have tried to duplicate what Chef Shuttle has done,” Vandegrift said. “Chef Shuttle has figured out the secret sauce in their methodology in dealing with restaurants.”

Herget plans to establish at least 25 franchise locations over the next three years, beginning in surrounding states and spreading across the Southeast and Southwest from there.

Even then, orders will continue to be taken online and drivers dispatched from Chef Shuttle’s headquarters in Little Rock’s Riverdale area. He has invested in a technology infrastructure that would be cost-prohibitive to duplicate with every franchise sold.

“That allows the franchisees to focus on marketing, sales, customer support from both the restaurant and consumer standpoint,” Vandegrift said. “It sets Chef Shuttle apart from almost every other restaurant delivery service.”

Said Herget: “There are certain things we want to keep in-house and certain things we are willing to let go of,” he said. “We think the combination of both will make us extremely successful.”

Because Chef Shuttle is an online-based business, keeping the dispatch part of the operation local will help track customer satisfaction. Chef Shuttle has telephone operators available 15-18 hours a day to address complaints. The company also has an elaborate backup system in case of a power loss.

Herget’s partners in the business are brothers Steven and Jason LaFrance, whose father, also named Steven, once owned USA Drug but sold it to Walgreens. Chef Shuttle is one of the LaFrance family’s only ventures outside real estate.

When Herget got into the business, he didn’t plan on it being his full-time job. Once he saw the potential, he made more of a career of it.

The latest statistics from the Restaurant Marketing and Delivery Associations show more than $100 billion in annual delivery sales for the industry.

Herget quantifies his company’s success by the number of active customers: 50,000 in central Arkansas, more than 8,000 in Memphis and 7,000 in Northwest Arkansas, where Herget opened in June.

About that time, potential franchisees came calling from as far west as Los Angeles and as far east as Atlanta.

“Part of the reasoning for our aggressive expansion is as our industry expands and consumers want more and more products available in a matter of hours … we’ve got a model to facilitate that,” Herget said.

Herget is in the process of negotiating the first franchises but declined to say with whom or where.

“Our target market is metro areas with a population of under 2 million, like a [central Arkansas], Memphis or Northwest Arkansas,” Herget said. “Those are our sweet spots.”

Vandegrift said it’s critical that the initial franchisees be successful.

“Those individuals become the singers, on an ongoing basis, for other franchisees,” the consultant said.

The company currently employs 25 people; drivers work as independent contractors.

Kevin Kestner, who operates the Arkansas franchises for the Mellow Mushroom, said Chef Shuttle helped him get established in the Little Rock market, where he started in 2013. From Kestner’s first store in the Chenal area, he was able to service Midtown and downtown using Chef Shuttle. Mellow Mushroom does not deliver.

“The [Chef Shuttle] brand is well-known in central Arkansas,” Kestner said. “We probably grew our to-go business by 30-40 percent since we started with those guys.

“It’s really increased our presence in neighborhoods where customers might not be able to come in or pick up as much as they’d like to.”

Kestner also operates Mellow Mushroom restaurants in Fayetteville and Rogers.

Upcoming Events