Success Stories: Tabbassum Mumtaz

Franchisee Displays A Take The Hill Vision

Tabbassum Mumtaz, a Pakistan native with an engineering background, has a breakthrough goal: To someday become Yum!'s largest franchisee. He hopes to take a big step toward that goal soon by doubling the number of Long John Silver's and A&W restaurants he currently owns in five states under the corporate name of Tajay Restaurants Inc.

"I am ready to grow with Yum!," he says. Tabbassum likes the idea of buying restaurants directly from Yum! "There are so many comfort zones to growing that way," he says. "The biggest is that the company will help you; they want to make sure you're successful so their royalty stream continues for a long time. They're looking for a long-term relationship."

With almost 95 Long John Silver's and A&W restaurants in Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas and California, Tabbassum is one of LJS' largest owners.

Tabbassum came to the U.S. in 1993 to work on a graduate degree but when his father died, he decided to drop out of school to work. He started frying fish at a Long John Silver's restaurant. He worked there for several years, eventually becoming an area manager.

During that time, he had been saving his money and looking for investment opportunities. In 1999, he became a Wendy's franchisee. But when he started looking to expand, Tabbassum found that he was competing against many Wendy's franchisees in Northern California, where he lived, and that the cost of buying land there to build new restaurants was prohibitive.

"I had always loved Long John Silver's," he says, "and when I heard that Yum! had acquired Long John's, I knew it was time to get back to the fish."

He applied to become a Yum! Franchisee and was given the opportunity to acquire eight LJS restaurants in East Texas. It required moving from California to Texas, but Tabbassum was ready. "The biggest deciding factor for me was wanting to be a part of Yum!," he says. "I knew they were not going to buy this brand and just let it run down. That was important to me."

Within three months there came another opportunity, this time to pitch Tabbassum on buying 11 more Long John's 350 miles away in West Texas. "It was a six-hour drive from one market to the other," Tabbassum says, "but by that point I had made my commitment so I figured the distance shouldn't matter. That was the real start of my real growth with Long John's and with Yum!."

Today, Tabbassum serves on Yum!'s Franchise Advisory Board, he also serves on the Ops Subcommittee and the IT Subcommittee.

This is a people business and they are your biggest assets.

"I have built a team of great people who give me the opportunity to work closer with Yum! It's a great company and I'm proud to be a part of it. And someday I believe I will be Yum!'s largest franchisee."

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