Editor’s Note: Airport Experience News has launched the ACDBE of Distinction award to honor small, Airport Concessions Disadvantaged Business Enterprises-certified firms that excel in their field. Roz Mallet, president and CEO of PhaseNext Hospitality, is one of six winners for 2024.
In her own words, Roz Mallet is a “recovering corporate geek,” having held leadership positions for such sizable restaurant companies as Carlson Companies, owner of the T.G.I. Friday’s franchise, La Madeleine de Corps and Caribou Coffee Co. “I loved working with franchisees and I really enjoyed the idea of creating brands,” she says. “I have a great passion for the restaurant industry.”
This passion led Mallet to strike out on her own. “I had been in Minneapolis with Caribou for two years as CEO and I was ready to move back home to Dallas,” she says. She knew she didn’t want to do corporate again and she wanted more control over where she lived. “I had been in and out of Dallas most of my career – I’ve owned a home here for 27 years, but I’ve only lived in it for about 16 or 17 years of that because my corporate jobs would take me to other places.”
Given her experience working with franchisees over the years, and at the encouragement of mentors, Mallet decided that becoming a franchisee was the best option for her to have the control over her decision-making that she was seeking. “And so becoming an entrepreneur was a fairly easy decision,” she says.
But this was toward the end of 2008, and the recession was raging on, which is what led Mallet to set her sights on the non-traditional space. “When I was at Caribou, we had closed over 60 restaurants in the previous year; it was very challenging,” she explains. “I was looking for something that had a little protection from recessions.”
She wanted to enter the airport space, but as she learned more about the landscape, she determined she wasn’t interested in entering into joint ventures with prime concessionaires. Rather, she wanted to be a subtenant with the ultimate goal of being a tenant in her own right some day. But she also knew that this would require building up a reputation for her newly created company, PhaseNext Hospitality.
“So, I started on a military base, Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, with Buffalo Wild Wings, a brand I had a connection with thanks to my time spent as an officer of the National Restaurant Association alongside fellow officer Sally Smith, who was the CEO of Buffalo Wild Wings at the time, as well as a Smashburger,” Mallet says. “I really wanted to find a way to gain enough credibility so that I could convince the primes that subtenancy makes sense –I new it was going to take me a while but I wanted to take multiple steps.”
She had already received her ACDBE certification, which she calls her “foot in the door,” but she didn’t stop there. “I got my HUB certification at the same time, and I just kept going: I got WBE certified, DBE certified, I did all these pieces with the goal of setting myself up to be not the typical ACDBE, to really be involved in how my company showed up, to be an operator.”
Eyes On The Prize
Mallet acknowledges that her approach to the airport business slowed her down compared to ACDBEs that agreed to joint ventures, but she cared more about being firm in her goal. “I didn’t want to do joint ventures because the only offers I got were to be a 10-percent partner while the prime runs the space and I’m just stuck being the human resources person – I didn’t want that,” she says. “I didn’t want to make impractical decisions for what my strategy was. You can learn to make adjustments and still have the long-term strategy in sight.”
Her determination finally paid off: After beginning her business officially in 2009 and opening Buffalo Wild Wings and Smashburger at Fort Bliss in 2010, she won her first airport contract—a subtenancy agreement with Delaware North—in 2012 at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), with a Buffalo Wild Wings that opened in 2013.
And just as she had planned back when she started her business, Mallet’s experience as a subtenant eventually earned her a direct lease agreement: In 2015, she won her first independent bid to open The Italian Kitchen by Wolfgang Puck in her home market at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW). “I lost two bids before that 2015 win, but you can’t give up,” Mallet says. “You have to know where you want to go and be patient and flexible. I just kept learning as I moved along.”
Following her big 2015 win, Mallet earned two more direct leases at DFW for a Buffalo Wild Wings and a Smashburger, plus a 35-percent joint venture with a local restaurant operator called Cousin’s Bar-B-Q; another subtenant agreement with Delaware North at ATL for a Dunkin’ location; a subtenant agreement with Areas USA at Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport (MSP) for a Buffalo Wild Wings; and direct leases at Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) for a Jimmy John’s and a Buffalo Wild Wings GO that’s currently under construction.
“In 2023, my business ended at about $25.5 million in revenue,” Mallet says. “And, you know, that’s over 15 years – to me it’s really slow. But there was Covid and I did start the business in the recession. It was hard to get momentum at the beginning. But that development strategy stayed, and I’m happy with the outcome.”
Looking forward, Mallet is focused on continuing to grow the business. “Dallas/ Fort Worth has an RFP out now, Atlanta has an RFP out now – it’s about growth through the RFP process,” she says. “I’m also more open to doing a joint venture with a prime concessionaire now; it’s more attractive to me because it can help accelerate my growth. And I no longer have to worry about my credibility. I’m secure that the mutual respect is there.”
