Angry Crab Shack spices up the full-service restaurant industry with national franchise opportunities and skyrocketing sales
Angry Crab Shack, a full-service, casual dining restaurant featuring Cajun-Asian fusion seafood specializing in boiled shellfish flavored with signature sauces, is turning its focus to nationwide franchise expansion. The brand’s development strategy focuses on partnering with eager entrepreneurs and existing franchise owners, generally multi-site, who possess a deep love for seafood and are looking to expand their portfolios with a smart investment.
Angry Crab Shack has six corporate locations and one franchise location in Arizona. With each location generating an average of $3.1 million in sales annually, Angry Crab Shack’s 2017 gross sales totaled more than $19 million. The brand is looking to grow rapidly and among other planned locations, is specifically targeting Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah for 2018. They are also prepared to discuss most major market areas across the U.S. with interested candidates.
“Our current locations have experienced a high return on investment and record sales in the first year of operation,” said Andrew Diamond, CFO and part-owner of Angry Crab Shack. “With the rise of seafood consumption among Americans, our high-quality fresh food, unique atmosphere and exceptional customer experience have set us up for tremendous success in this category and we have no intention of slowing down.”
Fresh experience
Angry Crab Shack is a family-oriented restaurant that caters to everyone for every occasion and offers an entertaining, affordable and fresh experience that embodies the feeling of a mom-and-pop shop. The quality of food is superior to other seafood concepts in the industry since the brand uses only the freshest ingredients and sources the majority of its product from suppliers on the East Coast, Ecuador and the Pacific.
Each Angry Crab Shack restaurant has a laid-back atmosphere and unique presentation. The seafood is served in the plastic bag mixed with Cajun-Asian fusion signature sauces, and guests are encouraged to get messy which is why the restaurants are fully-equipped with communal sinks in the middle of the dining area – turning these restaurants into dining destinations. The bold Asian food flavors, combined with Cajun zing and spice, attracts seafood lovers from near and far.
The Cajun-Asian fusion restaurant was founded by Ron Lou in 2013. Lou is widely recognized as the first Asian American to play football in the NFL, firstly with the Houston Oilers, then the Philadelphia Eagles. Lou is no stranger to entrepreneurship: after leaving the NFL, he spent three decades creating five other restaurant concepts, ranging from Chinese restaurants to sport bars. Ready for another success, Lou set out to create something unique and launched the first Angry Crab Shack location in 2013 in Mesa, Arizona.
The Angry Crab Shack franchise has a strong appeal to entrepreneurs because it fills a niche in the restaurant industry – there are no other concepts on the market offering high-quality seafood for such a fair price. Angry Crab Shack believes restaurant owners are the foundation of a franchise brand, resulting in the concept building a solid support system to help restaurant owners grow and thrive. The support system consists of four components: training, marketing, technology and real estate.
Marketing strategies
The Angry Crab Shack brand is built on results-driven marketing strategies. Its strong business model and tried-and-true operations create loyal, return guests. Angry Crab Shack’s marketing team helps franchise owners create a robust digital footprint, including local and social media marketing and assist franchise owners in utilizing innovative digital advertising methods that help them reach their target guest audience in their local markets.
Taking a different approach to finding new restaurant locations and real estate, the brand is able to minimize the initial cost of entry and monthly overhead, allowing new restaurants to open faster than normal. Search efforts are focused on second and third generation restaurant locations that usually include functional kitchens and bars, properly-sized utility and HVAC systems, fire suppression systems and proper zoning. This allows for reduced build-out costs by limiting renovation to the décor and signs, while utilizing the existing equipment and utilities. Lower build-out costs and reduced renovation time, combined with average unit sales volume over $3M, make up Angry Crab Shack’s proven formula for success.
Angry Crab Shack is excited about adding new franchises in 2018, with plans to expand in every major market. The investment range of Angry Crab Shack is $450,000 to $850,000.
AT A GLANCE:
Name of franchise: Angry Crab Shack
Established: 2013
Number of franchised outlets: 6 corporate and 1 franchise locations
Location of units: Arizona
Investment range: $450,000 – $850,000
Minimum required capital: $200,000
URL: http://www.angrycrabshack.com/
Contact: Dennis Fuller – Franchise Development 727.586.5999, FL Dennis@angrycrabshack.com Jim Bender – Franchise Development 248.647.1989, MI Jim@angrycrabshack.com
