From 58 Venezuelan Wendy’s Locations to 240 in USA: Andres Garcia’s Four-Decade Restaurant Arc

Anthony Codispoti: Welcome to another edition of the inspired stories podcast where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome adversity. As you listen today, let one idea shape what you do next. My name is Anthony Codispoti and today's guest started as a chemical engineer in Venezuela, built 58 Wendy's restaurants in 48 months. became the largest Wendy's franchisee outside the US, then watched political upheaval dismantle what he had built and had to start over from scratch in a country he had never operated in before. He came back multiple times, and now at 70, he's building again. Andres Garcia is a serial restaurant entrepreneur with more than four decades in the business across Venezuela, Mexico, and the United States. He grew his Wendy's franchise operation to 240 locations across five states before selling in 2024. And he is now a co-founder for Mr. O-One Extraordinary Pizza, a fast growing artisan pizza brand with 12 locations open and five more coming this year. This is a story about someone who has scaled empires, lost them, rebuilt and still refuses to stop. But before we get into all that good stuff, Today's episode is brought to you by my company, AddBack Benefits Agency. Listen, if you run a business, you're likely stuck in the cycle of rising insurance premiums. You're paying more, but your team is getting less. And many people can't afford coverage at all. We do things differently. We provide your restaurant employees with unlimited access to doctors, therapists, and prescriptions that's always free for them to use. Here's the part that surprises most people though. Unlike every other employee benefit out there, our program puts more money into your company's bank account. As an example, we recently helped a client increase net profits by $900 per employee per year. Results vary, but gains like that can change how a business is valued. And the consultation is free. See if you qualify today at AddBackbenefits.com. All right, back to our guest today, the co-founder of Mr. O-One Pizza. Andres Garcia, thanks for making the time to share your story today.

Andres Garcia: Thank you, Antony. I'm very pleased to be here.

Anthony Codispoti: So Andres, take me back to your early days in the restaurant world. How did you first get into the industry?

Andres Garcia: I got involved as a passive investor. As you mentioned in the introduction, I'm chemical engineer. And I was in the industrial sector. I have a silver nitrate plant, silver styloid plant. have an amalgamate plant. A friend of mine invited me to invest in a restaurant in a fast casual restaurant. It was a text mix. I was the person that put all the funds and they did have the operations. It was related to a large restaurant group in Venezuela and they have a program that we're looking for investor. and with an accelerated return to the investor until they recovered their investment and then it was a 51.49 JV and the venture was a success but That changed my life because every day that I left from office, I would go to the restaurant and see how things was going. And the manager involved me in this is what is happening. And I got to realize that I love the feeling of being direct with the guests, no intermediaries. It was a direct product going to the customers and I said, I think I love this. They invite me to a second one. It was the same feeling. the opportunities came to continue growing. The group was a group that have a five different brands and the main business was a burger joint called Tropy Burger. Then it was a copy and paste of Burger King on those days. McDonald was coming into the market, not coming, came to the market and did it very well. This group. didn't react or maybe they react but too late. And one day having dinner, I told the owner, the owner then we became very good friends that why didn't he invite me to be part of the holding company? And he said, do you want to buy it? And I said, I didn't know that was for sale. said, well, for the right price it is.

Anthony Codispoti: So you like what you were doing, you enjoyed being in the restaurant space as an investor, having that direct contact, going into the restaurant, direct contact with the customer. Say, hey, I want part of the holding company. So he's like, why don't you buy it? Okay.

Andres Garcia: Yes, yes, and that was how everything started, seriously, if I should say. Well, that's what I'm going to share with you in my story. You know that in Latin America, it's like a roller coaster, There are great moments, tough moments.

Anthony Codispoti: And so did you buy it? Did you follow through and buy it from? Okay, great. Yeah.

Andres Garcia: And we were going through very good moments at the moment, that stage or that time of my life. I went and did the whole study of the company and we put an LOI to buy the company with funds. in the asset guarantee. And there was a financial institution in Venezuela that offered us the financing of the balance of what we would know, contributing asset capital. And I never worked with that institution before, my partner did. And we got the approval for the financing through his relations. So I changed part of my assets, liquid assets to that bank. And 15 days before that we signed the acquisition, the bank went chapter 11, closed the doors, and I have a real important amount of my net worth. in that bank and so my partner, I had it in their branch in Curacao and he has it in their branch in Miami. So we were not able to finalize and we lost the escrow money that we put into the deal. So, and I remember, I'm gonna go side way. I remember that there was an Italian group that offered me 40 cents to a dollar for the asset that I have in the Curacao branch. And I said, give me 50. And he gave me 50. I remember that my partner said, no, I refused to lose, to give up 50%. They have to pay me 100%. I'm so sorry to say, but he didn't get his money at all. Yeah. No. Yeah. So this gentleman that was selling the company told me, listen, I offer you

Anthony Codispoti: Because there's no FDIC insurance down there in Venezuela. So the bank fails. The money is.

Andres Garcia: an opportunity for you not to lose the money that is in the escrow. And I say, what is it? Come, take the CEO position of the company and help me to take the company to the next level because the company is demanding. Well, I did my whole due diligence when we put the escrow money. And I found out that the company wasn't too healthy. It was over leveraged. And the amount of the size of the company was two or three times larger what they need to be. And they need surgery, if you will. I told him, But you have to help me out because I don't have the experience of that is needed to turn it around. To make a long story short, at that moment, the company, two weeks after, didn't have enough cash to pay the payroll. Because there was, that bank, was the second largest bank in Venezuela, Chapter 11, the situation. the economic situation in Venezuela became critical. And we have a piece of land in El Paraíso, one of the neighborhoods in Caracas. I went to a bank, I gave that property as a guarantee, and they gave me money, enough money to pay the payroll for the next three months, and I got the money to put it in TV. And I went with the campaign. I didn't have credit with the suppliers because we were behind in the payments. I went and I spoke with the suppliers and said, listen, any new invoice, will pay you cash. All debt is going to be paid over 18 months. I pay you interest.

