With lenders still holding tight to their purse strings, local restaurant chains looking to add outlets are discovering that size matters.
Many major sit-down chains, which often have restaurants of at least 5,000 square feet, have all but stopped adding locations as consumers cut back on dining out.
Meanwhile, several local brands whose eateries average 2,000 square feet or less posted double-digit growth even as the economy was imploding.
“When you work with smaller store footprints, it reduces your risk,” said Bill Chinn, a franchisee with the Dallas-based Red Mango frozen yogurt chain.
“Picking a bad location when you have multiple small sites is much less painful than finding you have made a mistake with a large footprint and now a big percent of your portfolio is hemorrhaging from the bottom line.” More.