Hanging in the office of GPS Hospitality CEO Tom Garrett is a fairly large framed photo of Michael Jordan’s final shot as a Chicago Bull that won the 1998 NBA Finals.

GPS, an Atlanta-based franchisee of Burger King, Popeyes, and Pizza Hut, has locations in about a dozen states, but none in Illinois. Garrett and his franchise company have no connection to Chicago or Jordan. That’s not why the picture is there. Instead, it serves as a clear reminder of what greatness looks like. That perpetual aspiration made the company what it is today.

Garrett’s story began after high school graduation when he worked for Arby’s franchisee RTM Restaurant Group in Gadsen, Alabama. He wanted to go to Auburn University and become an engineer, but he was enamored with the restaurant industry.

“I fell in love with the company,” Garrett recalls. “I fell in love with the culture. I fell in love with the notion that you can be anything that you want to be. And it didn’t matter how old you were. It didn’t matter if you went to college. It didn’t matter about your race. It mattered about performance. And so, I bought in hook, line, and sinker for that.”

He stayed with the franchisee for 25 years and eventually became president. The group grew to 800 restaurants before it was acquired by Arby’s. Garrett then advanced to CEO of the fast-food giant but was let go after five years. However, the CEO doesn’t shed tears when recalling this point in his career. It was actually the best thing that ever happened to him.

Garrett wanted to return to his roots as an operator. His vision was a company with great culture, people, and systems. He knew if all those factors were combined with a common mission, “incredible things” would soon follow.

GPS—QSR’s inaugural Franchisee of the Year—began on October 19, 2012, with the acquisition of 42 Burger King restaurants in Atlanta. While Garrett was at Arby’s, the chain acquired Wendy’s, so he attended board meetings where the chairman always asked the Wendy’s CEO why it was beating Burger King in all metrics except burgers. To Garrett, that sounded like potential.

“At that point in time, I knew that as poorly as Burger King had been operated for many, many years, I knew that somewhere in there, there is a strong heartbeat,” he says.

Burger King’s stature was high, but the performance was low. Garrett felt that if GPS could close that gap, it would create an “enormous opportunity for a lot of people.”

He spent eight weeks going through the management training program, learning every position. This is where he began to see opportunities, like a customer complaining about a wrong order and being met with an interrogation from the cashier. These were the types of scenarios hampering restaurant teams. The more Garrett saw, the more room he saw for growth.

Assembling the Team

GPS’ mission is within its name.

The “G” in GPS stands for “goal-focused.” It shows the significance of setting ambitious benchmarks. Garrett wanted to create an environment where employees are encouraged to dream big, stretch beyond their limits, and realize their full potential. The “P” stands for “people-oriented,” reflecting the company’s commitment to maintaining a supportive and respectful work environment. The company values hands-on experience and knows the challenges faced by employees at all levels, as many within the organization, including Garrett himself, started from the ground up. This approach ensures everyone in the company understands the importance of treating people with respect and dignity. The “S” stands for “service-obsessed,” which represents GPS’ dedication to providing high-quality hospitality.

CFO Scott Jasinski was one of Garrett’s first picks to join the GPS team. Their professional relationship began nearly three decades ago when Jasinski was approached by a recruiter for a position Garrett was looking to fill in Cleveland. They first worked together at RTM and later at Arby’s.

After several years at the roast beef chain, Jasinski faced a pivotal moment when Wendy’s and Arby’s split, which prompted Wendy’s to move its headquarters back to Ohio. He declined the relocation, opting instead to find a new role in Atlanta, which took him outside the restaurant industry for a brief period. However, just three months into his new job, Jasinski received a call from Garrett, who was contemplating a return to the restaurant business.

“Tom’s the kind of guy that you just know whatever he’s going to do he’s going to be successful at,” Jasinski says. “So I thought, I really don’t want to miss out on this opportunity because I think Tom’s really going to hit it out of the park in Burger King. I have a lot of faith in him and so I decided to join the team and then he told me who else he wanted to bring on at the beginning. And they were all people that I had known for almost as long as Tom had. So we built this team. I think we had five or six people originally and everybody had the same vision and the same trust in Tom. The same vision to grow the team and grow the business.

That’s really what the foundation of GPS was—we were all people who loved the business and really loved acquiring and fixing and remodeling and building new restaurants and we were all very motivated by growth. That’s what this opportunity was.” Gary Thomas, VP of operations support, remembers seeing an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about Garrett purchasing the Burger King restaurants and calling Scott Boatwright, who now serves as interim CEO of Chipotle.

