Jack in the Box exec details company's plans for more locations in Greater Louisville

A San Diego, California-based fast food chain is planning a major push into the Greater Louisville region.

Jack in the Box (Nasdaq: JACK) is scheduled to open two company-owned restaurants next month in former Steak ‘n Shake locations at 3232 Bardstown Road and at 10700 Dixie Highway in Valley Station.

Van Ingram, vice president of franchise recruitment for Jack in the Box, said the two new restaurants are the first of up to eight potential company-owned locations. Ingram added that Jack in the Box plans to use both company and franchise stores to quickly establish its brand equity in the Greater Louisville metro area.

“Louisville is just the second market we're doing this with, Salt Lake City was the first,” Ingram explained. “We're going to develop some restaurants, and at the same time, we want to sign franchisees who will develop alongside us. Eventually, we would consider transitioning those company restaurants over to a franchisee.

“It's a quicker way to get to scale and scope. We just opened our first franchise location in Salt Lake City, and we have a company location opening in a few weeks.”

Becoming a Jack in the Box requires a $50,000 franchise fee per store, as well as a royalty fee of 5% of gross sales and a marketing fee of 5% of gross sales. Franchisees also need to have at least $500,000 in liquidity.

“We would look for multi-unit franchisees, typically three to five [units] depending on the area we're going into, but three to five units is typical,” Ingram said. “We're looking for people that have some type of transferable experience. And I use the term business acumen — retail experience, transactional retail experience, development. We don't necessarily require that they have food [background].”

Ingram said Jack in the Box already has another Greater Louisville location that's close to beginning construction and another five that are in some level of development.

Jack in the Box Inc. is one of the nation's largest hamburger chains with approximately 2,200 restaurants across 21 states. In 2022, the company acquired Del Taco, the second largest Mexican-American quick-serve restaurant chain by units in the U.S. with approximately 600 restaurants across 16 states.

Both Jack in the Box and Del Taco are known for burgers, fries, tacos and shakes.

Jack in the Box reported a 44.6% increase in total revenue to $402.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to $278.5 million in the prior quarter. Net earnings increased to $45.9 million in fourth quarter of fiscal 2022, compared with $38.9 million in 2021.

Ingram said Louisville is expected to anchor the company’s Midwest expansion.

“If you look at the Louisville market, we consider it to be somewhere in that 20 to 25 range as far as the number of units,” he added. “That’s inside the belt line, so to speak, inside (Interstate) 265 and all of that. And then another 10 to 15 [units] when you get outside of there.

“You start talking about Corydon, Scottsburg or even Seymour, [Indiana] right, going up towards Indianapolis. And out towards Shelbyville, Taylorsville, Bardstown, E-town (Elizabethtown), [Kentucky] all those areas would be areas that are outside of Louisville proper that we've also designated for opportunities.”

Ingram is familiar with the Kentucky market because he is a former resident. Although he is based in Raleigh, North Carolina, now, Ingram lived in Lexington, Kentucky, from 1998 to 2018.

While living in the Bluegrass he worked on franchising for Arby’s and Taco John’s. He relocated to North Carolina to join Golden Corral and moved to Jack in the Box a year and a half ago.

Ingram said Greater Louisville stood out to Jack in the Box for several reasons, including the prevalence of convenience retail and other quick-serve restaurants in the region, the number of high-traffic areas, and the mix of daytime and nighttime employment.

He added that the company-owned restaurants in the Louisville area will probably be between 2,200 and 2,600 square feet with about 40 employees. Although locations that are open 24-hours will require more staff.

Ingram declined to disclose how much the company is investing in its Louisville stores, but he did say the company is working on a new drive-thru only store model that would be about 1,350 square feet with a double drive-thru, a walk-up window for ordering, and a dedicated pick-up window for mobile and third-party delivery orders.

“We're building what would be a more traditional prototype in the Louisville market,” Ingram said. “But as we go forward, you’re going to start to see and hear about a different model. The other one we are opening in Ogden, Utah, in a few weeks is our first drive-thru only location.

”Some exciting things happening there and in Salt Lake City. And the new thing you will see us touting is the openings in Louisville."

Retail dollar volume: 2022