KFC franchisee adds stores, jobs

Ozark Restaurants Inc. purchased six southwest Missouri KFC restaurants April 6 from Springfield-based 2-D’s Inc., owned by Dale, Diane and Darin Thompson, for an undisclosed price. The purchases in Aurora, Bolivar, Camdenton, Monett, Mount Vernon and Neosho begin an approximate $1.95 million renovation campaign and open the door for more than 120 job seekers.

Ozark Restaurants now owns 36 restaurants in Missouri, Illinois, Kansas and Oklahoma, under the banners of KFC, Taco Bell, Long John Silver’s and A&W, said Mike Treadwell, owner and CEO. Company officials plan to renovate and add a second brand to the newly acquired KFCs, a concept they started in February 2004.

Multibranding allows Ozark Restaurants, a franchisee for publicly traded Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM), to combine KFC, Taco Bell, Long John Silver’s or A&W under one roof. Twenty-one of Ozark Restaurants’ properties are multibranded.

All six of the new stores will undergo renovations, starting with the Mount Vernon KFC, where a groundbreaking ceremony was held May 4 for a Long John Silver’s addition.

Long John Silver’s also will be added to the KFCs in Camdenton and Monett. A&W will join the KFC properties in Aurora and Neosho. The Bolivar store will be upgraded with new A&W equipment.

Renovations average $325,000 per store and typically take eight weeks. “We try to do all of our work at night on the interior, and exterior during the day,” Treadwell said, adding that each store closes for a week or less to complete renovations.

Springfield-based Buddy Webb and Co. is the architect and Republic-based Royal Construction is the general contractor.

Treadwell said that he usually adds 20 to 25 employees at each restaurant once multibranded, with about 75 percent of the employees working part-time.

“Where we have one manager and one assistant manager, we’ll typically add an assistant manager to the (multibrand) location,” he said, adding that all employees go through extensive training focused on product, service, sanitation and multibranding.

Each store seats 100 to 120 customers.

Ozark Restaurants also has stores in Ozark, Nixa, Branson, Branson West, Hollister, Lebanon and Joplin. The Marshfield KFC is multibranded with Rib Crib under an independent agreement; Rib Crib is not a part of Yum! Brands,.

The company employs 18 in its corporate offices in Springfield, at 4200 S. Quail Creek Ave., and more than 600 systemwide.

Yum! Brands, based in Louisville, Ky., operates 33,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries.