Gina Puente is one of UFood Grills first franchisees. Gina comes with years of experience being a franchisee and business owner. She currently has a very impressive portfolio including many nontraditional franchises as well as some of her own concepts. Being more of a nontraditional franchisee, she operates her brands in airports and hospitals. She is an innovator with a passion for creating her own brands, while also being a franchisee of other successful brands. Gina has about 20 units today, both franchised and original concepts, and was also named one of the top 100 business women in Dallas area. One of the many reasons Gina wanted to become a franchisee with Ufood Grill was due to the fact that they have the ability to be open minded and adjust to franchisees needs not only in traditional markets, but in non-traditional markets as well. It’s hard to find a brand that is willing to adapt and make certain changes needed for non-traditional markets.
Ufood Grill understands its franchisee needs, and is willing to accommodate to assist their franchisees in any way they can to be successful. She looks for brands that will "resonate with customers”. Airport travelers as well as hospital visitors are on the go who have a limited amount of time, and simply cannot afford a lengthy wait time. They would still like to be able to choose form a number of options, one of them being healthy such as UFood Grill. At Ufood Grill all ticket times are 5 minutes or less, which is especially important in a hospital or airport environment. A brand's corporate executive team and staff are also a big factor for Gina. She looks for "people I can tell are enthused about their brands, where I'm not going to be stuck with the same menu or product offerings. For me, the franchisor should do that, bring new products to their franchisees." Here at Ufood Grill we have a rolodex of menu offerings, as well as LTO offerings during the year.” says Executive Chef, Phil Kafka. Gina is always current with new trends or ideas, and passes them along to us. She is truly a great asset to our UFood Grill team.