“I said, ‘What the hell is Tom doing?’ And then I said, ‘I hope he calls me,’” Thomas says. “Because for me, it was always exciting to think about—how do you get in on the ground floor of something? I didn’t have the money to do it myself, but to be part of that, to help grow a company, I had this vision that I was going to find somebody with money that wants to run restaurants. He called me or sent me an email, and I said to my wife, ‘I’m taking the job.’ I didn’t even know what it was or what the salary was. It’s like, ‘I am doing this.’”

Garrett makes it clear that GPS isn’t an ivory tower. The company doesn’t run everything out of its support center in Atlanta. The restaurants are operated using a decentralized system in which local leaders own the culture. GPS provides the playbook, and these directors execute it.

President Michael Lippert—who is responsible for strategy and day-to-day operations and was instrumental in doubling GPS’ restaurant count—has worked with Garrett for decades and shares his focus on overseeing high-powered restaurants.

He says being involved in three brands allows GPS to diversify its portfolio while also enabling cross-learning opportunities. The franchisee takes insights and best practices from each concept and integrates these learnings into broader systems. Additionally, the company’s multi-brand strategy allows for the movement of employees between chains as they grow. This method enhances the skill sets of team members and creates well-rounded talent. “At that point, we have our strategy and culture being pushed down through the directors into the market, but they’re running the business on the ground,” Lippert says.

The Rise of a Big-Time Franchisee

In 2013, GPS leaped into 15 more units in West Virginia and Ohio. It also remodeled 10 restaurants. The next year was even bigger. Nearly 80 units were bought across seven states, and GPS opened its first new build in Hoschton, Georgia. Eighty-four locations were added in Georgia and Michigan in 2015, along with 16 more remodels and three new constructions.

The largest acquisition in company history came in 2016. GPS purchased 194 restaurants in five Southeastern states—pushing it well over 400 outlets company-wide—and formed its Gulf Division. This also marked the year it became a Popeyes franchisee. Two years later, Burger King corporate recognized GPS with its Global Franchisee of the Year Award, North America Franchisee of the Year Award, and the Gold Crown Award. Then in 2019, the company rounded out its portfolio by acquiring 75 Pizza Hut units in Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia.

As of August, GPS had 456 restaurants—393 Burger Kings,18 Popeyes, and 45 Pizza Huts.

“We do like mature brands,” Garrett says. “I like brands that have a full awareness because as a franchise, it’s very difficult to create brand awareness and so we like more mature brands and we like getting involved and helping make them bigger and better.”

Refining training systems has been a journey of trial and error, particularly when introducing new processes to a workforce with decades of experience. Thomas played a role in developing a strategy that educated and motivated employees to excel. Faced with the obstacle of teaching seasoned employees new procedures, GPS rolled out a scorecard system that provided clear goals and incentives. The scorecard became a vital tool in helping team members understand how to improve in areas like food management, labor efficiency, customer service, and speed of service. By earning points on this scorecard, workers could see a direct path to recognition, promotion, and bonuses. Initially, training involved long, intensive sessions, but this proved ineffective as employees struggled to retain the information. Over time, the company shifted to a more hands-on, incremental training process. Workers were taught new systems in manageable pieces, allowing them to practice, ask questions, and gradually build their skills.

This evolved training method was recently put to the test when GPS implemented a new back-office system across 400-plus stores, replacing a decade-old system. The launch was conducted over two weeks, with multiple Zoom calls each week focusing on specific tasks like forecasting and scheduling. This step-by-step instruction, followed by review and feedback, helped employees learn and apply the new system.

When acquiring a new market, according to chief development officer Brian Arnold, GPS prioritizes bringing the stores up to standard by tackling deferred maintenance—tasks that often go neglected when a business is preparing for sale. This includes essential work on HVAC systems, paint jobs, parking lot repairs, and other maintenance issues that have been overlooked over time.

Beyond these immediate improvements, GPS’ development strategy involves multiple layers. The company not only ensures purchased stores are in good shape but also undertakes extensive remodeling projects and pursues organic growth. To date, nearly 60 percent of the Burger King footprint has been remodeled. A smaller portion of the portfolio was already up to date upon acquisition, but the majority required significant remodeling efforts.

In addition, roughly 14 percent of its portfolio consists of newly built stores. The typical construction process for a new location takes about seven weeks from groundbreaking to completion, although this timeline can extend to 90 days in cases where an old building is demolished and replaced with new construction.

Joe Waller, VP of the Gulf Division, is an example of GPS’ decentralized system. Instead of being based in Atlanta, he lives closer to the region that consists of Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana, and Arkansas. Logistically, managing such an acquisition is complex, but Waller relies on a team for support, including six directors and 27 district leaders who oversee anywhere from six to 88 restaurants. Waller says such an expansive operation cannot be managed alone and thanks his team’s collaboration and dedication as integral to the successful ongoing management of these locations.

