Dickey’s Barbecue Pit and its leader Roland Dickey Jr. are in panic mode, according to leaks from company insiders. It’s rumored that Dickey’s’ dropping store count could trigger onerous terms imposed by its lender, Wells Fargo. Dickey’s corporate employees continue to report abusive and unprofessional behavior and impossible demands from Roland Dickey, Jr. and his management team. Could the high-turnover Dickey’s franchise scheme soon go up in smoke?
(UnhappyFranchise.Com)
Unfortunately, one of the worst and most abusive bullies in franchising (in our opinion) is getting worse and more abusive.
Dickey’s insiders report that the Dickey family is feeling intense pressure, and is raining down abusive treatment on employees and franchise owners as it fights for survival.
Note that the information and opinions in the quotations are provided by anonymous third-parties and have not been independently corroborated.
We ask our readers to investigate these allegations further, and report their opinions and findings to us in the comment section below.
We have long heard rumors that Roland Dickey Jr. had a tyrannical and near desperate insistence on maintaining a store count of 500+ (or at least maintaining the appearance of 500+ operational stores) due to the fact that terms of their loan with Wells Fargo was dependent on Dickey’s maintaining the size of its franchised network.
We’ve heard rumors that the interest on the massive financing package would increase if the number of stores decreased.
Other rumors allege that if store count dips below a certain threshhold, Wells Fargo has the power to take operational control and appoint its own CEO.
We haven’t seen any documentation or first-hand account of these financing stipulations.
Recently, we have again heard this allegation from yet another anonymous source:
When Travis Dickey, Sr. passed away, the company was put into Roland’s hands.
However other family members fought this and Roland took out a significant loan from Wells Fargo to pay them off and make them go away silently (since they had been showing up at the office to cause a scene. Roland even hired outside security to keep these family members our of the office).
That loan was contingent on a certain number of stores staying open, and the interest rate on that loan fluctuates based on the store count (of open stores). Therefore when stores close and Wells Fargo does a store count, the less number of restaurants that are open, the higher the interest rate goes on the loan. This is why Dallas goes into panic mode whenever a store closes (the direction given to the field is “by any means necessary, get that store open, even if it’s just you (a corporate employee) working there”.
Roland is all smiles when he has new owners come into the system to open new restaurants- it means more stores are open, which gives him some cushioning.
In the opinion of some insiders, falling store count could spell the end of the Dickey’s family control:
If owners abruptly closed their doors and Wells Fargo did their store count, it could very well ruin Roland.
I also heard that they may appoint a new CEO based on this…
Employees report taking the brunt of Roland Dickey Jr.’s tirades and unreasonable demands.
We’ve heard recently:
14th straight day working, 12+ hour days. Regional Business Leaders are told to continue store visits, some of them are having to travel out of state.
I can’t complain because I have a job, but anyone in the company making over $65k took an 11% pay cut this week and no days off.
I expected the pay cut but continuing to have no days off until further notice is exhausting on the mind and body right now.
And
The culture is terrible, and every employee is searching for a new job.
Roland yells at office staff and uses vulgar language on an almost daily basis, and it’s common for staff to want to crawl under their desks when he’s in the office just to avoid his wrath.
…people are fired on any given day based on If Roland woke up on the wrong side of the bed. The office staff feels much the same.
A recent hire quit after just 3 days because of how he was spoken to by one of the higher ups in the operations department.
And
We all work at least 12 hours a day, and most of us drive over 3000 miles a month.
All field employees are expected to be out visiting stores every day, and we’re currently working a 7 day work week. Granted we want to be out to support our owners, but it’s not safe. My money is on Roland firing anyone who wants to stay home.
Employees are cussed at, given no real time off away from work, and instructed to hound all of the owners in their regions multiple times a day.
…there was a round of layoffs about a week and a half ago and probably another one coming in the next few weeks from what I hear.
And…
Oh, I can provide a ton of info.
