4/27/06

For Release: May 9 ,2006, 11 a.m. ET Contact: Kay Brief, 617-492-0502

850-543-7639 cell kbrief@briefco.com

Boomers and ‘Blondie’ Pave Way for Business

Success for New Franchise – Dagwood’s Sandwich Shoppes

Baby boomers’ growing appetite for more healthful, tasty sandwiches, the

involvement of an iconic comic strip and its creator, an easy-to-run business design and a

network of Market Partners – these four factors are jumpstarting the new Dagwood’s

Sandwich Shoppes company to make it one of the

country’s fastest-growing restaurant franchises.

Already, business investors – called Market

Partners – have reserved franchise territories in Florida

and Louisiana, and the company has selected

international venues. The Market Partnerships

officially become available in May. Store openings are

scheduled for August.

This new franchise is the brainchild of Dean Young, creator of the “Blondie”

comic strip, which is syndicated by King Features, reaches 2,300 newspapers and 280

million readers every day, and Lamar Berry, a 30-year marketing executive in the

restaurant and franchising industry. Over 75 years, Blondie’s husband – Dagwood

Bumstead – has become known as the world’s greatest sandwich builder. In fact, “the

Dagwood sandwich” is defined as a multilayered sandwich in Webster’s New World

Dictionary.

“Dagwood and a sandwich shop is a perfect fit,” said Berry, the CEO of

Dagwood’s Sandwich Shoppes, LLC. “We are building on the consumer awareness and

loyalty associated with the strip’s daily media presence and 75-year history.” (more)

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Boomers and Blondie – add one

And, for those who never understood how Dagwood got his mouth around those

super-sized sandwiches, there will be shorter varieties and a full array of soups and

salads.

The keys to success will be high-quality food, the desire of the boomer generation

for better tasting, more healthful foods, the simplicity of the franchise operation, and a

very reasonable cost of entry, Berry said. In addition, there is a perfect demographic

overlap between today’s heavy sandwich consumer and the Blondie reader – boomers all.

“We have hired the finest chefs who, with Dean

Young’s vision and creativity, are giving us the greatest

recipes ever for sandwiches. Baby boomers made high-

fat, high-salt fast food prolific in the 1970s and 1980s

when they were 18 to 35 years old, but now they are

older, have more sophisticated palates and are gravitating

back to healthy, flavorful foods,” Berry said.

“That is why the sandwich category is so popular today,” he continued. “We

think that this business category can more than double its present size as the number of

baby boomers continues to grow and age.”

Sandwiches: Fastest Growing Restaurant Category

According to Technomics Inc., a market research firm specializing in the

restaurant industry, sandwiches accounted for two-thirds of the growth among limited-

service restaurants from 2000 to 2003. From 2003 through 2005, the sandwich segment

climbed 17% – adding nearly $1.9 billion in annual sales. Technomics reports that the

sandwich category has become the fastest-growing segment of the restaurant industry.

Berry said Dagwood’s is an attractive business opportunity for a territory

Franchisee because its facility operations will remain simple, avoiding elaborate menu

options and complicated expensive equipment such as hot grills and deep fat fryers.

“Any motivated person can run a sandwich operation because the business model

is so simple,” Berry said. “Our model assures a great-tasting product that can be

replicated easily and consistently.” (more)

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Boomers and Blondie – add two

Dagwood’s is creating almost a turnkey business for Franchisees, that includes

identification of locations, financial and insurance services, real estate support, fully

integrated training and support systems, and a restaurant layout and design package that

“drops” into a 1,200- to 1,500-square-foot space in 60 to 90 days.

Market Partners: Jumpstarting Growth

As a restaurant franchise company, Dagwood’s is designating between more than

100 market territories across the United States that are being offered for sale to Market

Partners for between $200,000 and $300,000. The Market Partners will then sell

Dagwood’s franchises to individuals who will own and operate the sandwich shops.

