Culver's owner pays $144K to employees out of pocket

[mcurphy]

A great story from one of my favorite places to eat! It's really outstanding what this owner did for his employees, end even cooler that he asked them to donate some of their time to charity in return. I eat there about every other week, can get a burger, fries and pop for only $3.15 on Wednesdays. It is my kids favorite place to have a burger, and their frozen custard, and fried cheese curds are delicious too! I will be a devoted customer for years to come!

Culver's owner pays $144K to employees out of pocket:
http://www.channel3000.com/money/culvers-owner-pays-144k-to-employees-out-of-pocket/26770916

PLATTEVILLE, Wis. -
When a fire destroyed the Culver's Restaurant in Platteville on Nov. 16, 2013 it left the 40 employees wondering if they still had a job.

"What the owner could have done is he could have said, 'Hey, you can find another place of employment,'" said Cole Cooper, an employee who has worked for five years at the restaurant.

Bruce Kroll owned the Culver's Restaurant in Platteville for 19 years. He works in the restaurant and knows his employees and understands the importance they play. For that reason he made the decision to continue paying the 40 employees for six months while the restaurant was being rebuilt.

"To me not only was it the right thing to do, it made business sense to do it," Kroll said.

His insurance paid the employee payroll for 60 days. Kroll paid the remaining four months of paychecks, almost $144,00 out of his own pocket.

"He actually paid us out of his own pocket until the store was rebuilt. That's why I love working here. I'm probably going to be here another five years just because of the owner," Cooper said.

Kroll did make one request of his employees during the six-month period the restaurant was closed. He wanted them to volunteer their time to help the community. Some team members served Christmas dinner at an area church for 150 people while others volunteered at Badger Camp. Cole Cooper and other employees decided to give back to the people who tried to save the restaurant from the fire.

"We actually set up a fundraiser in honor of the local Platteville fire department. We fundraised over $2,000 and 100 percent of the donations were actually given to the fire department," Cooper said.

Kroll said he was able to continue to pay his 40 employees because he also owns a Culver's in Dubuque, Iowa and he used the profits from that restaurant to help the Platteville employees. He said helping those 40 employees and keeping them in the Culver's family was what mattered most.

"It is just a building and Culver's of Platteville is much more than that. It is the people and not the building and we didn't lose the people and so why should we allow the fire to cause that to happen?" Kroll said.

Six months to the day of the fire, the restaurant reopened on June 16. Less than 24 hours later it was closed again when a tornado came within 20 yards of the restaurants door. It didn't do any damage to the building but debris was strewn throughout the property and employees spent the next day cleaning up.

The restaurant is now open, hopefully for good.

 

[dank69]

soda

 

[smackababy]

soda

coke

 

[JManInPhoenix]

I like their ice cream (concrete mixer) but don't care much for their regular food.

 

[dank69]

coke

Maybe. Maybe not.

 

[DesiPower]

Heart warming and inspiring, god bless him. :thumbsup:

 

[TwiceOver]

Maybe. Maybe not.

My In-laws are up from Texas. They brought a bunch of Dr. Peppers that they constantly refer to as Coke. Or I guess since they are using it as a generic term it would be coke.

And even though I'm firmly in a "pop" state, it's still soda.

Good work by the owner. Just proves you don't have to think of profits first like most businesses. Though since his isn't a corporate store and not publicly traded he doesn't have to answer to greedy assholes sitting back counting their money while having the poor people tend to their business.

Double Bacon Butter Burger Deluxe. That's a fucking good burger.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is someone who understands what food service and running a restaurant is all about.

 

[dank69]

My In-laws are up from Texas. They brought a bunch of Dr. Peppers that they constantly refer to as Coke. Or I guess since they are using it as a generic term it would be coke.

And even though I'm firmly in a "pop" state, it's still soda.

...

I would disown them, and if my wife had a problem with that I would divorce her.

 

[TwiceOver]

I would disown them, and if my wife had a problem with that I would divorce her.

My wife, who is from NM and converted to Texanism, has been rid of that problem for years. She has nearly no accent left but still can't get the y'all out of her.

 

[smackababy]

I would disown them, and if my wife had a problem with that I would divorce her.

Sure hope you don't say Kleenex or Q-Tip.

My wife, who is from NM and converted to Texanism, has been rid of that problem for years. She has nearly no accent left but still can't get the y'all out of her.

Y'all sounds better than any of the other incorrect plurals of 'you': yous sounds like something a mongoloid would say and yins is just completely retarded (but, what can we expect out of Shittsburg). The correct plural of you is you, but it feels strange, as it feels like you're addressing a singular, rather than a plural.

 

[dank69]

Sure hope you don't say Kleenex or Q-Tip.

Those two don't result in confusion the way coke does because there aren't different flavors of tissues or cotton swabs. Ask me for a coke and you are getting a Coke. I won't be asking you what kind of coke you want.

