Gandy’s Seafood is the oldest operating, family run, seafood business in Panama City, Florida today and has been going strong since 1955. The Gandy Seafood Cajun X Market Franchise idea came about 12 years ago.
We started out by opening two store locations, one in Columbia, Tenn. and the other in Jackson, Tenn. that we owned and ran. These two locations were successful and we quickly realized that we needed to open additional locations to expand our delivery side of the business. We started off by licensing locations to prove our concept. Once we gained success in our two stores, we sold a third as a licensor, it was then that our attorney advised us to franchise, if we wanted to continue to grow.
We hired a franchise attorney and went through the requirements to become a franchise. The process of becoming a franchise and all of the requirements, took years of knowledge, years of perfecting the markets, plenty of time and money. We grew into 7 locations and was so excited because we could see the potential for “BIG MONEY”! Each location was paying anywhere between 400.00 to 500.00 or 5% whichever was greater each week in royalty fees and weekly product orders. Our goal was to have 20 locations. So, we are now loving life, the phones are ringing with potential new franchisees and the money is rolling in. We’re thinking, it doesn’t get much better and all of our hard work and efforts are paying off!!!
Then covid hit and the economy went down. Here are a few reasons that our franchises started slowly closing… investing came to a halt, medical issues, employees were scarce due to getting checks to stay home from programs, moral was low and some locations were force to temporarily close. We stopped delivering products to the markets once we only had 3 locations and decided to approve vendors for the markets to use.
Now we have 1 franchise left in Murfreesboro, Tenn. This location uses the vendors that we approve and pays 450.00 each week in royalty fees.
There are two business opportunities within our franchise documents. One side of the business is being the sole supplier of all products to the markets. The second side is the franchise opportunity with franchise fees and royalty payments. All of the franchise documents and materials are still in place for a new franchisor to pick-up where we left off, with our support and guidance. We look forward to sharing information and answering any questions for a potential franchisor.