Anthony Codispoti: and then.

Andres Garcia: but give me the fair price to be able to salvage the company. And they say, go for it. They really, yeah. Because they, I told them, listen, I guarantee you that, and I shared with them my plan. My plan was go to broadcast TV and put a campaign two for one. Six months later, I paid all my debt.

Anthony Codispoti: Wow. All of the vendors were on board with this idea. You're great salesman.

Andres Garcia: I jump in cells

Anthony Codispoti: in six months. You negotiated 18 months, but you did it in a third the time.

Andres Garcia: Yeah, I raised the sales two and a half times what they were doing and I have the cash flow. At that moment, I went and talked to a friend of mine, Fernando Tamayo, and said, listen, Fernando, I have this asset. It's already in green. My goal is to buy 100%. I don't want to convert it to Wendy's.

Anthony Codispoti: So you had existing restaurant locations, you wanted to rebrand them as Wendy's, okay.

Andres Garcia: Correct, correct. There were 23 locations that were suitable to be converted. At the end, that's what happened. I spin off all the other brands and I came to the US and he said, let's do it. I came and talked to Wendy's and...

Anthony Codispoti: Sorry, were these the first Wendy's in the country? Okay, so you're bringing the first ones.

Andres Garcia: We didn't have Wendy's then at all. I was going to do that and I went to talk to Wendy's. They didn't pay attention. I went to talk to BK that exists in Venezuela and White Castle and Carl Jr. I remember that I went to a national restaurant show in Chicago and I was introduced to Jorge Colón, Nevada that was the franchise CEO of Wendy's in Puerto Rico. Very successful businessman and they helped us a lot in the training and I, he said, you want Wendy's? I said, yes, I want Wendy's. That's the brand that I love the most. And he said, okay. Let me make a call. I'll look for you tomorrow in the show and let you know what is the outcome. And he said, are you ready? Next day he said, are you ready to go and talk to Wendy's? I said, yes, sure. Okay, this is the person called and scheduled. He's waiting for your call. I went from Chicago to Columbus, Ohio and they told me, yes, we go with your plan. I said, listen, I can bring 20 Wendy's in Venezuela within I say at that moment three years. And they say, well, if you can do that and you can pay for the first five upfront and you prove that you have the network for that, we're ready to go for you, with you.

Anthony Codispoti: So just to be clear, Andres, you tried to get your foot in the door before, but they didn't know who you were. They weren't paying attention. So now your friend who's successful and established with Wendy's in Puerto Rico, he gives a call and he's like, hey, this guy's legit, pay attention to him. And so now you're off and running.

Andres Garcia: Yeah, and even, you know, that even when this did have some operation overseas, have this is a true story. The CEO of the company, when he came for the third opening of Wendy's in Venezuela, because of the success he did say, I'm going to Venezuela. He request his first passport, US passport to leave the country. the CEO of Wendy's with international presence but very little. to finalize it, I came and talked to my friend and I have the brand. I have this amount of money, a bellow to convert. And I want to put a group together and say, come with us. we did put the plan and... We opened in 1996 the first Wendy's in Venezuela and it opened selling average of around five million dollars a year at the first restaurant. The line were out of this in one restaurant.

Anthony Codispoti: In one restaurant, wait, wait, wait, wait. In one restaurant, you were doing $5 million a year in 1996.

Andres Garcia: Yes, that was the first restaurant.

Anthony Codispoti: Will you open 24 hours a day, seven days a week with lines around the corner at all times?

Andres Garcia: Well, listen, people were in line, people were in line, outdoor, two hours before we opened. It was crazy, it was crazy. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti: That is crazy. So Andres, I want to hear all these details, but I want to make sure that we leave enough time to talk about what you're doing today. So let's fast forward a little bit because things are going well. But then at some point, you've got to leave the country. You make a choice to leave the country because things are not going well. Get us to there.

Andres Garcia: Yes, yeah well we built as I mentioned to you in the introduction 58 restaurants in 48 months and there was a national strike in Venezuela that lasted almost a year and half and we closed the door before the strike selling in an average of two and half million dollars per restaurant in Venezuela. And when we came back, we were selling $700,000 per restaurant a year. So it was a difficult time. We were able to survive even that crisis in Venezuela. But I knew then that was in the end, that it was going to get worse. I have a family and I say I have to look forward to operate outside Venezuela. And being so successful as a Wendy's franchisee, I got the Founders Award winner that was granted to us, not to me, but there is always a person that is appointed as a founder winner. And that gives you an opportunity to be treated especially within the Wendy's family. And I asked for the possibility to... become an operator in US and together with my partner, Johnny Mercado, we bought three restaurants in US and that was in Florida. The three were in day county. at the beginning we struggled big time. I tried to replicate, I brought people from Venezuela and were

Anthony Codispoti: what part of the country.

Andres Garcia: among my best operators and when we tried to run the business the same way that was done in Venezuela, I realized three months later, this is not gonna work. The amount of people that my people is used to work with doesn't feed the balance. And I said, listen, we have to turn around differently. We have to increase the productivity.

Anthony Codispoti: So what was the change you needed to make? Like what were the big differences between Venezuela and US?

