Article about CoreLife Eatery expanding into the Albany area...
BizEats: Why this healthy fast-casual chain is opening 3 restaurants here in 3 months
CoreLife Eatery — a fast-casual restaurant chain out of Syracuse that focuses on salads, grain bowls and bone broth — is opening three restaurants in the Albany region in three months.
It is part of the four-year-old company's push to open 18 new stores this year.
The new restaurants in Albany will open at Latham Farms in mid-June and near the entrance to the University at Albany on Western Avenue in July. The third CoreLife restaurant will open toward the end of August in a 3,300-square-foot space at 109 Wolf Road, a new retail building that will replace a demolished commercial laundry.
It will be the fourth CoreLife Eatery in the region. CoreLife opened its first location in the area at 11 Clifton Country Road in Clifton Park in May 2018. Co-founder and chief culture officer Todd Mansfield said that location has been very successful. Around the same time, Mansfield said two new restaurants near Buffalo will open as well.
Mansfield said CoreLife Eatery is focusing its push into Albany this year more than any other market.
Since CoreLife opened the first restaurant in Syracuse in 2015, the group has grown to more than 50 stores in 11 states.
"We love New York and New York really has been very supportive for CoreLife in all of the markets we’re in," Mansfield said.
CoreLife is capitalizing on the trend of fast-casual restaurants serving healthier foods. The chain sells bowls featuring greens, grains and bone broths. The food is all free of GMOs, transfats, artificial colors, artificial sweeteners and other artificial additives.
The push into Albany is part of a plan for the company to open 300 stores within the next few years. The brand will have close to 70 restaurants by the end of 2019.
Mansfield said CoreLife has been pushing its franchise model more aggressively, though all of the new restaurants in Albany will be corporate-owned. It costs from $800,000 to $1 million to open each store.
He said there is potential for franchisees to open CoreLife Eatery stores in the Hudson Valley, Westchester and closer to the New York City metro area. The company already has stores in Long Island and expects to open more there. He said there is also potential to open more locations closer to Saratoga.
"We may open another [in the Capital Region] heading up toward Saratoga," Mansfield said. "What we’ll do is get these three open and take a breath and see how we do with all the new things we’re working on doing, and staffing. New York is a challenging state when it comes to restaurants and staffing and minimum wage."
CoreLife's site selection process includes looking at demographics and car counts as well as nearby grocery stores, gyms, schools, and stores like Lowe's, Home Goods or Target. Mansfield sees CoreLife's competitors as Panera Bread and Chipotle.
More at the source here:
https://www.bizjournals.com/albany/n..._news_headline
Company/restaurant info:
https://www.corelifeeatery.com/
https://www.corelifeeatery.com/locations/
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