Johnny Rockets Group Inc.’s new chief executive has gotten the band back together to try to keep growing the 1950s burger chain.
John Fuller, who had been the chain’s chief financial officer, took the top spot after former chief executive Lee Sanders left.
One of Fuller’s first moves was to bring on two executives he knew from prior jobs.
“You kind of go with who you know and who has been proven,” Fuller said. “I’d be an idiot not to.”
The Lake Forest-based chain brought on Tim Hackbardt as senior vice president of marketing and Carl Arena as senior vice president of development. Both worked with Fuller at Carlsbad-based Rubio’s Restaurants Inc.
Fuller was promoted after Sanders left last month to be the president of franchising for the U.S. division of TGI Friday’s Inc., part of Minnetonka, Minn.-based Carlson Cos.
Sanders joined Johnny Rockets in 2007, shortly after it was bought by Virginia-based Red Zone Capital Management Co.
Under Sanders, the chain grew nearly 50% and now has yearly revenue of about $230 million. There are about 280 company and franchised restaurants, including seven in Orange County and 35 in other countries including Canada, Turkey and Qatar.
Last year, 51 Johnny Rockets opened.
Fuller is tasked with keeping the growth going.
He joined in 2008 as financial chief and shepherded the chain through expansion. He was charged with managing the chain’s financing through the downturn and worked with franchisees to find financing to open restaurants.
“We have not let the recession or the economy get in our way,” Fuller said.
Johnny Rockets is looking to open an additional 30 to 40 franchise locations this year, despite continued financing issues affecting franchisees.
The company is pushing three new ideas for growth: sports lounges, mobile kitchens and what Johnny Rockets called its fast model, which is a smaller restaurant that offers a streamlined menu.
The burger chain recently opened its second sports lounge, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. The lounge combines a traditional diner downstairs with sports-filled screens and a bar upstairs.
“It allows our franchises to take advantage of some extra space,” Fuller said. “Americana food and matching it with American pastimes—it seems like a natural fit for the chain.”
For mobile kitchens, Johnny Rockets is taking a page from Irvine burger chain In-N-Out Burgers Inc. and others, which rent out kitchen trucks for parties and events.
The company is looking to its fast model as a way to get the chain into spots that a traditional Johnny Rockets wouldn’t fit.
“If you have a location that’s 800 to 1,200 square feet, the fast model would be the perfect fit, versus the traditional model, which on average needs about 1,600 to 2,000 square feet,” Fuller said.
Prior to Johnny Rockets, Fuller managed finances for several restaurant companies, including Rubio’s, Lake Forest-based Del Taco LLC and Carpinteria-based CKE Restaur-ants Inc.
It was at Del Taco that he became acquainted with Hackbardt, who at the time was the vice president of marketing for the fast food chain.
At CKE Restaurants, Fuller met up with Arena, who at the time was vice president of real estate for CKE’s Carl’s Jr. chain.
When Fuller became chief financial officer at Rubio’s in 1999, he recruited Hackbardt and Arena to help run the Mexican fish taco chain.
“I stole them both to come to work with me down there,” Fuller said. “And I’m doing it again with Johnny Rockets.”
Hackbardt was a founding partner of San Juan Capistrano-based White Barn Group, which is a marketer and advertiser for restaurant operators.
Arena worked at Johnny Rockets in 2004 as executive director of development.
Before that, Arena was director of real estate development for Carlsbad-based Catalina Restaurant Group Inc., which runs the Coco’s Bakery Restaurants Inc. and Carrows Restaur-ants Inc. chains.