Market Partners also will provide extensive ongoing operational and marketing support to

the Franchisees. They will share liberally in all contract fees and royalty streams.

“Inside each market territory is a sizeable

opportunity to sell between 50 and 75 franchises

and to grow an extremely lucrative long-term

business. This arrangement requires experienced

business persons,” he continued. “Basically, they

will be in the business of selling and supporting

franchises.”

The ideal Market Partner, he said, is “a

person who has already been successful in business, perhaps with a multi-unit operation,

and is now looking to broaden his or her holdings. It could be a person who has taken a

lucrative early retirement package and is looking for a second career shot. Or it could be

a successful family that has a particular member looking to start a business.”

Dagwood’s builds upon the Quiznos and Subway business models and takes them

to the next level. A franchise company, Quiznos – which grew 41% in number of units in

2004 according to “Nation’s Restaurant News” – relies upon area developers to secure

and develop franchises. Subway, ranked the 12th fastest-growing franchise in 2004, uses

a similar concept and added 14% more units that year. Neither concept has area

development territories available any longer. (more)

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Boomers and Blondie – add three

“A well-designed, territory-representative franchise company can open more than

1,000 stores a year if the store-operating model is simple enough,” Berry said. “Quiznos

and Subway do it now.”

In Dagwood’s model, Market Partners will build and operate only one store,

which will be used for training new Franchisees. Their contracts will include a required

development schedule and strict performance standards to ensure consistent, high-quality

support for Franchisees. Dagwood’s will provide incentives for excellence to uphold

high performance standards. The corporate team provides operations and marketing,

training and support systems. Its one company-owned store, which opens in July, will be

used for Market Partner training and product testing.

“As a restaurant franchise company, everything we do is focused on bringing

value-added systems and guidance to the Market Partner and unit-level Franchisee, rather

than being preoccupied with running our own company shops,” Berry said.

An individual Franchisee will be able to purchase a Dagwood’s Sandwich Shoppe

for $20,000 and get into business for slightly more than $200,000 including build out.

“We will welcome Franchisees who want to grow their own small chain of three to four

Dagwood’s stores,” Berry said.

The shops are designed to fit in sites such as strip malls, office buildings, food

courts or locations such as hospitals, airports or bus and railway stations. The décor

draws liberally from the “Blondie” comic strips that have been entertaining millions of

readers for 75 years.

“I see the ideal unit-operator franchise candidates as people who are aspiring to

the American dream, who want to be their own bosses and work hard but also want the

comfort and security of knowing they are part of an operation that provides an expansive,

solid foundation under them,” Berry said. “They may be New Americans or veterans.

Many folks have access to a couple hundred thousand dollars, whether through a group of

family members or business loans.” And, Dagwood’s intends to provide financing and

leasing support through third-party resources. (more)

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Boomers and Blondie – add four

Dean Young, whose father, Chic Young, created the strip,

has been Dagwood’s alter ego since his father’s death in 1973. He

has been the creative force behind the shop design and menu,

working with Executive Chef Geoffrey Rhode, whose skills have

been honed working with such renowned chefs as Paul

Prudhomme, Emeril Lagasse, Warren LeRuth and his brother,

George Rhode.

“Our menu of sandwiches, soups and salads will be made with the most

impressive, high-taste-profile quality meats that practically melt in your mouth,

condiments and secret sauces that excite and tantalize your taste buds and unique, fresh

baked breads that are crisp on the outside and light and fluffy on the inside,” Young said.

“Every ingredient in our recipes has been scrutinized up and down, and competitively

tasted against any similar products we could find.”

Dagwood’s Sandwich Shoppes, LLC will have its administrative headquarters in

Clearwater, Fla., near Young’s home and studio and its international headquarters,

research and development function and primary test kitchen in New Orleans.

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Blondie © 2006 King Features Syndicate, Inc. ™ Hearst Holdings, Inc. ©2006 Dagwood’s Sandwich Shoppes, LLC