 

[dank69]

My wife, who is from NM and converted to Texanism, has been rid of that problem for years. She has nearly no accent left but still can't get the y'all out of her.

Yeah, but she still allows her family into your house, so she gotsta go.

 

[Engineer]

Heart warming and inspiring, god bless him. :thumbsup:

If we had more business owners like this one, the US (and world too for that matter) would be so much better off.

:thumbsup: to this man and to Culver's too (I love that place).

 

[TwiceOver]

Yeah, but she still allows her family into your house, so she gotsta go.

One week, every other year. That's about all I can take. They made me turn off the A/C because it was too cold at 78f. I was roasting, it's ridiculous. They are staying in our basement and my wife brought out the space heater for them. If I knew it was going to be this stupid I would have swapped and stayed in the basement myself.

 

[dank69]

One week, every other year. That's about all I can take. They made me turn off the A/C because it was too cold at 78f. I was roasting, it's ridiculous. They are staying in our basement and my wife brought out the space heater for them. If I knew it was going to be this stupid I would have swapped and stayed in the basement myself.

Haha, wow. SMH

 

[BoberFett]

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is someone who understands what food service and running a restaurant is all about.

Notice it was the owner making the decision however, not a cashier deciding to take money out of the register on their own and hand it to fellow employees even after being told not to.

This was extremely nice of the Culver's owner to do, but can you understand that different people make different choices for different reasons?

 

[phreaqe]

I love Culvers. A staple in our area. Props to this guy for doing a good thing. If i am in platteville i will stop and eat at his culvers. I have lived in WI for 28 years and i have never been to platteville yet, but if i am.....

 

[smackababy]

I doubt this guys altruism. I mean, this is a huge feel good news story, that will likely drum up a ton of business. Plus, he doesn't have to train new staff AND they are going to not be lazy fucks, as they feel the owner loves them. And, let's be honest here, this guy owns two restaurants, it is likely that over a 4 month period he isn't going to miss $144k.

 

[TwiceOver]

I doubt this guys altruism. I mean, this is a huge feel good news story, that will likely drum up a ton of business. Plus, he doesn't have to train new staff AND they are going to not be lazy fucks, as they feel the owner loves them. And, let's be honest here, this guy owns two restaurants, it is likely that over a 4 month period he isn't going to miss $144k.

While I don't doubt half of what you say, I just wanted to point out that you would be surprised how little a franchise store actually makes in profit. I'm betting he basically gave up half his yearly profits for that.

 

[vi edit]

And, let's be honest here, this guy owns two restaurants, it is likely that over a 4 month period he isn't going to miss $144k.

He owns two restaurants. A typical restaurant like that is lucky to clear that much a year after all costs. So yeah he's going to feel it.

 

[slag]

My wife, who is from NM and converted to Texanism, has been rid of that problem for years. She has nearly no accent left but still can't get the y'all out of her.

Bless her heart!!!

 

[smackababy]

While I don't doubt half of what you say, I just wanted to point out that you would be surprised how little a franchise store actually makes in profit. I'm betting he basically gave up half his yearly profits for that.

I am inclined to not believe that. My grandmother owned an operated quite a few restaurants (and bars) over the years and always cleared more than that. None of these were franchises, but they also weren't giant. Plus, owning franchises (especially by yourself) takes a lot of capital. He likely has other money from somewhere else, considering he could open two.

 

[TwiceOver]

I am inclined to not believe that. My grandmother owned an operated quite a few restaurants (and bars) over the years and always cleared more than that. None of these were franchises, but they also weren't giant. Plus, owning franchises (especially by yourself) takes a lot of capital. He likely has other money from somewhere else, considering he could open two.

Franchise fees are extremely costly. Extremely. I have no idea what the Culver's fee is, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was paying $100k+ just in franchise fees, per store.

Money elsewhere, maybe, I don't know if the article discusses his background. Many franchise owners though begin as employees and eventually move up to owner operators. But who knows, he could be filthy rich, it's still a nice gesture.

 

[vi edit]

I am inclined to not believe that. My grandmother owned an operated quite a few restaurants (and bars) over the years and always cleared more than that. None of these were franchises, but they also weren't giant. Plus, owning franchises (especially by yourself) takes a lot of capital. He likely has other money from somewhere else, considering he could open two.

I've seen the balance sheets of over 30 fast food franchised restaurants over a 5 year period. All of them happened to be within a couple hours of this Culvers actually. I've actually drove past that Platteville Culvers close to a hundred times.

The low end (small ones in mall food courts) would pull around $800,000 a year. High volume ones in say a busy interstate gas station or outlet mall would pull about 1.5 million. Platteville is not a high volume stop. It's on a small rural highway in southern Wisconsin. After Franchise fees, payroll, food costs, rent/leases, ect those stores will hit somewhere between 8% and 12% profit margin. Most of them averaged out around 10%. He more than likely gave up the profits of an entire store for more than a year.

<--- worked in the accounting office for a large franchise developer.