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Jason Medlock: Explains Why Diversification is Key to Successful Entrepreneurship
Jason
Medlock is a busy guy. The president and managing partner of GlennLock
Foods and his partner and the company’s CEO Aaron Glenn of NFL fame,
helm one of the fastest-growing businesses in Texas. They founded
GlennLock Foods in 2006 with the iconic Houston brand, Frenchy’s
Chicken. “We put up four restaurants in the first year that we were in
this business,” beams Medlock. The team, which also includes COO
Reginald Coachman and VP of Administration Darlene Coachman, guided
GlennLock Foods to striking success. “We’re in seven locations and
projected to do 9.1 million in sales this year,” Medlock explains.
But,
as with any strong organization, Medlock and his brand are diversified,
with companies as varied as the equally successful GlennLock
Construction. In 2009 the firm was awarded two school construction
projects in the Houston Independent School District and will also
participate in a 47-schoool preventive maintenance HVAC contract. 3131
Houston WFC (which owns a Williams Fried Chicken franchise in Dallas),
and the Dallas Sports Agency are also under the parent company, Medlock
and Glenn’s 3131 Properties, Ltd. “So this parent company has seeded
money to start all of these groups.”
Jason Medlock and GlennLock Foods have found success based on two key principles:
Strategic partnerships:
“The thing I look at when I partner with companies is what [they] have
that I don’t have. What can I get out of this relationship that I don’t
currently have and how can I match up my talents with yours? When I
look at partnerships that way, they normally end up being a win-win for
both parties.”
Innovation and forward-thinking:
The way we’ve been able to grow this brand [is through] a model called
‘fast casual.’ And fast casual is one of the fastest-growing restaurant
segments in the business. We’re the first in Texas, but the second in
the nation to put together a fast casual model for a chicken
restaurant. You take a quick-serve restaurant and you mix it in with a
casual dining, a sit down atmosphere — maybe a bar. Our regular fast
food restaurant averages around 1.3 million a year. The first fast
casual … in Houston [is] averaging 2.3 million a year. We’ve hit a
niche in the market. –todd williams
