From Colombian Hostage to American Success Story

The remarkable story of Luis Irragori, a Colombian refugee who escaped his kidnappers, came to the U.S. and built a thriving business from the ground up.

It was on a sunny day in April 2000 that Luis Irragori realized he had to flee his native Colombia with his wife and two children—immediately. Just a few months before, Irragori, the owner of five successful franchises, as well as a manager for 150 other locations, had been freed from a six-month ordeal during which he, his two young children, and about 180 other congregants were kidnapped at gunpoint while attending church. His wife, Margarita Hincapie, had become an outspoken critic of the guerrillas responsible for the crime, and they wanted her to stop speaking out, or else. They told Irragori in repeated phone calls, they’d kidnap his children again. When Irragori hung up that day in April, he decided he’d had enough. So he grabbed his wife, picked his children up from school, and headed for the airport, bound for Miami.

Luis Irragori realized he had to flee his native Colombia—immediately.

Just four years later, Irragori launched his own Miami-based franchise, a restaurant namedBannaStrow’s, selling crêpes, smoothies, and other food, mostly in shopping malls. It now has about $2.5 million in systemwide revenues, with 10 employees, and 23 franchise agreements in the U.S., as well as Colombia, and is well on the way to 125 units by 2015.

Here’s his story:

Kidnapped

Irragori’s kidnapping in May 1999 took the country by surprise. At that time in Colombia, kidnappings were common, but kidnappers usually targeted only the very wealthy. In addition, the incident happened during church—and involved the kidnapping of 40 children as well, including Irragori’s own 3 1/2 year-old son and 8-year-old daughter. The same day, the guerrillas freed all the children and some women and elderly hostages, but Irragori and the other victims were held for the next six months, moving from one mountain hideout to another. To keep himself warm in the bitter cold of the mountains, Irragori stuffed his sleeves and pants with newspaper.

The guerrillas would kidnap the couple’s children if her campaign didn’t stop.

During that time, Margarita, Irragori’s wife, traveled into the mountains 12 times to negotiate for his release. She also became the leader of a protest group against the guerrillas. Margarita placed a series of billboards across the country, with the tearful face of their youngest son asking, “Do you know where my father is?” Then, soon after the kidnappers finally let Irragori go, the phone calls started: The guerrillas would kidnap the couple’s children if her campaign didn’t stop.

Escaping to America

Finally, Irragori couldn’t stand the pressure. There was no choice but to leave—and to do so that day. Packing a few belongings, he and his family took the first plane they could to Miami on a tourist visa. The U.S., he knew, would be a place where they would be safe.  After he was safely out of the country, he would apply for status as a political refugee.

First Days

For the first two weeks, the family lived in a hotel, while Irragori looked for a house to rent and a school for the children. He was able to withdraw some money from ATMs, at least enough to live on initially. He also hired a lawyer, who helped him prepare the documents needed to apply for political asylum. Because his wife had become such a prominent critic of the guerrillas, it was relatively easy to prove the danger the family would be in if they had remained in Colombia.

Next, Irragori applied for a work permit. He also contacted his franchisor, asking for help selling his franchises in Colombia. In the meantime, however, he did whatever he could to make ends meet—for example, getting up at 3 a.m. to work a newspaper round.

 “I had to start from the ground up and learn the ropes.”

Getting Started

Four months later the permit arrived, and Irragori started to look for work in earnest. He noticed a sign on a nearby chicken restaurant that advertised an opening for a manager. He applied and, because of his franchising experience, got the job. Irragori’s intention, however, was to do more than earn a living. He knew he wanted to start his own franchise business. A food service concept made the most sense, given his background. But, he also realized he needed to understand the food business in U.S. “I had to start from the ground up and learn the ropes,” he says. To that end, Irragori spent two-and-a-half years working at the restaurant, all the while refining his franchise concept.

His idea? Fast-food kiosks that served crêpes in shopping malls.

Making the Concept a Reality

Irragori met a fellow Colombian who had also fled the country for security reasons. The former owner of ice cream parlors, he, too, had been thinking of opening a food business. The two decided to form a franchise based on Irragori’s concept and, in 2004, started a company named BannaStrow’s, a play on the words “banana” and “strawberries.”

The first step was to prove the concept by opening their own company-owned units. The partners wrote a presentation and made appointments with four shopping-mall operators. A major selling point for the mall owners was BannaStrow’s flexibility: Because the restaurants didn’t use a kitchen—cooking, instead, on a griddle customers could see–the franchise units could be placed anywhere in a shopping mall. They got approval to open three units.

Challenges

Two years later Irragori had to close down one of the locations, which was in a strip mall, instead of a shopping mall, because of slow demand. Then, in 2006, Irragori bought out his partner, who had to leave the business for health reasons, and for the next three years, he ran the company with two units.

“I literally dropped everything I was doing and said I wanted to buy a piece of the company.”

Building a Franchise Business

That changed in 2009, when he met Mauricio Acevedo. Acevedo, a serial entrepreneur, immediately saw BannaStrow’s potential to become a major franchisor. “It was designed to be a franchisor from the beginning. All the legal documentation was in place,” says Acevedo, who became CEO. “I literally dropped everything I was doing and said I wanted to buy a piece of the company, with the intent of growing it through franchising.”

After that, the  partners formed a long-term growth strategy. Specifically, it included:

1. Developing a two-pronged sales plan.

First, they would sell to individual franchisees, operators who were likely to open between one and five units. But, also, they would sell franchises to major institutional operators that would allow the company to enter nontraditional locations, such as airports, highway service areas, and college campuses.  Read how BannaStrow’s closed it’s first big sale.

2. Defining the franchise’s unique sales propositions.  To sell franchise units, the partners, of course, needed to make a compelling case for the benefits of becoming a BannaStrow’s franchisee.  Key advantages were:

* Low cost of operation.  Most important: food costs, which are 22% to 25% compared to 35% to 45% in most restaurants. That’s because each location can be operated by one person, at least during off hours.

* Adaptability of the product. “Our product can be adapted to any market,” says Acevedo. “You can put anything you want in a crêpe—if your market likes barbecued chicken, we can do that. If you like rice and beans, we can have rice and beans.”

* Versatility and ease of preparation.  “One of the main advantages we have is the flexibility of our products,” says Irragori. “With few ingredients, we make a ton of different products.”

Case in point: something called “wreps,” crêpes packed to resemble the shape of burritos. “To the customer it’s a whole new line, but from the standpoint of the operator, it’s the same ingredients, just packed in a different way,” says Irragori.

That versatility proved to be critical in closing one of the company’s first sales. Areas USA, a Spanish conglomerate that had won a concession to operate in airports and highways throughout the U.S.  Because travelers were liable to be considerably more rushed than the usual shopping-mall consumer, they changed the packaging to make carrying the crêpe easier, “so you could take it with you on the go,” says Acevedo.

“Our first international step was to go back home,”

3.  Expanding internationally   Crucial to growth plans was opening up operations in other countries. In July, the company made its first move in that direction when it signed a master license in Colombia. “Our first international step was to go back home,” says Iragorri. More recently, he and Acevedo took steps to expand to Europe. They’re in the process of finalizing an agreement for another country, though they won’t divulge which one. And, in the spring, they were invited by a U.S. Department of Commerce trade mission to travel to India as one of 15 franchise concepts. They’re now negotiating to open 50 units there.

“This country received me with open arms and has become my home.”

It’s been a long climb for Irragori since his six-month ordeal in the mountains of Colombia. But, Irragori says he now feels like a native. “This country received me with open arms and has become my home,” says Irragori.

 

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