Want to grow your brand? Make sure you get your franchise relations right. This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” features Darin Harris, the CEO of the San Diego-based burger chain Jack in the Box, to talk about the company’s growth plans.

This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” features Frances Allen, CEO of Checkers and Rally’s, who talks about the chain’s growth, the industry’s current challenges and her outlook going forward. Checkers, traditionally a drive-thru-only chain, has thrived since the pandemic as consumers shifted more of their dining toward such service models. That has also given the chain the upper hand as more restaurant chains have started toying with drive-thru-only models.

Is there any positive outlook on the labor front? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” features Kevin Bazner, the CEO of A&W Restaurants, talking about the impact of the labor shortage on his company’s restaurants.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission appears ready to take a harder look at franchising. This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” features two people who are asking the agency to do just that. Eric Karp, an attorney with the law firm of Witmer Karp Warner and Ryan, and Subway operator and franchisee advocate Keith Miller, explain their recent request of the commission to investigate nine franchises. Those franchises include Subway, Dickey’s and 7-Eleven, along with IHG Hotels, Choice Hotels, the UPS Store, Experimax, Supercuts and Massage Envy.

When will independent restaurants catch a break? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” features a discussion on the state of independent restaurants with Senior Editor Heather Lalley. Restaurants are currently facing a major shortage of alcohol, which has made it difficult to get some specific brands—the latest in a string of shortages that have affected all kinds of businesses. Yet independents, unsurprisingly, are feeling the brunt of this. Independents are also facing a host of other challenges and have not recovered quite as well as have chain restaurants. They are at a major disadvantage on labor issues, technology adoption and food costs, among other things.

This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” features Mark Rossi, the CEO of Avanti Restaurant Solutions, who talks about current challenges with the supply chain. Challenges getting equipment in the door have caused all sorts of problems with restaurants. Avanti works with restaurants to design their foodservice options and has been paying close attention to the problem. While he speaks specifically about equipment challenges, many of the issues—particularly a driver shortage—are affecting all kinds of industries that supply products to restaurants.

Fast growth isn’t necessarily the best growth. This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast features Pete Pascuzzi, the CEO of MRI Heritage Brands, to discuss the best strategies for unit and franchise growth in a post-pandemic era. MRI is a Texas company that operates several chains, including Uberrito, Casa Ole, Monterey’s Little Mexico, Tortuga and Crazy Joe’s. Pascuzzi talks about why the company is more deliberative with its franchisee and site selection. A lot of mistakes are made when chains quickly get franchisees into the system and push them into bad sites. He talks generally about site availability and the cost of getting into locations these days.

What did Sam Fox learn from his early struggles in the restaurant business? Fox, the founder of Fox Restaurant Concepts, joins this week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” to talk about his career in the restaurant industry. Fox is one of the industry’s most influential concept creators. He has created 20 unique restaurants, including North Italia, Flower Child, True Food Kitchen. In 2019 his company was sold to Cheesecake Factory in one of the industry’s most unique deals in recent years.

Restaurants have a love-hate relationship with third-party delivery services. This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” covers that relationship. Senior Editor Joe Guszkowski joins the podcast to talk about the issue, including several recent developments in an ongoing battle about charges and other delivery companies' practices.

Why have restaurant industry sales recovered so quickly? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” features David Henkes, senior principal with RB sister company Technomic, and Kevin Schimpf, senior research manager, to talk about where sales are and where they are headed. Technomic compiles industry sales data, including tracking the largest chains in the U.S., and also publishes regular forecasts for sales.