The Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo is a huge event for Maui Wowi and franchisees Rob and Jean McLean have been rocking it for more than eight years! This year’s 20-day event blew all the other years out of the water. It brought in over 1.3 million attendees! Talk about record breaking!
Year after year, the McLeans have made adjustments to improve their system so that they can serve paradise in a cup to as many customers as possible. They have eight carts set up throughout the venue with four on the first floor and four on the upper floor. They serve smoothies and smoothies with alcohol. There are a total of 22 employees, along with Rob and Jean themselves and their brother-in-law, all cranking out smoothies to lines of customers. Each day there is the rodeo and then a chart topping performer who closes out the night.
Director of Franchise Support Misty Hartner flew out to support the McLeans and see the awesomeness firsthand. Franchisee and Director of Regional Support Barb Putman also flew out to get an up close look at how to operate on such a large scale. She and her husband Ron were preparing for the upcoming season of the San Diego Padres at Petco Park; a new contract with big opportunities. Rob and Jean welcome franchisees to come and learn every year to see how it’s done, so Barb jumped on board.
“If anybody is interested in growing their business, why wouldn’t you want to learn from the best and then duplicate it? That is what franchising is all about,” said Barb. “Even though Ron and I have been franchisees for nine years, there is always room to grow and make improvements. Rob and Jean were so gracious to extend an invitation to our entire ‘ohana that we decided to take them up on it.”
Barb says the biggest take-away was learning how to operate with alcohol; something they hadn’t really done before. They wanted to make sure they were setting themselves up for success at their new venue and were so appreciative of Rob and Jean for showing her the ropes.
“It was such an awesome and amazing experience to go and work the rodeo with the McLeans this year,” said Misty. “It was a great time to see what it is they do, what an awesome operation they have set up, and just how busy they truly get.”
This year’s rodeo proved to be a winner. With the help of Rob and Jean’s amazing staff, they turned out record breaking sales numbers and served thousands of smoothies to happy customers.
When all was said and done, they had served just over 46,000 drinks! Now, they just have to figure out how they’re going to top it next year! Congratulations on another amazing year at the Houston Rodeo