Each burger at Cheeburger is made to order and cooked with 100 percent all-natural Angus beef from Naturewell. President and COO Sam Lundy says the restaurants also offer a fun, relaxing and notalgic atmosphere.

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Cheeseburgers. They seem like a simple concept and have long been a staple of the American diet; yet with so many out there, it is hard to know which one is the real deal. By using fresh products and cooking all its burgers made to order, Cheeburger Cheeburger believes it has the real thing.

Bruce Zicari, chairman of Cheeburger, started the restaurant on Sanibel Island, Fla. He took the simple concept of producing hamburgers and placed it in a 1950s-style diner. It was founded in the early 1980s at the height of the fast-food boom, which gave him another idea – to cook all burgers made-to-order using only fresh produce and the best beef. With its success, Zicari decided to pursue franchising, and the company has grown to 73 restaurants since.

President and COO Sam Lundy credits the success of franchising to how Cheeburger is run. “It’s a fun, relaxing, nostalgic atmosphere,” he says. “We greet every guest and take care of them. We take customer service to the highest level you can take it.”

Owner Operated and Driven
How Cheeburger decides to open a store plays a big part in the way the company is able to provide the same atmosphere to each franchise. “We do not sell to big conglomerates,” Lundy explains. “We want to be owner operated and driven. Here, no one treats customers better than the owner of the business does, and the owner is there day-to-day to make a difference above anyone else.”

Cheeburger does not go searching for franchisees or areas where it believes it can develop a restaurant. Instead, the company chooses to allow those interested in becoming a part of the industry to find them. On the company’s Web site is a franchising section where prospective franchisees can fill out an application. Lundy explains that Mike Santel, head of franchise development, then reviews the lead, looking at the proposed area and operation. There is a criterion for capital, as well as the area of interest for the franchisee, Lundy says, and if these are met, Santel will speak with the candidate about what they are looking to do and what their expectations are.

Understanding expecations plays a large role in selecting an owner. “We do due diligence on possible owners,” Lundy says. “We meet and do the final interview face-to-face so they understand what it is they are getting into. It’s a seven [day] a week job – ordering, dealing with customers and making sure customers’ expectations are met.”

According to Lundy, it is important that the company gets to know a candidate so they can fully understand what is expected of him or her as an owner and what he or she can expect from Cheeburger. He also points out a difference between Cheeburger and many other franchised restaurants. “We don’t sell territories,” he says. “It’s not the way to go. We do demographic studies and discover how many [restaurants] we feel we can put in a particular area. If a franchisee sticks to the development schedule that has been agreed upon, they own the rights to that area, they just pay a franchise fee for each store they build.”

Since owners are specifically building stores and not gaining territory, Cheeburger allows other owners to operate in the same area. “If you just want two stores, and an area can take five, as an example, we will protect the two stores by a mileage radius, and then we may allow others to build the additional stores in that area,” Lundy says.

Always Fresh
Since the opening of the first Cheeburger, it has been important to the company to serve only fresh, natural foods. Besides fresh produce, the company says it was among the first to serve 100 percent-natural Angus beef. The company orders its beef from Naturewell, which recently was verified by a 120-day affidavit through its parent company, the National Beef Co., to have no additives, no antibiotics and no added hormones. This produces a 100 percent all-natural beef to be served at each Cheeburger Cheeburger.

“We are one of the few companies that has gone totally natural,” Lundy says. He adds that the company instituted a sustainability program with all its packaging either biodegradable or recyclable. All paper goods used by the company are recycled, and the oil used by the restaurants is recycled.

“We’re into doing sustainability programs,” he adds. “We believe it should be done in the industry. We have limited resources and an obligation to do everything we can to help that issue.”

‘Few and Far Between’
Lundy credits the staff for its dedication to making Cheeburger second to none. “We are all about the people,” he says. “You can serve great food, but if you don’t have great service and care about what you’re doing, it won’t mean anything.” He adds that no one provides better service or a better quality product than Cheeburger. Lundy says the restaurants stay fun despite it being a hard business. “It’s a great concept, a great organization, with great people,” he says. “Places like Cheeburger are few and far between.”