Like how they don’t pay people the proper amount for gas reimbursement (“you’ll get it back in your taxes”), how they own the company that makes the furnishings in the stores and you can only buy from that company, how they strong arm their staff to get owners to sign up for 3rd party vendors because Roland gets a kick back from places like DoorDash.
Field staff reports they are under pressure to keep franchise owners under pressure:
[Dickey’s field staff] is instructed to hound all of the owners in their regions multiple times a day. There is direction to call the owners multiple times a day starting early in the morning to make sure the owners are working (which, is documented by home office to use as back up if an owner comes after Roland. They can say “well you’re never working in your store like you agreed to in your franchise agreement”).
Owners don’t trust corporate staff because of the amount of turnover
Franchise owners allegedly get the brunt of this dysfunctional system, and they take it out on Dickey’s field staff:
What’s really sad is the poor owners who have to deal with this.
Dickeys doesn’t offer any new and exciting menu items or marketing ideas to drive people into the stores.
Some owners take over stores and get ZERO help from corporate leaving them to run stores while not knowing what to do.
The field team GENUINLY wants to help the owners, but the owners have been burnt by the company so many times that they are checked out.
The field staff gets cussed out, belittled, and kicked out of stores by owners who are tired of Dickeys.
All Dickeys says they’ll do is send legal letters, but those hold no weight.
It should be known and shared, that if an owner is down double digits in sales, a member of the home office and field ops staff is directed to call EACH of those owners EVERY morning, to see if that owner is working in their store that day. They’re told to call the store to ask if the owner is working that day.
Home office documents this each day, as a way to build a case against any owner who tries to say that Dickey’s is not supporting them. They will say (for example) that the owner needs to be in their stores first and foremost to build sales.
Although that argument isn’t wrong (and in fact, each owner agrees to spending 40hrs a week in their stores per the FA) it’s the fact that even if an owner is on vacation or taking a day off, the home office staff is directly told, “get them engaged in their store, I don’t care where they are”.
There are owners who have other well-paying side jobs, and staff is still told to get them into their stores regardless of where they are. Some staff was even directed to go to those side jobs, to try and get the owner into their restaurant. That direction comes from Ed Herman.
Any field ops member will confirm this.
You’d think home office would care enough about its field employees to keep them updated on what to do with this coronavirus.
It’s Monday and the only thing we’ve heard from Dallas is to cancel our hotel and flight reservations (that we didn’t even make ourselves), for a meeting that we had in Dallas next week. Other than that, not a peep of direction.
Finally, there is ZERO talk amongst the corporate team about food safety and quality- NONE. Dickeys leaves everything up to the owners and if a store is operating without (for example) thermometers to temp the food, Home Office will just say “make sure you documented it and contact the owner” (and of course, the owners don’t answer our calls). Most of the stores, I wouldn’t allow my family to eat in.
And in a side note, last week was the FIRST time I heard anyone from home office talk about the importance of washing hands for 20 seconds. In the entire time I’ve been with Dickey’s, never once have they ever discussed hand washing.
One employee stated that he/she thinks things are dire for Dickey’s if things don’t change:
If things continue this way, there will be no office staff as well as no one in the field.
If I were to guess, we have major lay offs at corporate because owners are going to close their stores- which means Roland is screwed with that Wells Fargo loan.
I think he’s going to ax everyone to save money for that interest rate loan he has to pay.
Dickey’s Barbecue Pit once claimed it had more than 600 locations.
The Dickey’s Barbecue Pit website currently lists 478 domestic locations.
As the pressure from the Coronavirus shutdowns and quarantines force marginal and struggling franchises to close, and the pool of prospective franchisees to take over closed stores (churning) dries up, Dickey’s store count could continue to drop dramatically.
