Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue III, 2016 | Page 20

2016 MVP AWARDS
BY HELEN BOND

Hail to the Beef!
A

Providing career opportunities since 1969

s chair of Arby’s largest franchisee, Jeff Davis has led his
family-owned business to new
heights. Davis is quick to say
the restaurant business is in his DNA,
and his vision, track record, and passion
for providing opportunity to anyone who
works for his company made him a natural
for the 2016 Mega Growth Leadership
MVP Award.
Davis, son of the late restaurateur Bob
Davis, helped his father open the Tulsa
family’s first Arby’s in 1969. The restaurant posted $200,000 in sales that first
year. Today the company, United States
Beef Corporation (US Beef), operates 333
Arby’s in 8 contiguous states across the
country’s midsection (Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Colorado,
Idaho, and Wyoming)—along with an

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aggressive expansion plan to add 70 new
restaurants by 2022 and remodel 123 existing stores along the way.
US Beef, still a family business nearly
NAME: Jeffery W. Davis
TITLE: Chair, United States Beef
Corporation
NO. OF UNITS: 333 Arby’s, 6

Taco Bueno
AGE: 63

FAMILY: Wife Judy Davis; 4

children and 5 grandchildren

YEARS IN FRANCHISING: 47
YEARS IN CURRENT POSITION:

2 years; CEO, 1995–2014;
President, 1990–1995

50 years later, is co-owned by Davis and
his younger brother, CEO John Davis,
who started with the company in 1975
as a crew member. The company, the first
franchise partner of Taco Bueno, also owns
six of the Tex-Mex fast food restaurants
in Northwest Arkansas.
When Davis took the helm at age 43
after his father’s death in 1995, he immediately set out to grow the company by
surrounding himself with trusted business
experts “who have carried me through all
these years,” he says. “It’s about hiring the
right people who are really good and have
the potential and let them go, and not try
to manage them by the minute.”
Davis, who has been recognized for
his leadership and growth of the Arby’s
brand as Franchisee of the Year and with
the Arby’s Maverick Award for innova-

MULTI-UNIT FRANCHISEE IS S UE III, 2016

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