Qdoba Featured in The Oregonian

Qdoba was recently featured in an article which published in The Oregonian, entitled, “Stan Kramer moves to Portland to save his Qdoba grill franchises.” The article featured the entrepreneur story of Stan Kramer and how he learned that you have to be a the forefront of your business to make them truly successful, and also includes an in-depth bio and photos. Below is a sample of the article along with a link to the article in its entirety.

Stan Kramer moves to Portland to save his Qdoba grill franchises
By Eric Mortenson

He'd made good money in the Silicon Valley's high-tech boom and was living the semi-retired life in Denver. His six Qdoba Mexican Grill franchises in Oregon were admittedly a "passing investment."

But the restaurants were performing poorly. Kramer would jet out from Denver about once a quarter, and what he saw was an undistinguished collection of fast-food joints operated by dispirited crews.

"It was kind of rudderless ship," Kramer says. "You could see it in their eyes."

Today, his stores are hopping and posted 20 percent sales gains in the past year, despite the poor economy. The employees exchange warm greetings with anyone venturing inside, and customer satisfaction surveys rank the Oregon stores near the top among 500 Qdoba operations nationally.

The success comes as restaurants nationally are hurting. Technomic, a Chicago restaurant consultant group, says sales at full-service restaurants fell 8 percent in 2009 and may fall another 3 percent to 7 percent this year. Fast-food chains are flat.

The key in Qdoba's case was that Kramer, 56, isn't one to let a business mope around.

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