Andres Garcia: Well, the labor in Venezuela is, was cheaper and then you have more head, twice the head counts than you need, you are able to have in US to run the shift. And we have to, I have to retrain my people. And it was a struggle for six months, but we finally found the rights. combination because at the same time running the restaurants with so tight with people, didn't give you the opportunity to give the wow experience. And we say, well, if we're $5,000 a day, we're aiming to seven. And less position to deliver the wow experience with aiming to 7,000. And through the time, three months later, we were at six and a half. say $7,000 and yeah, it was working. Then we have the opportunity to buy two more restaurants. The three third restaurant was with the real estate included.

Anthony Codispoti: It was working. Sorry, sorry for interrupting here, Andres, because I want to hear about some of these operational levers that you pulled, right? So you're bringing your, you know, some of your talent from Venezuela, but you're realizing that because the labor is so much more expensive here that you need half the headcount that you were accustomed to operating with. So you have to retrain these people. have to retool, learn how to do more, each person do more, and you want to continue to elevate that customer experience. So what's actually going on behind the scenes? Like,

Andres Garcia: Okay.

Anthony Codispoti: What are you doing in that training to get those folks to be more efficient and to increase that wow experience?

Andres Garcia: Well, one of them we have to retrain was my management team because they didn't know how to run that type. So I have to convince them that it's feasible and I leverage another Wendy's franchisee and even Wendy's in US to retrain them. I send them to Columbus and to Wendy's franchisee to learn how to do it. They came and then we tied the payroll, but always with the goal in mind that we wanna sell. between 10 to 15 % more of what we were selling. So we were investing on having more people than needed or the guidance that was given by Wendy's to be sure that we deliver the wow experience to the customer. And we learned how to turn around the operations and our service time, as you know, in the QSR between 60 to 80 % of the sales depending on the brand. is through the drive-through. And when we took it, yeah, and we were doing a, when we bought the restaurant, they were doing like 300 seconds to go through the drive-through. it wasn't, doesn't work, doesn't, yeah. So we were able to get it down to 100 seconds and people realized that they get into line and we were able to move the line.

Anthony Codispoti: Through the drive through, yeah. Five minutes doesn't work. People are gonna pull out of

Andres Garcia: And we have a recipe to turn around operations that were in trouble. We bought the other two restaurants, including the real estate, and we did the same. We bought then 12 restaurants in the Palm Beach County, and we did the same. So we have very good numbers. At that time,

Anthony Codispoti: in Palm Beach.

Andres Garcia: Wendy's used to have the philosophy of many franchisees with fewer restaurants. And they brought to become a CEO of the company, a gentleman called, a more broad-minded than was the chief vice president of the company. when they decide, Dave Thomas passed away, and they were looking for the new CEO, they gave the CEO position to a person different than Emo. Emo left to John Brand and he did a great job in John. He worked in KFC and then Taco Bell. And at that time when I was in the system, they brought him back as a CEO. and he came with the idea of less franchisee with more restaurants. And when this did work...

Anthony Codispoti: So they were changing their strategy. They said, we want more franchisees, but fewer restaurants for whatever strategic reason they had. Now this new CEO comes in and he's like, no, let's open the floodgates. Let's let our good operators have a lot more stores.

Andres Garcia: And also, he decided that the way to go was to have less corporate restaurants. And there were some corporate markets that they decided to sell. One of the markets that was for sale was New Mexico. They were selling also some in Texas, were selling some restaurants in Arizona. And I took a flight to Columbus to say hello to my old friend. And I said, listen, Emo, I want to share with you my numbers, what I'm doing, where we are at. And I want to be considered one of the franchisee to buy one of the corporate market. And he said, well, share with me your numbers. And I shared that we were delivering, know, increasing sales within a year of 40 % in our restaurants. There were terrible operations, but we were able to turn around and demodel the restaurants. And I shared all the KPIs and that we were doing a good job. And my partner and he said, listen, we want to buy one of the market. And he said, and you have the funds. Well, we have from the 30 restaurant that we have at that time, 17 restaurant, we own the real estate. And said, we will do a sales and lease back and we will have the cash to pay you and we're gonna leverage whatever is needed to meet. one of the markets say, you are not in the list to be considered, when are you going back to town? Whenever, if I need to stay for a week, I'm going to stay for a week. He said, okay.

Anthony Codispoti: You tell me. This is important. I'll stick around as long as I need to.

Andres Garcia: So he said, well, let me talk to my people and let's get together for breakfast. At the end of the day, he called me and said, listen, let's have breakfast, but plan to leave either late tomorrow or next day because we want to talk to you. My people validate your numbers and we didn't have you in the radar. the kind of operation that you're doing and they want to know you a little bit better. So I met with the chief operating officer, I met with the chief marketing officer and they say, well, why do you think you have this turnaround results? And we have a long conversation and to make a long story short, we made it to be in the list six months later.

Anthony Codispoti: Yeah.

Andres Garcia: We bought New Mexico. Then was a corporate market with that. Yeah, yes. 32.

Anthony Codispoti: The whole corporate market, you got the whole state. How many locations was that? So, and I know there's more of this story to tell, but I want to pause and highlight something here because there's a lot of resilience that you've shown, right? Like you, all the mess that you went through in Venezuela, right? And then, but you learned how to operate there and you come to the U.S. and you think you're going to hit the ground running here, but you kind of hit a brick wall to start with, right? Because you realize the way that we were doing it there isn't going to work here. A lot of people would have thrown in the towel and been like, I don't know. Like, I can't do this. This is too hard. I'm going to go find a job somewhere. You know, you were like, no, heads down, we're going to figure this out. You know, sent the team to Columbus, to Wendy's University to learn how to operate things more efficiently. Then you just kept turning the dials year after year after year, getting more sales, increasing that wow experience for the customers. And now it's really starting to pay off because you go to Wendy's corporate and you're like, hey, We want to be on the list. Here are our numbers. We're legitimate. And they're like, wow, this is really impressive. Okay, you guys got a seat at the table.