“Great people, great restaurants, great culture, and it’s all about the people,” Waller says.

Between 2012 and 2022, GPS remodeled 192 restaurants, opened 51 ground-up stores, and completed 19 acquisitions. It earned $4 billion in sales during this period by serving 900 million Whoppers over 10 years, 200 million pieces of chicken between 2016 and 2022, and 12 million pizzas between 2019 and 2022.

Aligning Brand Strategies

Like GPS, Burger King parent Restaurant Brands International grasped how much the chain was struggling. So in September 2022, the company publicly announced a $400 million Reclaim the Flame transformational plan covering remodels, renovations, technology, advertisements, and digital upgrades.

Garrett says it’s not just words on a page. It’s a defined plan and a spirit of partnership. Admittedly, he hasn’t always felt that way. Sometimes, it seemed he was being pushed to the wall by the franchisor. But in this case, GPS participated in the crafting of the Reclaim the Flame strategy and has reaped the benefits, like the new emphasis on the Whopper and the updated advertising jingle that changes Burger King’s motto to “You Rule.”

As Burger King and franchisees began their co-investments, sales and traffic have seen lifts. Garrett says the positive movement speaks to the power of the brand and is proof the chain is actually closing the gap between performance and potential. GPS has seen more remodels, new restaurants, and a greater focus on operations, simplification, hospitality, and technology.

Garrett also credits RBI CEO Josh Kobza, RBI chairman Patrick Doyle, and Burger King U.S. and Canada president Tom Curtis for sensing the importance of franchisee free cash flow. The chain’s average franchisee profitability per restaurant increased nearly 50 percent in 2023, moving from $140,000 to more than $205,000.

GPS fully backed the Reclaim the Flame program. In 2023, the franchisee completed 22 remodels and new restaurant openings. It also worked with Burger King to design “Sizzle,” a new prototype featuring warmer and modern colors, digital enhancements, and a better guest experience. As a member of the image committee, GPS opened its version of the 60-seat prototype in Dunwoody, Georgia, in the summer.

For its efforts, Burger King awarded GPS its Developer of the Year in 2023.

“Obviously it was a period of time where franchisees are on their heels a little bit from a free cash flow standpoint,” Garrett says. “And so I think they appreciated the fact that GPS stepped up and led and a lot of franchisees got excited about it, and it’s working.”

Arnold says the Sizzle design is “off the charts exciting.” It tests better than anything Burger King’s ever done because of all the consumer research put into it. GPS was involved in the early days of the prototype development and went through a cost-saving exercise to help the brand gain some dollars out of the construction price.

“You could really look at what we’ve done in the past, not just Burger King but other brands, you can almost take the logo off and put another logo on it and you’d say, ‘OK, has that always been a Bank of America?’ It’s hard to differentiate. But this is very uniquely Burger King. And so I think it has its own identity. It stands on its own and I’m excited about it,” Arnold says.

Comparatively, GPS hasn’t necessarily been an early adopter in the Popeyes system, but Garrett likes the chain’s direction and its ongoing “Easy to Love” strategy aimed at simplifying operations within restaurants. Chicken as a center-of-the-plate protein has become increasingly popular in recent years, as evidenced by the viral Popeyes Chicken Sandwich a few years ago.

“[The chicken sandwich craze] was pandemonium,” Garrett says. “And again, it just speaks to the power of the brand. But when you got guests waiting in line to get a Popeyes chicken sandwich for an hour, it’s just unbelievable. Crazy. I have never seen anything like it. You can try to recreate it. But there’s such a thing as lightning in a bottle and that was an incredible moment.”

Carmen Gianguzzo, VP of the Central Division and leader of the Popeyes contingent, appreciates the chain’s product quality and marketing prowess. In Q2, the chain’s launch of boneless wings and its big-box value promotions led to overall QSR share growth year-over-year. Additionally, Popeyes saw 32 percent growth in digital sales.

“The product is great. Marketing is great. What I see with Popeyes is they’re really going after the digital consumer in terms of the app or just the interaction in terms of ordering it on the app,” Gianguzzo says. “ … I really think they’re going after that younger consumer. And I think with a wing and a boneless product and the sandwich line, I really think it could be an endless opportunity.”

When it comes to Pizza Hut, GPS is ready to learn from new leadership. In May, the concept announced former Wendy’s CMO Carl Laredo as its next U.S. president. Also, Melissa Friebe was named CMO of Pizza Hut U.S. after spending 27 years helping grow Taco Bell through roles in finance, marketing, and brand strategy. Mike Kovac, GPS’ COO for Pizza Hut, points to the My Hut Box and Tavern Pizza as winning menu innovations for the chain.

