June 2013
| Business World Magazine | 217
to need help, and fortunately, he found help
from a dynamic duo with distinctive exper-
tise in franchise development.
TRIUMPH IN TEAMWORK
John Eucalitto was a highly successful area
developer formerly affiliated with Blimpie
before he began working with Bill Chemero,
a franchise developer formerly affiliated with
Figaro’s Italian Pizza. Both of these men left
off from their initial, substantial successes
to join forces and impart success to a little
operation known as Edible Arrangements.
Eucalitto and Chemero, serving respectively
as Vice President of Operations and Vice
President of Franchising, helped Edible Ar-
rangements expand from 16 locations to
more than 753 locations within a period of
33 months (try arranging that!). These two
men ultimately decided to partner with
Carter, and as proof of their ability to make
lightning strike twice, they have since taken
Jake’s from 12 units to what is today just shy
of 200 locations. In fact, there could be many
more were it not for the careful, conscious
conservatism espoused by Chemero.
He will say that he definitely wants to
see the company grow, and it is, but Chem-
ero explains that the growth has not been
prompted by any approach to quickly sell as
many franchises as possible, rather by striv-
ing to assure the successful operation of each
link in the chain. He ascribes to quality over
quantity, and says, “A franchise development
team is only as successful as the operation-
al team is ... our goal is to help franchisees
get opened and keeping them successful. If
everyone is making money and everyone is