Andres Garcia: Yeah, and we were, we did it again. I mean, we bought the New Mexico. It was a corporate market. So the operation were very good. What we did is we leverage on the team that they have in New Mexico to make some fine tuning. I realized that they were more like a in closing, this is the only way to be doing what we did was we encouraged them to go next from our to be more creative and to put the people always thinking that we're gonna sell more. we increased the sales almost 7 % in the first year. So that gave us a leverage within the company to continue expanding for future markets. there was a franchisee in El Paso, in El Paso, Texas, that was selling the market. And we approached the franchisee, we bought it, corporate blessed the acquisition and They saw that we did the numbers again. They were selling, they were planning to sell Florida by pieces. The first market was West Palm Beach. And we were granted with the West Palm Beach market. And then it was the best market that they have was going to be for sale. that was the day market and they want to bring somebody else. think, they thought that we were growing too fast and we have to digest the growth and we were not granted the day county. There was a 50, no 48 restaurant and when we were going to buy the market of El Paso. We were in the convention of Wendy's, a very good friend of us, that helped when we came to the country, another franchisee, Eddie Rodriguez. We told him the story, whether we, he was impressed of the growth that we have, and he said, guys, you have done so well. we have to find a way to work together. And Johnny and me said, well, we're open. He have a 12 restaurant in Florida. And because I skipped that part, and when Westbound Beach came into the market, we already have a good base of restaurants in Florida and together with the Eddie. will convert us the largest franchisee in Florida. So.

Anthony Codispoti: So you guys get up to the point where you've got 240 locations. And I know we're kind of, we're skipping over a lot of really rich history here, but again, I want to make sure we have time to talk about Mr. O-One Pizza. So at some point you get to this, I don't know, this goal line of, hey, I think it's time to exit. Tell me about that thought process. And then we'll tell the story about how Mr. O-One came up.

Andres Garcia: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes, well, we were three partners and Eddie and me are more or less the same age. Johnny is younger than the two of us and they want to continue growing. They want to continue acquiring market. They want to diversify to another brand as well. And I say, you know, I'm no I don't buy that route. I think we have to consolidate and be ready to continue growing. But at this moment, we have to stop. there was a conflict in the vision of the company. I say, I want to look for a way to sell my participation. I have a group that would like to buy a private equity group, then would like to buy my stake in the company. We were a little bit more than 30 % joining me each and 80 half like 25%. Knoxville market came into the equation. was also sold by corporate, we bought it also, that's when we became 240 restaurants. And I said, but this is it? And to make a long story short, I decided to sell. I sold all but Knoxville, and a year later we sold Knoxville as well. There was some restaurants sold to corporate, some restaurants sold to franchisee, and some restaurant was kept by Johnny and Eddie. Then they remain a Wendy's franchisee as of this moment. And, you know, at that moment I was already 60, 60 years old and say, I'm going to retire, I'm going to take it easy. And yeah, I did.

Anthony Codispoti: Okay. didn't really play out that way, did it?

Andres Garcia: And a friend of mine told me, Andres, don't you want to get back into the restaurant business? And I I'm taking easy at this moment. He I want you to see a pizza concept. Pizza, said. There are so many pizza places. Yeah, there are so many pizza places. mean, what can be different? said, you're right, but come on and let's try the pizza.

Anthony Codispoti: No, I'm a burger guy.

Andres Garcia: And we went to Wynwood in Florida. And there was this person, Renato, Viola, and Umberto, the founders of Mr. Wong. And they set out for lunch. And I tried the pizza and said, my God, this is something that can... can be completely different. yes, it was, well, the flour is a very, it's a proprietary formula. It's a thin pizza with fine ingredients and it's an excellent, outstanding product. mean, Anthony, when you have a chance and

Anthony Codispoti: Just the pizza in your mouth was like a light but what was so different about it?

Andres Garcia: Come to Florida, let me know and I'll take you for you to try. Or we can meet in Dallas.

Anthony Codispoti: So it's thin crust, is this like tavern style? Like what is it? How would you describe it?

Andres Garcia: It's like a flatbread, that thing. And the ingredient, the combinations, we cure for 72 hours. It's a very easy. The dough.

Anthony Codispoti: You cure what for 72 hours? you cure the dough for 72. What like because it has to rise or what's the process? I don't understand why so long.

Andres Garcia: Yeah, I mean, Well, because that's gave the stability. We don't use salt and the possibility to make it that thin and keep it the way that the peaks are coming out.

Anthony Codispoti: Okay, all right, I'm intrigued, say more.

Andres Garcia: Yeah. And I said, well, you know, I will entertain to look for this. mean, I've done it, but I'm going to play a different role. I'm not going to be out there running the restaurants. And my former chief operating officer and chief executive officer of the Venezuelan operation was an advisor. to this group, to the Pixar guys, the founders. And he and my friend Alberto are the one that told me, let's take a look. And they were trying to get me involved somehow. They want me to be part of the company. To make a long story short, we bought the rights of Florida, Palm Beach. up to the north and we bought Texas. This was three years ago and we have already 12 restaurants and we're doing in the north of two million dollars a UB and it's doing fantastic.

Anthony Codispoti: Wow. $2 million per unit. Yeah. And let's talk about the customer experience a bit. I mean, you've got me really intrigued talking about the dough that takes 72 hours to cure because that gives it the stability. It's very thin dough. But I'm looking at your website, which for folks listening is Mr01.com. Not zero, it's Mr01.com. And there's great visuals here. Is this like it's nice enough inside that it looks like fine dining, but it's not. It's more of like a fast, casual kind of environment, right? Yeah.

