Delaware-born burger shop Jake's rebrands as franchise chain

Posted on September 27, 2010 by Jessica Dees

Times appear right, with professionals considering careers as their own bosses

When John Carter started his business out of a humble old storefront on the outskirts of Newark, his friends were quick to offer their assessment of his dream.

"Everybody told me, 'You gotta be crazy to open a hamburger joint down the street from McDonald's.' "

Nearly 20 years later, you could say it was the smartest bout of insanity he'd ever had.

The little burger shop called Jake's is now 21 locations strong and poised to undergo a massive East Coast expansion, along with a major rebranding.

Like its rival -- Five Guys Burgers and Fries -- and fellow Delaware-born Capriotti's subs, Jake's Hamburgers is aiming to transform its humble beginnings into a national name, purely on the strength of a simple idea and uncompromising standards.

"I built the entire business on the concept that if you do something exceptionally well, you can carve out a niche for yourself and expand," said Carter, 50, who has partnered with two franchising veterans to help propagate his vision from the chain's headquarters, relocated in July 2009 from Delaware to Connecticut.

One of the biggest challenges for the team was reinventing the image and identity of Jake's, which shares a name with a slew of burger joints. Aiming to create a feeling of old-fashioned quality in an age of over-commercialized fast food, they decided on Jake's Wayback Burgers and began a chain-wide effort to revamp the restaurants' decors.

Starting in a couple of weeks, customers will begin seeing the new logo and name appear quietly along with the old one in existing restaurants. To avoid alienating or confusing customers, the company will let people get accustomed for four or five months before changing over the permanent signage in current stores. New stores will be built with the new branding in place.

In the meantime, the principals have launched a franchising effort that touts the brand as a low-cost way to get into the business -- $80,000 in startup costs as opposed to over $1 million for a McDonald's or Burger King. Currently, there are Jake's locations in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York, Connecticut, Massachusets, North Carolina and Florida.