Page 5 - MidWeek Kauai - April 13, 2022

L&L Helps Franchisees Achieve Dream Of Business Ownership
FROM PAGE 4
“But there was no real ex- pectation of when, and my parents did not give me a lot of pressure to come back and join the family business right away. So, I ended up working at GE and to my surprise, I guess I actually ended up real- ly enjoying it,” Flores shares. “AtGE,Iwasinacoupleof different leadership roles, so I got to work in different busi- ness groups and see different industries.”
versus my dad who is super entrepreneurial. So, coming into the business and working with him has been my greatest joy, but I will have to also say, it’s one of my biggest frustra- tions, in that we think about business in totally opposite ways,” Flores says.
quickly figure out how to keep the company afloat in a fast-changing landscape. Much like other businesses, she was forced to navigate her way around the changes to rules regarding masks, barri- ers, customers’ temperatures, what items to serve and more.
not just survived, but thrived as well.
chised
anditisso
important
in terms of
having a good
relationship
with our fran-
chisees. We’re
partners in this
together ... I think
it’s such a privilege
to be able to help our franchisees with that
— to help them create their American dream, to help them create their family legacies,” Flores shares.
In 2014, Flores was named chief financial officer for L&L. Five years later, she was pro- moted to her current positions, succeeding her father who founded the iconic brand after purchasing the original restau- rant on Liliha Street in 1976.
“After that initial frustration settled, I began to see that it was actually really wonderful because my dad and I work really well together. So, even though we saw things from very different viewpoints, we could talk about it. We could have conversations. I could share with him what I was looking at and how I was thinking about things, and he could share with me how he looked at things.”
“Thankfully, after the first couple months, things lev- eled off,” she explains. “We were lucky that we were a takeout restaurant before and we just amped up that takeout business, added third-party delivery, added online and app ordering. And so many of our stores in 2020 and 2021 actually ended up with higher sales than they had in 2019, because they were able to ad- just really quickly.”
“We’re expanding into re- gions that we typically hav- en’t gone into. So, previously we were heavily based on the West Coast and actually we have most of our stores in Cal- ifornia, more than we do here in Hawai‘i,” says Flores. “But this year, we’ re expanding into South Carolina and into Georgia.”
“I feel so privileged to be part of a family business in Hawai‘i ... As kind of a sec- ond-generation person coming in, I just feel very privileged and lucky to take what my dad and his business partner created and carry it forward,” Flores says.
“The biggest transition coming back was I had a very corporate background,
Six months after taking the reins, however, the pan- demic hit and Flores had to
Now, the world is adjusting to a new normal and Flores is thankful that the company has
Many of the franchisees are operated by first- or sec- ond-generation immigrants from across Asia. Some de- cided to open L&L eateries to control their own destinies in the wake of the pandemic.
The business is sometimes viewed as the fifth member of the Flores family, which consists of dad Eddie Jr., mom Elaine, and daughters Elisia and Ellice. PHOTO COURTESY ELISIA FLORES
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Currently, there are L&L Hawaiian Barbecue franchis- es in 14 states across the U.S. There are even two eateries finding success in Japan.
“All of our stores are fran-
APRIL 13, 2022
KAUA‘I MIDWEEK 5