Indian American entrepreneur Amol Kohli, then a 15-year-old restless sophomore in high school, started working at a Philadelphia-area Friendly’s as a waiter in 2003, making about $5 an hour at the diner-style restaurant chain.
On any given day, he was a cook, a dishwasher, a table busser, an ice cream scooper, or any job his manager needed him doing, he told CNBC.
More than two decades later, Kohli’s investment group Legacy Brands acquired the entire Friendly’s chain — which has locations in most states on the U.S. eastern coast — plus its parent company Brix Holdings and six other restaurant brands, in July for an undisclosed amount.
The deal marked a culmination of sorts for Kohli, 37, who has now spent most of his life working at Friendly’s in some capacity. Even while attending Drexel University — where he double majored in finance and marketing — Kohli spent his summers working five to six days per week at Friendly’s, learning more about the ins and outs of the business as time went on, he says.
“I started supporting a couple franchisees and just started learning what happens after the money makes its way into the register,” Kohli was quoted as saying. “Learning about insurance, payroll, food costs and all these other things. I did that all through college.”
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Kohli graduated with honors in 2011, according to his LinkedIn profile, and chose to take a Friendly’s regional manager position instead of pursuing a career in finance, he says.
A few years later, he applied to take over a closing franchise location. Licensing, contracting, and equipment for the store cost around “a quarter of a million dollars,” including credit, money from Kohli’s savings and funds he got from friends and business partners, he says.
“That’s how my franchising career started. And from there, it just never stopped,” says Kohli, who eventually franchised 31 Friendly’s locations before buying the brand outright.
Kohli’s path to owning his one-time employer started with plummeting sales at Friendly’s during the Covid-19 pandemic. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November 2020, and announced plans to be acquired by Dallas-based franchising company Brix Holdings for just under $2 million. The deal was finalized in 2021.
Kohli is now a franchisor who owns, but doesn’t operate, the other 60-plus Friendly’s restaurant locations in the U.S., a company spokesperson says. As a result of the deal, Kohli’s company also now owns Clean Juice, Orange Leaf, Red Mango, Smoothie Factory + Kitchen, Souper Salad, and Humble Donut Co. The entire portfolio includes more than 250 restaurant locations.
The ascent from entry-level Friendly’s employee to chairman of Brix’s board of directors is “unbelievable,” says Kohli. Yet he faces a challenge reviving a brand with dwindling locations, he adds — just over 100 today, down from more than 800 in the mid-1990s.
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Kohli aims to modernize the brands he oversees, leaning on technology like a recently revamped Friendly’s mobile app, Kohli told Nation’s Restaurant News in August. He also hopes to attract new franchisees, using his own career trajectory can prove to be a selling point, he now says.
“Some of the people that are on my executive team now were dishwashers and cooks,” Kohli says. “This is one of the few [industries] in the entire world that you can literally start from that level and work your way up to a CEO or executive.”
Kohli’s private investment group is focused on acquiring and growing scalable franchise concepts.
With over 15 years of experience as a multi-unit operator of Friendly’s and Tilted Kilt, Kohli brings brings a unique perspective—from franchisee to franchisor, according to his company profile.
Kohli, it says, has a proven track record of turning around underperforming locations, mentoring future leaders, and creating long-term value for both investors and franchise partners.
He is committed to building strong brand foundations that drive sustainable growth across the BRIX portfolio, it says.