A veteran entrepreneur and his family partners will open four Cans across Brownsville, Harlingen, and McAllen, taking the burger brand into South Texas.
Smalls Sliders has signed a four-unit development deal for the Rio Grande Valley, its latest push into high-growth Texas markets. The agreement is led by veteran entrepreneur Manny Saldivar alongside partners Carlos and Yazmin Hinojosa. The first Can will open in Brownsville, with Harlingen and McAllen to follow.
Saldivar's background spans finance, insurance, and franchising, and Carlos Hinojosa brings engineering and manufacturing operations. Smalls Sliders is leaning into that profile on purpose. A franchisor carries less execution risk on a four-store commitment when the operators already know how to hire, manage, and open on schedule, which is why the brand keeps signing seasoned multi-industry owners rather than first-timers.
The brand sells cheeseburger sliders, seasoned waffle fries, and milkshakes from its orange shipping-container Cans, a deliberately narrow menu run out of a modular building. That simplicity is a development tool. A tight menu and a prefabricated box cut buildout time and labor complexity, so an operator can replicate a unit faster and hold quality across several locations without reinventing operations each time.
The Rio Grande Valley offers a growing population and a value-driven customer base, the combination that rewards a fast, low-cost format. Smalls Sliders has grown from one location in 2019 to more than 50 open and hundreds in development across 30 states. Anchoring South Texas with a local family group is a bet that community ties will speed site selection and hiring in a market the brand has not yet entered.
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