How GoTo Foods is building a culture of growth with Wisetail

As leading quick-service restaurants and franchise groups continue to expand into new markets and evolve their customer offerings, growth often necessitates transformation. For GoTo Foods, that transformation included a strategic rebrand from Focus Brands, announced by CEO Jim Holthouser in February 2024, to mark a new era of growth and platform-company-driven innovation. This journey often involves rebranding efforts aimed at modernizing a brand’s image, enhancing market relevance, and reflecting updated values or shifting customer expectations. 

THE CHALLENGE

From rebrand to readiness: equipping teams for consistent execution

Quality and consistency are at the core of a successful rebrand, and for quick-service restaurants, achieving both requires more than just a great brand. It takes well-equipped teams and a scalable, reliable system to support them.

THE SOLUTION

Unifying seven brands with one source of truth

Why GoTo Foods turned to Wisetail’s enablement platform

That’s why GoTo Foods, a platform company with seven iconic brands, turned to Wisetail’s employee enablement platform, known internally as The Hub, to help unify training and communication across its multi-brand portfolio: Auntie Anne’s®, Carvel®, Cinnabon®, Jamba®, McAlister’s Deli®, Moe’s Southwest Grill®, and Schlotzsky’s®. By providing franchise employees with the right tools, Wisetail helped drive operational excellence and brand consistency across every location.

The Hub across GoTo Foods

With more than 6,900 locations globally, as of March 31, 2025, GoTo Foods leverages enterprise-wide engines—including digital solutions, supply chain, marketing, and training—to drive demand, consistency, and operational efficiency across the platform company. One of the key enablers of these engines is Wisetail. “We adopted Wisetail in 2021 as our unified Learning Management System at GoTo Foods,” says Jessicah Pounds, vice president of training and leadership development at GoTo Foods. “It’s been instrumental in reinforcing each brand’s unique identity and purpose across thousands of locations.”

Clear onboarding, expectations, and ongoing development

Wisetail serves as a centralized platform that unites learning, operations, team development, and communications in one place. It’s accessible via mobile and desktop, delivering daily updates, location-specific checklists, and culture-driven content. “It supports both our franchisees and their teams with training and development through structured learning paths, certification programs, and brand-specific modules,” Pounds says. 

How The Hub supports daily work

By using Wisetail as a shared platform across all seven GoTo Foods brands, The Hub brings together marketing, operations, and development support in one place. “We drive strong execution by equipping all of our teams with the tools, training, and clarity they need to succeed,” Pounds says. “That starts with consistent onboarding, clear expectations, and ongoing development. Wisetail plays a key role by providing a centralized, flexible platform.

It also helps franchisees reinforce standards locally while staying aligned with our broader company vision. This balance of consistency and customization helps us move faster and build confidence across the franchise system.”

THE RESULTS

Adoption and stickiness across the franchise network

Since adopting Wisetail, GoTo Foods has seen success with franchisee adoption of the new platform. “Average module completions per user rose 3.7 percent year over year, and usage stickiness, the percentage of users returning regularly, increased to 42.5 percent,” Pounds says. As of 2025, the platform has also contributed to more efficient learning and labor cost savings since its launch. “We’ve also seen teams with higher training completion rates often report stronger guest satisfaction and operational consistency. That speaks to the real impact training has on team readiness and performance.” 

Wisetail’s technology complements the broader suite of services GoTo Foods provides to its franchisees and employees. “We still believe in hands-on mentorship and real-time feedback, especially in a guest-facing business,” Pounds says. “Wisetail allows us to provide foundational knowledge and reinforce it with visual and interactive content, so that when in-person training happens, it’s more focused and impactful. It helps trainers spend less time covering the basics and more time building confidence, teamwork, and service excellence.”