In the economic model of the Wendy's, about 95% of its restaurants operate as franchises, a dynamic the company uses so owners more and better opportunities for success, and it can bring more women and people of color into the business.

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Through the Own Your Opportunity initiative, Wendy's seeks to expand the accessibility of multicultural groups to become partners. Last year, the fast food giant took stock of its diversity and found it performed very poorly in terms of who it partnered with and employed. 

According to the company's latest earnings report, in its growth process, Wendy's reported more than $470 million of revenue in the third quarter of 2021, marking a 4% increase year over year. Thanks to these figures, the brand is focused on bolstering franchisees, who are in charge of actively promoting the busines.

Abigail Pringle, Wendy's International President and Chief Development Officer, told Entrepreneur:

We’re a 52-year-old brand, so we've had folks that have been in the system for a long time, and we've gone through a lot of succession planning. We have next generation franchisees coming into the system, but we've also been actively recruiting new franchisees. And we're now accelerating that.

Pringle highlighted the company's desire to aggressively increase diversity among its franchisees, with a special focus on attracting more women and people of color. She also said the company needs to accelerate the process.

According to Wendy's CDO, the brand's standard franchisee is someone who is well funded, has a strong growth mindset, and whose leadership profile aligns with the company's philosophy of investing in the people they care about through enduring careers, ongoing training, and fostering a strong and exciting work culture.

Allying with banks

Last year, Wendy's partnered with First Women's Bank, the first bank founded and operated by women based in Chicago, with the goal of finding women entrepreneurs interested in their business model, and who can easily access the capital and financing they need for the franchises.

The company has also made an effort to highlight existing women franchisees, creating spaces that allow building support networks to connect the different communities with each other and serve to attract new entrepreneurs to invest in the brand.

Seeking strong support for the Own Your Opportunity initiative, the chain has also made changes to its financial requirements, making them more accessible and flexible, especially for underrepresented communities.

"We can be financially smart and also be more competitive, so we changed our financial requirements for all new or existing franchisees,” Pringle said.

Backed by major lending partners such as City National Bank, Huntington National Bank and Wintrust Franchise Finance, those interested in becoming part of the major franchise now have more financing options and fewer net worth and liquidity requirements. 

Wendy's benefits

Pringle points out that the company is also putting up its own money through the Build-to-Suit development fund, a program in which Wendy's finds the location, builds the restaurant, and hands over the keys to its new partner to operate.

“They have part of the financial requirements, but we also are investing our capital to create an opportunity through building the restaurants,” highlighted Pringle, who also ensured that this gives franchisees the opportunity to access more locations if they wish, modifying their ability to recruit more people.

“I think that the brand has never been stronger. Our brand is in a really healthy position. In the U.S., we're now the number two hamburger chain, we are growing market share traffic and dollar share — we are doing that in all other parts of the world,” Pringle pointed out while assuring that the success that places them in the ideal position to double the number of partners and look to a future with greater diversity.