Lee's Hoagie House

The vendor opportunity at Lee's Hoagie House

Lee's Hoagie House is a quick-service restaurant concept headquartered in Pennsylvania. The system is tiny, with just 4 total units reported in the 2023 FDD—3 franchised and 1 company-owned. For a software vendor, the immediate total addressable market is these 4 locations. The average unit volume sits at $432,296, and franchisees pay a 5.0% royalty fee. While the absolute number of units is low, the brand posted 50% year-over-year unit growth, signaling expansion that could create new-location technology needs.

Who controls software purchasing

Decision-making authority is concentrated at the top. The FDD lists John Connell as President and Allan Lewin as CEO. No other executives, such as a CIO, CTO, or VP of IT, are disclosed. In a system this small, these two individuals likely evaluate and approve any software that would be deployed across the enterprise or recommended to franchisees. Vendors should prepare to engage directly with the C-suite rather than a dedicated technology buying center.

Mandated and current tech stack

The 2023 FDD does not capture any mandated or recommended technology systems. No POS provider, online ordering platform, payroll vendor, or back-of-house software is named. This absence of mandates means franchisees may currently select their own solutions, or the franchisor has simply not formalized a technology program in the disclosure document. For a software vendor, this represents a blank slate where a compelling pitch could establish a preferred vendor relationship before mandates are codified.

Procurement, renewals, and timing

Specific procurement rules from Item 8 were not extracted in the available data, so the franchisor's policy on designated versus approved suppliers remains unclear. However, the renewal process offers a window into contractual timelines. The initial franchise term is 10 years. To renew, a franchisee must provide notice between 6 and 12 months before expiration, pay a successor agreement fee equal to 25% of the then-current franchise fee (minimum $7,250), and execute the then-current form of Franchise Agreement. The successor term is 5 years. These renewal events, combined with the brand's recent growth, create natural inflection points where new technology evaluations could occur.

How to read the Lee's Hoagie House FDD

The Franchise Disclosure Document is the definitive source for understanding a franchise system's operations, obligations, and restrictions. For Lee's Hoagie House, the 2023 FDD provides the unit counts, executive roster, fee structure, and renewal conditions cited here. When reviewing the document, pay close attention to Item 11 for any future technology mandates and Item 8 for supplier restrictions that could affect software procurement. The full FDD is available for review below. For a ranked target list of franchise systems matched to your software category, FranCloud can help.