Andres Garcia: Well, it's more like a casual dining because it's stable service. we take your order and yeah.

Anthony Codispoti: Table service, there's wine. It's like you can bring a date here. Like there's fa- like it's family friendly, right?

Andres Garcia: Yes, it's very family friendly. The experience that is delivered, like the founder said, is an extraordinary experience in every aspect of it. We only have pizza and we have a salad bar and a burrata bar that is outstanding. You have to try the burrata with prosciutto and the truffle oil is fantastic.

Anthony Codispoti: I am sitting here watching the video on loop on your homepage and it's making me hungry. They've got great like gorgeous patios to folks. This is cool. And so, okay, so you've got part of the Florida market. You've got the tech, the whole Texas market, which, you know, could potentially enormous. And so what kinds of locations do you guys look for to put these into?

Andres Garcia: Yes. is end cap street malls, inline type of locations and then have the possibility to have a patio. 90 % of the restaurants have a patio. Our expansion plan is that we have three in Palm Beach We have three in Orlando. We have six in Dallas. And next year we are opening in Houston. This year we are opening in Tampa. Well, Sarasota too, restaurant Sarasota. One more in Orlando and one more in Dallas and one in Palm Beach.

Anthony Codispoti: So you obviously you've scaled franchise concepts before you in a ton of like really valuable experience there. But now you're scaling. I don't know what I'm going to describe as more of an artisan concept. So how do you how do you translate those skills? How do you grow a brand built on meticulous craftsmanship without losing that thing that makes it special?

Andres Garcia: Well, you have a Picsero, a chef in each one of the rector, that is what we call a master Picsero, a Picsaman. And we trained them with the support of the corporate. And that's the heart of the business. the learning of the table service have been, I forgot to mention we were the TGI Friday franchisee in Venezuela, so it's not my first time working with Casual Dining. And we have a model that is called Operating Partners. that we offer the opportunity to people with experience to become the general manager to convert into a partner within the company. Up to 10 % of equity that is vested in with five years of, from the day one they have the right of the 10 % of the property, but it becomes vested. and with the guarantee that we will buy back from them after the fifth year if they want to live. And that has given us the opportunity to attract excellent talent that are the people that is running the show in each one of the restaurants.

Anthony Codispoti: Wait, sorry, there was a little bit of an internet glitch on my side, so I kind of missed part of that model there. Are you saying that you're bringing operators in almost like as a pseudo owner?

Andres Garcia: Yes, yes. They, at the beginning, it's a profit sharing. And with the time, it becomes vested. So the 10 % become, they become 10 % partners. And to give you an idea, a person can do, we don't want that to happen, but they can do $400,000 in net worth after five years.

Anthony Codispoti: Wow. And how's this model working for you so far? I know it's still relatively early.

Andres Garcia: Well, we have been able to bring people, outstanding people to the company. We have great teams, great leaders. And you know, as the people know about it, then there are more people trying to get into the system. And in order to grow at a fast pace, you need talent. You need people that have the ownership of each one of the... restaurant and deliver the tending, loving care to your team and to our guests, bringing this extraordinary experience that we want to deliver to each one of our guests. And it's a people-driven business and it's a different mentality mindset when you are the owner of your restaurant and you're working for yourself.

Anthony Codispoti: It's tremendous idea.

Andres Garcia: and you give more value to your team, value more than the stability. And we are below 50 % in turnover of an industry that you know that is in the north of 100 for good operators. So the stability is there. And when you have stability, you have productivity. And it's productivity for both parts, because people make more money, being productive and we are very aligned in the compensation with productivity of our team members.

Anthony Codispoti: I think it's a tremendous idea. Yeah, absolutely. mean, you know, an owner is going to think about care about put more effort into the company than somebody who is even, you know, the most loyal employee, just because the incentives are really aligned there. And what a fascinating opportunity for other folks who, don't have the capital to be able to start or, you know, truly invest in their own, you know, restaurant, their own concept, but they've got the skills. They've got the desire and the passion and the sweat equity that they want to put in. And in an industry that has, like you said, over 100 % turnover traditionally, you guys have more than cut that in half. So it's a fantastic approach. I want to hear about the pizza school, where folks can come in and learn the craft. Where did the idea for this come from?

Andres Garcia: is there from the founder and you know people love it you you you set up for a lesson and you left the the that nice experience being able to make a pizza no matter what people take dog to their home and ingredient and they do their pizza in their home and there are people than than have done it more than three times. They like it so much and it's great for, know, come as a group and the people come and celebrate their birthday there. And it's a combination of having good wine with the, entertaining of being with the pizza chef, training them to become a pizza chef. So it is.

Anthony Codispoti: Yeah.

Andres Garcia: Very entertaining. Not all the restaurants have the Pixar school, but there is at least one in each one of the markets.

Anthony Codispoti: And for those folks who aren't, you know, just listening to the audio didn't, uh, aren't, uh, you know, consuming the video version of this, you should have seen Andre's face light up as he was talking about this. It tells me that, uh, he thinks this is a lot of fun. Uh, he's obviously done it before himself, so something worth checking out.

Andres Garcia: You got to do it, Anthony. Come on, we can, let's come with your wife and we make it happen.

Anthony Codispoti: All right, I'm coming to Florida or Texas. Can I bring my kids? They're 11 and nine year old boys. Can they do this too?

Andres Garcia: Yes, yes, they love it as well.

Anthony Codispoti: All right, kid friendly stuff. I love it. Yeah, I want to shift gears on you now. Because, you know, there's there's a lot of lessons to be learned from successes, but there's a lot more lessons, I think, to be learned from overcoming really hard things. So I'd like to hear about one of the hardest things that you've ever had to overcome personally, and what going through that experience taught you, Andres.

