This story appears in the
December 2000 issue of
Entrepreneur.
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Anybody could have seen this one coming. When your name is
Wetzel, the title of "pretzel-making tycoon" is
practically set in stone. Thus goes the saga of Rick Wetzel,
president and co-founder of Wetzel's Pretzels LLC. In a little
more than six years, Wetzel and CEO Bill Phelps have built their
fresh-baked pretzel franchise to 127 units nationwide, a far cry
from their humble beginnings manning the counters of their first
store.
Wetzel has led his franchise into groundbreaking territory,
introducing his assortment of hand-rolled pretzels and a 30-minute
freshness guarantee to such nontraditional venues as universities,
stadiums and airports nationwide, as well as in Australia, Canada,
Puerto Rico and Taiwan.
The aggressive pursuit of expansion reflects the
co-founders' personalities. "We're both competitive by
nature," Wetzel explains. "We benchmark ourselves from
our competitors' success. And we uphold the philosophy of
constantly improving."
And improved they have. Wetzel's Pretzels' systemwide
sales reached $20 million in 1999 and are expected to hit $30
million in 2000. Wetzel says the company's strategy of
marketing itself as an entertaining, irreverent brand has served as
the recipe for their success.
With a $30,000 franchise fee, Wetzel expects to develop more
than 200 units in 40 states within the next two years, thereby
partially fulfilling his twistingly tasty destiny.