The Gonzales organization

The Gonzales Franchise organization structure

The structure of the Gonzales Franchise organization is illustrated below. The Master Franchisees are each separate companies/entities. Each Master Franchisee entity has its own Franchise contracts (including the lease) with its Franchisees on the one hand, and its own Master-Franchise contract with the Master Franchisor on the other hand.

The Gonzales Franchisee

The Franchisee is responsible for the restaurant-management. His main activity is being the host in the restaurant during opening hours. Outside the opening hours the Franchisee is expected to prepare the opening (buffets), clean the restaurant, purchase the food and beverages (within the system) and to be his own salesman in the large group market (companies, clubs, associations).

The standard target market of a Gonzales Franchisee contains approx. 200,000 inhabitants. For a smaller area (min. 100,000), an A-location is required and for a larger area (200,000 to 300,000) a C-location would suffice. A Franchisee is an entrepreneur who ideally works together with a partner. The Franchisee should be commercial, loyal, customer-oriented, and needn’t have restaurant experience.

The Franchisee is sub-tenant, the Master Franchisee is the head-tenant of the location. If the Franchisee owns the building, the Master Franchisee has the first right of lease in case the Franchisee quits. 

The Gonzales Master Franchisee

The Gonzales Master Franchisee has the right and the duty to act as Franchisor of the Gonzales concept in his area or country, according to the Master Franchise contract. He is occupied with the Franchise Expansion (new Franchisees) and Franchise Management (existing Franchisees), while the Concept Management and Central services are purchased from the Master Franchisor. Hence, the Master Franchisee is responsible for e.g.:

• Recruiting Franchisees and locations.
• Applying for finance on behalf of the Franchisees.
• Realizing & maintaining supplier arrangements.
• Coaching, monitoring & controlling the Franchisees.
• Allocation of marketing resources, planning & execution.

The standard licence area consists of 10 million inhabitants, which normally allows for about 40 restaurants. When the area is (much) larger than 10 million, a “Super Master Franchisee” (tandem) is needed. A qualified Master Franchisee ‘in person’ can easily control 20 outlets, if this exceeds 20, a 2nd Franchise manager is calculated.

The Gonzales Master Franchisor: BBQ International

The Master Franchisor is occupied with:

1. International Concept & Service Management: Research and Development regarding the concept (elements) - Call centre for reservations and information - Gonzales Management System - Marketing development & -projects (EM/DM) - Business Consultancy.
2. International Business Development: Recruitment and selection of Master Franchisees - Training and coaching of Master Franchisees - Advising and guidance in financing Master Franchisees - Managing international contract suppliers and business partners.
3. Master Franchise Management & participations: Guarding the Master Franchisees and the services joint ventures - Holding qualified minority interests in them.

BBQ International B.V. is owned by 1) the founding father of the concept and first Gonzales, 2) the people who founded the Dutch Franchisor’s company and realized the rollout 3) the producer of the Gonzales private-label meat products and 4) The ICT company that is largely responsible for the GMS.

Services joint ventures

Our organizational policy throughout all entities within the Gonzales organization is characterized as "lean and mean": The Franchisee has very little employees and no overhead, he can fully focus on his (potential) clients. For the Master Franchisee the same applies, since the Master Franchisor focuses on servicing and guarding the Master Franchisees.

This service organization of the Master Franchisor can also stay relatively small and efficient, because of the international concentration of this function (economies of scale), the ICT, and the way we secure the availability of the skills, know how, people, products and facilities that are necessary for servicing the Master Franchisees. Regarding the latter, we always choose for a combination of in-house, services joint ventures or framework agreements (international or national). The services joint ventures have an international scope and consist of:

• GO Finance
• GO Projects