“I’ve always been a sandwich guy,” says Robert “Sully” Sullivan, founder of the Greenville-based sandwich chain Sully’s Steamers. “Even at a nice restaurant, its hard for me not to order a sandwich. I just love it.
But these days, beyond the layers of meat, cheese, veggies and more that make up the fare found on Sully’s Steamers bagel sandwiches, Sullivan is adding another layer: franchise operations.
Since opening its first location in downtown Greenville in 2013, Sully’s Steamers has grown in popularity if not necessarily in ubiquity; the eatery only opened its second location in Clemson in 2020, and since then growth has remained relatively slow-paced. But the chain is now in the process of doubling its number of locations over the coming year, with 50 locations planned before the end of the decade.
It’s forced Sullivan to pivot away from being solely a sandwich guy to now being a franchise guy.
Here’s what he had to say about reframing his thought process.
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On the difference between sandwiches and franchises
You would think there would be more overlap between starting the franchise company and opening the Greenville Sully’s, but what I’ve come to realize is that’s not true. It’s a completely different and separate business. So right now I have a new startup business. And instead of it being an extension of the original, — which, in a very small way it is — in reality it’s a new and completely different business.
On the importance of personality
My job right now is developing people. For so long I was just running this (original downtown Greenville) store and it was growing like crazy, but once the systems are in place, it’s really about developing people.
The only thing I still do operationally now is interview, because it’s the most important thing that we’re trying to do. I want to create a great customer expense. The food is great and has to be great, but in this case we want there to be something more than that.
So that’s why if somebody comes to us and says, ‘Hey, I want franchise, give me all the numbers you have,’ we’re not going with that person if that’s their only motivation. Now when people say they were in one of the stores, they were blown away by the atmosphere, they had a really strong response to what we’re about — that’s a different thing. That’s who we’re wanting to attract.
On longtime employees becoming franchise owners
There are people we really want to focus on and develop internally, so that means creating a program for that. This won’t be corporate stores necessarily but we will fund it. We’re going through that process now of figuring out what works. I haven’t even talked to our franchise accountants to see what’s manageable in every scenario, but we’d like to do that moving forward. These are people who’ve worked with us for years. We know them, they know us, and we know they can do the job, so let’s find a way to finance this person or match them with financing and give them a chance to be a business owner. We’re really putting our efforts into that aspect and I think that can really pour gasoline on our growth, while also showing our people we’re not messing around, that this isn’t just lip service and there are real life-changing opportunities available here that we’re serious about.
On the importance of owner-operators
We’re not really just looking to sell this to somebody who wants to buy five territories and then go hire mangers to run each one. We think there’s tremendous value in having the owner-operator intimately involved. It doesn’t mean they’ll be in the store for the rest of their lives, but we want them there to build the foundation.
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