Starting a Gonzales Restaurant as a Franchisee

Less costs and hassle regarding employees

At Gonzales' the guests cook their own meal. This is what they like the most! While the guests are having fun doing it, the Franchisee benefits from not having to employ a chef or any other meal-preparing personnel.

Secondly, the guests can eat as much as they want by taking what they like at the buffet. While the quests appreciate this generosity, the Franchisee benefits from not having to employ capacity to serve the meals. Just drinks and desserts have to be served.

Thirdly, nearly all products are being delivered ready to use. This means very little preparation time. Preparation mainly consists of cleaning the place, preparing the buffets and the tables. The simplicity of the menu avoids complex and very heterogeneous purchase decisions.

The Franchisees themselves are the host or hostess. When working as a couple, it's possible to operate without any employees up to 30 guests an evening. If there are more guests or when the franchisee is alone, a few employees "on call" will take care of the serving tasks during the busy hours.

Less dependent on location

The success of a Gonzales restaurant is less dependent on the commercial location level than most regular restaurants:

• Barbecuing is more a typical group event rather than a dinner for two. Hence, the group visits form the main target market. Visiting Gonzales means "fun around the fire", the more people the more fun! In much cases, there's a visiting occasion, such as a birthday, the yearly company's trip, the championship, or just a relaxed evening with friends who finally got their agenda's matched.
• The vast majority of guests therefore make their reservation in advance via the national reservation line(s) or website, to be sure of their evening filling entertainment with their group.
• Hence, marketing is aimed at stimulating reservations rather than stimulating “walk in” guests.

As a result of this, Gonzales has proven itself at A, B and even C locations. Hence, the financial aspects of a location (investment, fixed costs) are at least as important as the commercial criteria in the location decision.

Less hassle, more time for what really matters

Due to the relatively limited opening hours, preparation time and administrative hassle, the entrepreneur's working hours are significantly less in comparison to regular restaurant exploitations:

• Preparation time and (obligatory) opening hours are more limited.
• The GMS limits the time devoted to administration, whilst it ensures a quick accessibility of management information.
• The call centre is accessible 365 days a year via the national reservation line and the Gonzales website. Guests who want to make reservations or who want to respond to marketing/promotions, can reach the restaurant (by means of the call centre) even when there’s no one present at the restaurant. This also adds to the efficiency and effectiveness of collective marketing efforts, just by promoting “1 number/1 site” to access all Gonzales restaurants in the country.

So the Franchisee can focus on what really matters: the (potential) guests and the return on those guests.

Yet profitable at low levels of seat occupancy

The Gonzales concept only knows one menu, no chef and minimal preparation.

The exploitation therefore distinguishes itself by simplicity, low employment costs, low food costs and high margins, which makes the concept already profitable at a relatively low level of turnover and seat occupancy:

• The concept needn’t have more than one sitting an evening to be profitable.
• Based on Dutch standards and given the right execution of the concept, the Franchisee already rejoices in a 2 times average entrepreneurial income if he realizes a 50% seat occupancy during 5 evenings a week, 48 weeks a year.
• To achieve this, it’s necessary that 4% of the inhabitants in the Franchisee’s area (+ approx. 250,000 inhabitants) decide to visit Gonzales once a year.