Andres Garcia: They're gonna have to bow. Well, you know, one of the toughest ones when I decided it was time to sell my shirts in Wendy's, because we didn't have the same vision, I did want to consolidate it, to consolidate and then be ready to go. the growth and pains that we were trying to keep was too aggressive and we were losing some essentials that was based off our success, in my opinion. That was emotionally tough. But I don't regret. I do believe that economically it was a good decision, but besides that, I felt great with myself because... I was doing the right thing. I remember an expression from our founder in Wendy's, Dave Thomas, do the right thing. I did the right thing because I felt that the company was going out of hands, if you will. We were not...

Anthony Codispoti: In what way?

Andres Garcia: in the operational way, we were not performing at the level that we were doing it before and that put in risk because we left the being in positive and some market where we were in negative and it was easier to say than the problem was that the market is tough. the prices are up. It's somebody else's responsibility and it was our responsibility. It was our problem. I thought that then if we continue growing, we're gonna hurt ourselves. And I believe that... My partners later on did realize that and that's why when they, we sold the other markets and they reduced their size. And they're doing great. When this is going through, it's a story right now I understand. I'm not that close to the system anymore and many of the senior executives of the company are gone. I think that's what the problem is. mean, the company's a... going through a management crisis in this moment. And I have to be very honest, Anthony, even the Wendy's in Venezuela story is a success. I think I grow too fast and through the growing, I didn't take

Anthony Codispoti: Yeah.

Andres Garcia: the right actions to protect the company culture. if you ask me, the latest open restaurant were not as good as the original ones. And it was because we didn't have the time to roll model, to train our people, and to engage into, to have the people engage into the culture. as strong as is needed to be successful. And that's why in a case of Mr. Ouan, people say, you only have opened 12 restaurants in three years and said, yes, you're opening five and why don't you open 10? And the reason is that we are being very careful because we have a great value proposition, but the execution is very important and the execution is driven consistently and at the level that you want only if you have a company culture that is committed and engaged with that concept. when you put the pace of growing too fast, you don't give enough time to the people to engage with the values of the company, meaning the culture of the company, and you lose it through the process. We are sure that we're going to go up to the 10 restaurants per year. But when we have the foundation, that we have our training restaurant, then it's not just about training in the operation, but the exposure of the people to the company value that make us so strong and that can project us through the time. As a leader, you have to be very honest with yourself. The Venezuelan crisis hurt us, no doubt about it. But if we were at that moment a company with instead 58 restaurants, we were with 30 restaurants, with a stronger culture, the capacity to react under those conditions would be faster and stronger than what it was. in a company that grows so fast. my advice to the entrepreneur out there, young entrepreneurs, be careful than the speed of growth. Don't take away the essence of your success. And the excellence of success is when you have a founder that is close to your people, that have the passion and through the role model, create a company culture. Then when you try to go too fast, you lose that magic. You have to be... At the end of the day, you have to have a product, but that product that you deliver is a combination of... so much, the way that you deliver this, not just deliver it, the way you deliver. So take your time to protect your essence. Understand clearly why you are susexual. Don't underestimate the influence that you have on your people when you are... in the creation of your concept at the beginning stage.

Anthony Codispoti: Such a powerful lesson here. You went through some ups and downs, but had some real fast, meteoric growth with Wendy's in the US. you got to a point where you realized we're growing too much, too fast. And the delivery, the execution, what we're able to do at each of the locations was starting to suffer. And that sounds like it in part was fueling the decision to, okay, it's time for us to exit, it's time to step aside, we've kind of taken this as far as we can, but how great is it that you took those painful lessons and you were able to apply them to Mr. O-1 Pizza in a really positive way? Hey, we've got a really special concept here, we are gonna take our time, we're gonna do it correctly, and we're gonna introduce this. a new kind of ownership model for the managers, for the operators, because we know how important it is to have the best talent possible steering each individual ship, each individual location, right?

Andres Garcia: Yeah, right in the spot. That's what we're doing.

Anthony Codispoti: And so you talked a little bit about what some of the growth plans are for Mr. O-1 Pizza. It sounds like you've got the part of the Florida market, you've got the Texas market. And so are there other operators that have similar deals for different parts of the country?

Andres Garcia: Yes, Last year they opened in Georgia, in Atlanta. They have two restaurants and they are planning to open two restaurants this year. This year, by the end of the year, they're opening North Carolina. And they have a very successful franchisee as well in the west coast of Florida, in Naples. and one other successful franchisee that is doing very well as well in Pembroke Pine and Meadamark in Broward. The rest of the day in Broward is being developed by corporate. They have 10 restaurants. I'm planning to open two more restaurants this year.

Anthony Codispoti: That's a lot of fun and exciting growth for the brand overall. As you think about your role in all of this going forward, Andres, what do you most want to be remembered for in your work?

Andres Garcia: Yes, indeed. visionary than... that is very sensitive to the human being, the people, that is part of our team and is inspired to be an entrepreneur. I didn't. I would love to see 100 Mr. O'Wan out there with 100 businessmen, owners. I believe that entrepreneurship is so powerful. This made our society so strong. The private sector so strong. I would like to be... recognized as a person that contribute to develop entrepreneurs out there.

