D’angelo Sandwich Shops Announces New Franchise Development Agreements For Southeast Massachusetts And Long Island

Opportune Markets, Opportune Time Cited As Key Attraction By Growing List of Multi-Unit Investors

DEDHAM, MASSACHUSETTS (Monday, November 15, 2004) - D’Angelo Sandwich Shops today announced the signing of new franchise agreements that will bring six new shops to Southeast Massachusetts and Long Island. The first of these new locations is expected to open in February 2005.

Plymouth, Mass.-based MPG Corp., a subsidiary of motor fuel distributor Volta Oil that operates gas stations and convenience stores in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, will open new D’Angelo restaurants in Bellingham, Mass., about 30 miles southwest of Boston, and Mashpee, near the base of Cape Cod. The Mashpee shop, scheduled to open in February, will be built on the current site of a Sunoco gas station that MPG will tear down to make room for a new Sunoco station and a Rapid Refill convenience store that will house the D’Angelo operation. The Bellingham site, scheduled to open in Spring 2005, will also be developed within a Rapid Refill store, and will share real estate with an Exxon gas station and a Dunkin’Donuts store.

“MPG Corporation is an ideal franchisee for our system,” says D’Angelo’s Senior Vice President of Restaurant Development, Vince Brown. “They are an established, growth-oriented organization with considerable development experience, a knowledgeable operations and merchandising infrastructure and great respect for the value of proven brands. The company is also well capitalized and has multiple properties available, giving them strong growth potential.”

“We’re very excited about this venture,” says MPG President Peter Garrett. “We’ve had other quick-service brands in our stores before, but this will be the first one we operate ourselves. The D’Angelo name is well-known and consumers associate it with freshness and quality, so by associating with it, we hope to convey an image of greater product quality to our customers.”

Expecting a Warm Welcome on the Island

Development of the Long Island D’Angelo locations on will be carried out by RoMatt, Inc. (trading as D’Angelo’s of Long Island). Father and son franchisees Ron and Matthew Vitale will open four shops there over the next four years in Nassau County ’s Carle Place and in Suffolk County ’s Islip , Commack and Riverhead. Ron, a career corporate controller, will continue in his current position while serving as President/CEO of RoMatt. His 25-year-old son Matthew, with background in marketing and customer service from past work with the Sherwin-Williams Company, will handle day-to-day restaurant operations as a full-time occupation.

“My son wanted to go into business, so we called my daughter in Florida ,” says the elder Vitale, recalling his initial attraction to D’Angelo. “She has a deli and thinks food offers a way to become successful quickly. I realized franchising was a good way to break into the business because you get a lot of support. When I saw an ad for D’Angelo in the paper, I recognized the name from my younger years when we frequented New England and ate in D’Angelo shops from Maine to Massachusetts . I always thought they had an excellent product, so I got their information and decided to pursue the opportunity after meeting the people there.”

The Vitales’ stores will be the first to debut on Long Island since D’Angelo announced plans to develop 35 new stores there over the next several years.

“ Long Island has long been on our short list of growth markets,” says Brown, “because our research shows that a concept like ours can perform quite well there if executed by operators like the Vitales who are dedicated to customer service and upholding our brand standards.”

Vitale says he is very optimistic about opening his first shop, which should occur by the middle of 2005 in whichever of the four markets he can first find the right property.

“ Long Island is the home of franchising. It seems like there is no franchise in the United States that’s not here, except for D’Angelo. With D’Angelo, we have a novel name and product and the inquisitive people here will come to our store asking, ‘What’s this all about?’ If I opened a Burger King, everyone knows them and there wouldn’t be as much of a novel appeal,”he says.

Out to Make a Strong Brand Stronger

Its novelty notwithstanding, D’Angelo’s success on Long Island will depend on how well the concept satisfies guests’ demands for high-quality, great-tasting food. Fortunately, D’Angelo has taken great pains to ensure it will deliver. The chain, made popular by its grilled sandwiches made fresh to order, also serves cold sandwiches, wraps, soups and salads, and recently rolled out a number of new products to keep its menu fresh while preserving its core offering. Among its latest introductions are: a revamped soup line featuring unique selections such as “Maine Lobster Bisque” and a Steak and Cheddar soup based on its Classic #9 Steak and Cheese sandwich; a “double-stuffed”version of its popular seasonal sandwich, the Lobster sub; and salad versions of its popular Steak Tips and Turkey Tips sandwiches, which debuted last spring.

Such popular food and ongoing innovation have made D’Angelo a standard among New England quick-service restaurant chains, and has helped the chain attract a growing corps of loyal customers. D’Angelo has also captured industry kudos, including being named one of the top 20 chains with fewer than 300 units in the August issue of QSR, a restaurant trade magazine.

Brown says he’s proud to have D’Angelo included on that list, but looks forward to migrating onto and rising up on QSR’s ranking of larger chains.

“We’re very encouraged by those results and by the continued interest we’re seeing from multi-unit developers, and we look forward to earning more and even better industry acknowledgements like the QSR ranking as our growth continues,”Brown says.

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