Third-party delivery continues to play a major factor as well. “There’s a consumer that’s always had a pizza delivery show up to their house,” Kovac says. “But as things have changed through COVID, the newer consumer, the younger consumer, they’re used to DoorDash and Uber Eats and all the third-party vendors and they’re using them. It was kind of a new customer for us because the parents and other folks did have a driver show up and most of our younger consumers or college consumers are using a third-party app and it’s kind of enhanced us.”

Formation of Culture

Garrett says GPS’ culture comes from clear expectations and consistent practice throughout the organization. The company sets a vision of what that should look like so everyone understands and aligns with these objectives. The cultural configuration starts at the top and is modeled by leadership, then cascades through the entire company.

When individuals aren’t meshing, it becomes evident, and those misalignments don’t last long.

“You can always tell the culture of a company by how it’s behaving when it’s not hitting its numbers,” he says. “So we are consistent—good times and bad.”

Trish Farley, VP of finance, says goal-setting is vital, but that’s not limited to just business. GPS celebrates individual milestones too, like marriages, graduations, and births. She’s most attracted to the people aspect of the company. She has 23 members on her accounting team, and almost half have been with GPS for more than five years. Most of them have been promoted since she started.

She appreciates the opportunity GPS creates for everyone to move up.

“That to me is one of the best things that we do,” Farley says. Stephanie Skidmore, VP of legal, notes the benefits of having a close-knit support center, stressing how the small size of the team—comprising about 50 to 60 people—fosters strong interpersonal connections. The team spends enough time together doing activities and collaborating that employees truly get to know each other. This familiarity means that when someone needs assistance from another department, they’re not just sending an email to a generic address—they’re reaching out to someone they know personally.

This dynamic greatly enhances cross-departmental collaboration, especially for the legal team, which interacts with every other department at GPS.

“I think communication is key,” Skidmore says. “So often in a large corporation you could have the left hand and the right hand not knowing what you had others doing. And so to keep us aligned for our goals and moving toward what we want as a company, I think communication is number one. And I think we do a very good job with that. Certainly, while we may have our own smaller groups, we frequently are collaborating with everyone else in the office. We’re always keeping tabs on each other basically.”

Vickie Volan, VP of human resources, led her team through significant updates to GPS’ talent acquisition system to give restaurant teams better tools for making informed staffing decisions. The franchisee looks for individuals who are passionate about restaurants, which can be difficult since the industry has required such resilience in the past few years.

In response to post-COVID hiring challenges, Volan’s team worked to expand the applicant pool by partnering with platforms like Indeed, CareerBuilder, and LinkedIn, which helped address the issue of low applicant flow. Retention, specifically at the shift leader level, was a notable challenge. Volan’s team implemented strategies to increase retention by focusing on short-term goals, such as 90-day targets, to help managers keep talent engaged. These efforts have begun to show positive results, with staffing levels finally stabilizing and improving across the company.

“It was definitely taking the tools we had and then simplifying it, but enhancing at the same time so that we could empower our managers to focus on staffing,” Volan says.

As for GPS’ financial future, Jasinski says restaurants are in unprecedented times and he isn’t sure what will become of the U.S. economy. Everyone is fighting for market share, sales, and traffic, and he describes discounting as “out of control.”

At the same time, brands are taking a lot of pricing, but it’s a move they’re forced into by all-time highs in labor and commodities.

“I don’t see a whole lot changing between now and the end of the year, but I do think it always does come around,” Jasinski says. “I’ve been doing this a long time. There’s years where gross profit is as low as 67-68 percent and there’s years where it’s as high as 74-75 percent. So it’s really just kind of cyclical, but I will tell you the last three years is like nothing I’ve ever seen before in this business. It’s a challenge finding really good people. It’s a challenge competing for customers and traffic. Everybody’s trying to do the same thing—get people in the door by discounting and when you start doing that really heavily, that eats into your margin. So right now, it’s just a really tough business to be in.”

Garrett says there are no current plans to add another brand into GPS’ portfolio, but he wouldn’t rule anything out. The first order of business is optimizing the current fleet of restaurants through remodels and technological improvements.

The beauty is that GPS can win at its own pace. It’s not owned by private equity and not beholden to returns. The company wants to make good investments, but it doesn’t revolve around growth targets. Sometimes that return comes over a period and takes time to materialize.

GPS is proof that such a strategy can work. It’s proof that greatness is worth the wait.

“It’s been a great journey,” Garrett says. “It’s been a great journey.”