Anthony Codispoti: boy, I love that. I've just got one more question for you today, Andres. But before I ask it, I want to do three quick things for the audience. First of all, anybody who wants to learn more about the brand, go to their website, Mr01.com. And it's O, not a zero, Mr01.com. Just a minute watching the video on loop on their homepage there is going to make you hungry, just like it did for me. Also, we're going to give out Andres' personal email address here. Andres with an S, A-N-D-R-E-S dot Garcia, 0211 at gmail.com. And we'll have that in the show notes for folks, but Andres dot Garcia, 0211 at gmail.com. And if you're enjoying the show today, please take a moment to subscribe wherever you're listening. It also sends a signal that helps others discover our podcast. So thank you for taking a quick moment to do that right now. And as a reminder, You can get your restaurant employees access to therapists, doctors, and prescription medications that counter-intuitively actually increases your company's net profits. Real gains that can change how a business is valued. Contact us today at AddBackbenefits.com. So last question for you, Andres. A year from now, what is one very specific thing that you hope to be celebrating?

Andres Garcia: I lost you, Antony, I cannot hear you.

Anthony Codispoti: So one year from now, what is one very specific thing that you hope to be celebrating?

Andres Garcia: Wow. It's a family thing. I have five daughters. All of them are very successful, but my youngest one is in the business. and she is our operating partner in one restaurant and she's going to become the operating partner in the second restaurant and in the third in a year from now she's going to be the operating partner for our third restaurant. she's going to be, I didn't mention that, we give the opportunity the operating partner to become up to three restaurants through the time. I mean But if I have to choose what I would like to celebrate in a year from now, it's another wedding anniversary with my 40.

Anthony Codispoti: How many will that be? All right. Awesome. Well, Andres Garcia from Mr. O1 Pizza, I wanna be the first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate you being here.

Andres Garcia: Thank you, I really appreciate the opportunity and I hope this can be an eye-opener or learning of what not to do if you want to grow fast.

Anthony Codispoti: And I think there's a few lessons in there on what to do to be fair. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti: So before we wrap today's episode, Andres and I sat back down for a bonus segment to cover a few things he really wanted to share. Here's that conversation. So Andres, you mentioned early on that your role is to share your experiences and let people find their own way rather than impose yours upon them. Was there someone who mentored you in this way?

Andres Garcia: in this way? Yes, you know, in my early stage when I talked to you about the silver recovery, I did that for a friend of mine that have a photo lab. And he will sit down every other day at the end of the day with a glass of cognac. and because it was I was trying to learn from Brandy to Cognac but it's Brandy because it was a Spanish brand which he liked the most and he will dedicate his time giving me his learning how will do his life differently and how will do if I will he will be myself so And then in the restaurant business, have, and his name was Simon Doshia. And in the restaurant business, I have a mentor that was David Etoval. One of the person that I respect the most, I will tell you, that know about this business the most, and I have ever have the opportunity to deal with. And he will dedicate time to me as well. to share his vision, to share his approach, and always to give me a feedback because I became the CEO of his company. And he was always there to share his point of view. And that marked my life because I learned a lot and I tried to do the same myself and I tried to... influencing in my organization to have that role, not just the coach, but also the mentor. We try to have a mentor for each one of the people that we want to develop. And we believe in that very much. if I have an opportunity to advise someone is try to get a mentor. Try to experience being with people that have the the learning through their life and know the area where you want to grow and hear those persons. I think it's a blessing.

Anthony Codispoti: How do you advise that somebody go about finding a mentor? Any suggestions there?

Andres Garcia: Well, for example, in my organization, I talk to my people and look into people that you believe that can teach you something and openly request a mentorship. And you will experience. And when you become part of the company culture, it's a very, very, very, very, it's a huge strength.

Anthony Codispoti: So I know it's important to you, you want to be remembered as somebody who has helped to develop entrepreneurs. When you imagine one of those future Mr. O-1 pizza operators 20 years from now, telling their own story, maybe in a similar format, what do you hope they say that you gave them, Andres?

Andres Garcia: Yeah, you know, I think all of us have the entrepreneurship inside us, but there are some that let it go and some that does, they're lower risk taker, if you will. And they don't let it go. I try to promote within every people that I deal with is think about it. I don't know if I told you. There was a guy that worked for a workshop in Dominican Republic, and he will always bring all the needs that have from my swimming pool. And he was very kind, and he knew what he was doing when he was taking care of the swimming pool. That workshop went in chapter 11, and he say, one day he say, I don't know what I'm gonna do. I say, why don't you become an independent and do swimming pools. You count on me and my neighbor for us as your first customer. I'm his number one customer. Now he has like 50 people working for him and he's so blessed that I promote that to him. And he will come and ask me, how will you approach it? How will you do it? How will you let the people know that you can take care of the pool? And I advise him. And he, this is his own words. I would never thought to do something like that. I was so afraid to take the risk, but you pushed me. You challenged me that I can do it. And you gave me your first account. I'm so thankful from what you did. And that's what I want to do. I would like to hear from my, entrepreneurs that we're going to develop in the organization. Yesterday, I was in an interview with a a manager to be, a general manager to be. when I talk to him about the opportunity, his eyes were like, I can't believe this is possible. You have the opportunity and I want to see you being successful as an entrepreneur. I do believe Anthony Dunn, a country with a strong private sector, a country with a small tiny, big, large, super large entrepreneur is a strong country. Remember, I come from a country where socialism took over and from being a very successful country, there were opportunities, I have to admit, but they destroyed the country. There is no private sector or very limited, if you will. Cuba, another example.

Anthony Codispoti: Hmm. What's the name of the pool service company that we were just talking about?

Andres Garcia: His name is, he put it under his name, is McKeever Swimming Pool Service.

Anthony Codispoti: I think that's such a great story. if folks, if you're not watching the video version of this, Andres' face just lights up talking about it. This is so rewarding for him. So Andres, you've built and rebuilt empires across multiple countries. You talked about some of that difficulty there in your home country, Venezuela. You've also been married for over 40 years and raised five daughters.

Andres Garcia: Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti: How did you protect those family relationships during the periods when the business demanded just everything that you had?

