DIGITAL

MANAGEMENT & OPERATIONS
LAUNCHING A MOBILE
FRANCHISING MODEL
A simple Old World recipe started it all. A century later, Repicci’s
Italian Ice is hitting the road.
BY FRANK REPICCI
My grandfather, Dominic Francesco
Repicci, immigrated in 1911
to southern Philadelphia from
Messina, Italy. Along with his Italian heritage,
Dominic brought his family’s Old World
recipe for Italian Ice to the New World.
At first, he shared our family’s delicious
traditional treat with friends and neighbors in
his new American home, but it wasn’t long
before he found himself working to meet an
overwhelming demand for the dessert.
That was when Repicci’s Italian Ice was
born. Our century-old company has thrived
in the 21st century’s mobile franchising
concept, and currently has 48 franchisees
across the United States.
I was raised in Tennessee, but our family
would travel across the country to visit my
grandfather in Pennsylvania every other
year throughout my childhood. It was during
these precious times with family that I was
taught the recipe and process for making our
Real Italian Ice.
As an adult, I requested and received
my grandfather’s blessing to use his recipe
to reinvent the company on a larger scale as
FDR Enterprises Inc. I assumed the role of
CEO and decided to open a manufacturing
plant, which initially supplied concessions
for Chattanooga, Tenn. parks, recreation
facilities and surrounding distributors.
OUR DECISION TO ENTER
FRANCHISING
In 2005, FDR Enterprises launched
Repicci’s Franchise Group, selling eventbased
franchises. Our first franchisees saw
success using seasonal tents at spring and
summertime events. But the company
wanted to find a way to make Repicci’s a
full-time and year-round revenue opportunity
for our franchisees.
In 2010, we decided to add mobile
trailers to our franchising model, making it
easier and more efficient for franchisees to
attend events located further apart. This
expanded their opportunities and increased
their revenue potential, but the value of
mobile vehicles became apparent. In 2012,
we developed a food truck platform to begin
testing and performance validation in our
Birmingham, Ala. franchise territory.
We are now able to serve as a vendor at
all types of events, such as the Steel City Jazz
Festival, the Hangout Music Festival to the
SEC Baseball Tournament at the Hoover Met,
as well as being a fixture at Barber Motor
Sports for events such as the Indy Grand Prix
of Alabama.
Our food truck enables us to set up
outside businesses that invite us to offer
refreshments to their employees during the
workday or become part of the “going out”
scene by frequenting popular downtown
corners. Because of these successful
results, since August new Repicci’s Italian
Ice & Gelato franchisees have purchased
Mercedes Sprinter food trucks to launch their
new territories. We have three active trucks
as of Nov. 1.
CHOOSING A FOOD TRUCK THAT
WILL INCREASE EFFICIENCIES
Selecting the Mercedes Sprinter was a
long and arduous process. Not all food trucks
are created equal, and we were looking for
66 FRANCHISING WORLD NOVEMBER 2015