Two veteran multi-brand operators take 50 units and the brand's top two jobs, tying franchise growth directly to people who run restaurants.
Dog Haus has signed a 50-unit development deal with two operators who will also run the brand. Chris Rigassio becomes president and Garen Khodaverdian becomes chief operating officer, and both take units as franchisees. The agreement, announced May 28, follows an April decision to recruit proven operators from other systems into leadership.
Rigassio and Khodaverdian started as part-time Jersey Mike's employees and built a portfolio of more than 100 restaurants across Jersey Mike's and Wingstop. Putting that experience inside the franchisor changes the incentive structure, because the people setting brand strategy now carry the same buildout and labor risk as every other franchisee. For a 16-year-old brand with roughly 50 open units, that alignment is the whole point.
Most development deals hand units to an operator and keep brand decisions at headquarters. Dog Haus merged the two, so the executives steering a planned 1,500-unit expansion are also opening 50 of those units themselves. That tends to sharpen calls on site selection, food cost, and unit economics, since a weak decision lands on their own profit and loss first.
The signal for multi-unit owners is the bet on people over capital. Dog Haus is wagering that operator-led leadership recruits better franchisees and opens units faster than a traditional corporate team. The early test is execution, namely whether this group can hold the pace from 50 open units toward its expansion target without thinning support for existing operators.
Franchising.comLending constraints are filtering out first-time candidates, pushing franchisors to compete for a smaller pool of experienced, multi-unit operators.
Revscale MediaAs recruitment and lead response move to always-on software, franchise brands are rethinking how they find franchisees and fill new units.
RestaurantNews.comBy pairing a 50-unit development agreement with president and COO titles, Dog Haus is testing a model where franchisee investment and brand leadership are the same role.