Andres Garcia: Anthony, if I could rewrite part of my life, would be those days where I didn't have balance. And I was working, bringing money home, and just dedicated to work. I made a mistake. I took away important time to my kids, to my wife, and I will advise any entrepreneur, any businessman to have a balance. Because those days, not going to come back. Your kids, before they become teenagers, they are not going to be at that age anymore. I mean, this is gone. So you can be very successful, but you need to have a balance toward your family and your friends. Especially, and I have to tell you, my wife, Jenny, helped me a lot. to understand that. She fought with me many times and, listen, you have to be more here. You have to dedicate time. It's not just the role model of being an entrepreneur. You have to be there for role model other parenthood that are very important for your kids and also for your wife and your family. I became a different person through the time, through the years and I have to share with the people that is going to listen or see this broadcast that don't be regret in the future, just take care of your family and your friends in balance with your business. It will help, it will pay you back big time. The ROI is going to be larger than the business ROI.

Anthony Codispoti: Do you think that there's anything that present day version of Andres could go back and tell earlier version of Andres that he could actually hear and encourage him to have made those changes back then?

Andres Garcia: that he could actually hear and encourage him to have made those changes. Yes. Anthony, as an individual, and I went through some health issues as well because I was a work colleague. I will work 18, 20 hours a day. I mean, it was crazy. I took away time. than was needed emotionally with my family, with my wife, with my kids, with my friends, and also physically. I wasn't exercising, I was working, working, working, working. And since God, I'm healthy now, and I have a super family balance, and I'm enjoying my life with my wife and my kids and my grandkids. as at the same time that I'm working because I haven't retired yet. I'm not planning in the near future. I'm playing a different role. I'm playing more roles like a mentor, like a coach. And I try to share my vision with my peers. But definitely, I would tell the address of those, hey, you're doing wrong.

Anthony Codispoti: Yeah. When you're bringing on new people in the business, whether it's operators, partners, or team members, what are the values for you, Andres, that are non-negotiable? And I'm also curious to hear if there was a time where you bent on one of those and paid the price for

Andres Garcia: Yeah, am a firm believer that do the right thing and do it right. And we uphold to respect, honesty, loyalty, fairness, diversity, and sensitivity. And I left that this one. as last because sometimes the pushing of getting things done, you forgot about being sensitive. And when you have the blessed to influence on other people, you have to be sensitive enough to understand where are they coming from to towards the reaction of what you're trying to convey them to do. Sometimes, I would say, much more then than now. Through the years, I learned that being sensitive and make other people know, even you are the leader, that you care, and then you understand where they're coming from, the results, the impact on others have been very significant. So if I have to choose one, then I didn't have enough sensitivity. I don't know if I...

Anthony Codispoti: But it seems like it seems like maybe that was something that would have been hard to know without kind of going through the path that you did and seeing how the lack of sensitivity played out. Would you agree with that? No. You know, when we were talking, you shared a beautiful answer about your wedding anniversary when I, you know, I asked the question of what's the

Andres Garcia: Yes, yes, 100%.

Anthony Codispoti: the one thing that you want to be celebrating in the year. You want to celebrate, you know, another wedding anniversary, your youngest daughter is stepping into her third operating role. Is there anything else that you would want to add to that list of something you want to be celebrating a year from now?

Andres Garcia: Yes, you know, told you off the recording that my daughter, my youngest daughter just got married in October of last year. and she gave me a lesson. She has the first dance with me. I have the opportunity to give the speech of the father and she present to my wife. She said, I want to make something special. This is always... a daddy event, daughter event, but the mother is the one that is behind the scene making everything happen. Never have the main role. And she wants to present to my wife the recognition that she is my partner in all of this. And I want to be sure that in this podcast, I am 50 % of what I am because of my wife. mean, Jenny has made my life fulfilled, has been there to correct me since then I've been grown. And she has never been in the front line. See, I mean, I'm the successful one, but I couldn't be as successful as I am if I didn't have her as my partner. And if I want to celebrate big time is being so blessed to have a partner like my wife.

Anthony Codispoti: I think that's a beautiful thing. What a wonderful capture.

Andres Garcia: Yeah, it is. It is. I will walk in with her and I hold her hand. We kiss each other. You know, so we are so blessed to have each one. Thanks God.

Anthony Codispoti: Yeah, you're a lucky man. She's a lucky woman as well. You guys are

Andres Garcia: Yes, yeah you have to meet her next time that we will get together in RLC or elsewhere you're going to meet her. It's the best half.

Anthony Codispoti: I would love that. And I'll bring the one I'm lucky to be with as well. I feel very similarly about my way. the best half of the family. And it's the same thing in our household too. Everybody that knows the two of us, my wife Kayla's the better half. We're both very lucky guys. Andres, anything else, any parting words that you want to share with listeners?

Andres Garcia: Yeah, it's the best half of the family. Yeah, Well, you you said in the previous recording, I'm open. mean, if there are people that want to talk to me, then I can be of any help, or I can be a mentor. I love to do that. I I love to contribute to be a better human being. It doesn't have to be in business, whatever they can.

Anthony Codispoti: And what You've got a lot of value to add both on the business and the personal side. What's the easiest way for folks to get in touch with you, Andres?

Andres Garcia: My phone number 561-389-5816. 561-389-5816. Send me a text and we find the time to talk.

Anthony Codispoti: Can you say it one more time? Wonderful. We'll have that in the show notes in case you missed it, folks. But, Andre, a special thank you for this extra special bonus section.

Andres Garcia: Thank you, Anthony. Thank you for the opportunity.

Anthony Codispoti: Well, folks, that's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us. And if one thing stood out, put that into action today.