UNPARALLELED
TEAM
APRIL FOGLE
VP OF RESTAURANT OPERATIONS
Ms. Fogle always loved the restaurant industry. Her career started as a bus person at a steakhouse when she was 16. She attended Johnson and Wales University in Rhode Island and graduated with a Culinary Arts and Food Service Management Degree. She has worked for hotels, privately owned restaurants, corporate owned casual dining restaurants and franchise owned restaurants.
She is very passionate about the hospitality business, operational excellence and developing people. She lives in the Los Angeles area and has been working in the restaurant industry there for over 20 years. She is looking forward to working with entrepreneurs to help grow and support their businesses.
JOHN WUYCHECK
SENIOR VP OF DEVELOPMENT
Mr. Wuycheck has served as Kahala Brands’ Senior Vice President of Development since September 2014. Mr. Wuycheck is a distinguished franchising professional who has worked for a wide variety of successful and nationally-recognized franchise brands, including HomeSmart® International, Edible Arrangements® and Seattle’s Best Coffee®.
As an accomplished and visionary development executive, Mr. Wuycheck helps franchisees make smart decisions when buying a world-class food franchise. He works hand-in-hand with each franchise business owner to help design concepts, strategies and processes to build amazing franchise locations.
Kerri Kudla
VP OF TRAINING & CUSTOMER SERVICE
With over 15 years at Kahala Brands, Kerri has served all the brands under the Kahala Brands banner through roles in Operations, Training and Customer Service. She has a business degree from the University of Colorado and spent years honing her skills in positions ranging from “corporate world” communications and finance to “hospitality world” restaurants, hotels and resorts.
“I love service—and the energy and teamwork in restaurants, especially,” says Kerri, who appreciates being able to draw from her broad background to help create rewarding experiences for franchisees and customers. Kerri loves to cook, and as a lifelong learner, she always has an audio book queued up on her phone.
Training Support
Initial Training
New franchisees spend two weeks in a store where we cover every aspect of their new business, including making the burgers, preparing and serving The Counter products, managing inventory and supporting their business through savvy marketing. Then, new franchisees will attend in-classroom training at KTEC (Kahala Training and Education Center) in Phoenix.
On-the-job-training
New franchisees spend 80 hours in a store to learn the ins and outs of the business, including how to correctly prepare and serve the brand’s products. The Counter also hosts monthly check-ins to help you meet your goals, to offer assistance and to ensure you have all the tools necessary to improve your business every day.
Ongoing training
Every new franchisee receives access to a Regional Director of Operations or Area Developer for check-ins and support as needed. The Counter is there to help you and answer any of your questions.
Ongoing marketing assistance
The Counter franchisees have access to in-house marketing and public relations teams, which significantly reduces expenses. These teams help with national, regional and local marketing, along with public relations from the grand opening through the life of the business. We train franchisees to manage their stores’ social media accounts, including Facebook®, Twitter®, Instagram® and Snapchat®.