Wichita company in hyper-growth mode with acquisitions and construction for starters

Some companies experience growth phases, but Thrive Restaurant Group is in what CEO Jon Rolph called its hyper-growth era.

In June, the Wichita businessman explained how he was leaving the Kansas Board of Regents two years early in part to spend more time with his family.

However, as he discussed construction, acquisition and franchise plans for Thrive, he said “now you can look and see . . . reason number two” for his departure.

Rolph has two big focuses at the moment within his five brands, which include Carlos O’Kelly’s, Applebee’s, HomeGrown, Qdoba and Modern Market Eatery.

That includes beginning to franchise HomeGrown, possibly still this year, and seriously growing Qdoba over the next several years.

Thrive has purchased 10 existing Qdobas in Charlotte and Raleigh, N.C., which Rolph said gives the company a base of operations.

Thrive also has a deal to build 45 Qdoba restaurants over the next three and a half years — four of which are under construction now — in the greater North and South Carolina areas.

That means for the next three years, there will be 13 new stores a year, or one opening about every 26 days.

“Opening six to eight stores a year is one thing,” Rolph said of what Thrive has done previously. “Doubling that is another thing.”

Real estate selection, development and store openings are the core functions Thrive is working on, Rolph said.

He said doing deals has led to more deals.

“We got really good at doing deals — negotiating them, working through the process.”

That helped build Thrive’s reputation, he said, which in turn has helped the company to be able to do more acquisitions, including so many current deals at once.

“I just have a lot of faith that we can build this muscle over time,” Rolph said.

“I’m sure there’s things we’ll do in the first year that we’ll learn from,” he said. “It’s just part of how an organization learns and grows and adapts for the future.”

That learning curve applies to franchising HomeGrown, too.

Franchising is something new for Thrive, which Rolph said requires new support structures and thought processes.

Rolph said Thrive has always gone through cycles and developed new strengths along the way.

“This is just another season for us.”

He said it creates a lot of opportunities for people.

In addition to working on franchising, Thrive continues to open HomeGrown restaurants on its own, too, Rolph said, with No. 15 having just opened in Alexandria, Va.

“We really feel like we have something special, and we’re really excited to see how far it can go.”