ALSO READ:
DICKEY’S Corporate Employee Complaints (Discussion Forum)
Most Dickey’s Franchises Are Unprofitable, Franchisees Report
DICKEY’S BARBECUE PIT Franchise SBA Loans Investigated by U.S. Senator
DICKEY’S BARBECUE PIT Closed Location List
DICKEY’S BARBECUE PIT Franchise Complaints
DICKEY’S Franchise Owners Share Frustrations & Fears
Roland Dickey Jr. Extracted Millions While Dickey’s Franchise Owners Fought for Survival
DICKEY’S BARBEQUE PIT Franchise Closures, Internal Turmoil Revealed By UnhappyFranchisee.Com
DICKEY’S Franchise Class Action Lawsuit Filed in CA
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TAGS: Coronavirus, COVID-19, Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, Dickey’s, Dickey’s Barbecue Pit franchise, Dickey’s franchise, DBRI, Dickey’s Barbecue Restaurants Incorporated, Dickey’s closed, Laura Rea Dickey, Roland Dickey Jr., franchise opportunity, franchise complaints, unhappy franchisee
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View Comments
CA down to 59 US locations 450
Dickeys US locations down to 443
Dickeys US locations down to 418; California down to 56
@anonymous-
The Dickey's website is an abysmal mess. Their locations list as of writing this comment is missing quite a few stores that are listed over in the online ordering section, and can't be used as an accurate indicator of store count (Middletown, DE for one). While I would love for their numbers to be down to 418, the actual count on dickeys.com/locations is 408 right now and has to be incorrect.
When Laura wonders why her franchisees don't trust anything that comes from her 'Big-data-centric company', it's because DBRI can't do simple things like keep their location list correct on a website. The world has been doing store locators for 20+ years online, you would think that someone who claims to be so tech-centric could handle 20 year old technology.
That's not to mention that they were not at all technically prepared for a national T-Mobile advertisement and had to pull it right after launch due to amateur hour at Cole Ave in Dallas.
Dickeys locations 392; CA is 52
Not sure where the 392 number is from. Dickey's 2020 FDD, dated September 4, 2020, was just released, so these are their reported numbers. Their fiscal years end May 31. They started with 500 outlets (U.S.numbers only), opened 39, terminated 21, reacquired 2, and had 50 cease operations. Net loss of 34 to 466. Add in 74 transfers, and the churn rate is 31.7%, which is off the charts.
It’s 96 units lost in the last 3 years!
Please post a link to Dickey's 2020 FDD
FDD is at
https://www.wdfi.org/apps/FranchiseSearch/details.aspx?id=627199&hash=1036520732&search=external&type=GENERAL
Just hit the "Download" at the bottom.
Another thing we don’t know about that churn rate is how many of the stores that churned would have been closed permanently if Dickey’s had not found some new sucker to buy it from them. A business model’s strength is not determined by the amount of stores you open, it’s by how many don’t close. Right now, Laura should shut her trap about “sales being up” and all the other Dickey’s B.S. because quite clearly their business model does not work. And this falls squarely on Roland and Laura, NOT the franchisees that they blame it on.
With the recent announcement of increased Tech fees ($300-$400 a month), it is painfully obvious that DBRI sees the franchisees as a money pot to just dip their hand into whenever Roland needs to make the next payment on his yacht. Charging $20/month for a Microsoft 365 subscription is highway robbery. There are 1 of 2 things happening here. The inept director of IT is over-subscribing the locations to a premium version of MS Office with applications that will never be used, or they are pocketing $7.50 / month per location to offer Office. I'd bet the latter.
That director of IT continues her ineptitude where for over a year, they had malware in their Point of Sale system that harvested credit card data. Not just from a few locations... more like over 30% depending on how you count closed locations... https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/10/breach-at-dickeys-bbq-smokes-3m-cards/
There is nothing that Roland and Laura can do properly except that that they inherited a few good recipes. That isn't their doing, that's their undoing. Greed runs this company and the franchisees are left trying to pick up the pieces of shattered lives when corporate only cares about how much they can pull from franchisee bank accounts.