The Economic Equation

The Milo’s Hamburgers team and CEO Tom Dekle are trailblazing a path for new storefronts in the state of Alabama. Here’s how they do it.

Words and Images by Al Blanton

Several years ago when Milo’s Hamburgers CEO Tom Dekle was talking to the general manager of his Forestdale restaurant, Brenda O’Neill, she uttered an astonishing statement. 

“If you ever want to open a store in Jasper, I’ll go run it,” she said.

Dekle had been eyeing the area as a potential site for a new Milo’s restaurant, and Brenda’s comment solidified the company’s plans for westward expansion.

“If we were straddled one leg on either side of the fence, it made us step on the other side of the fence,” says Dekle.

Then Jasper landowner John Crump, who was a business associate of a Milo’s board member, suggested a brick-and-mortar could easily be parked on his property adjacent to his son’s automobile dealership, Scott Crump Toyota.

Thus was the genesis of the Jasper iteration of Milo’s Hamburgers.

Now Dekle has his sights set on further expansion, and his vigorous strategy is to add three new storefronts per year in locations all over Alabama. In 2022, new Milo’s restaurants will be unveiled in Sylacauga, Midtown Birmingham, and Clanton, with more to come in ’23.

Due to the company’s expansion model, growth is highly organic and requires significant internal capital for each move. “We are all company-owned, no franchises, which makes you go slower,” says Dekle. “You have to raise a lot more capital. How fast depends on how much revenue can we generate. From a cash flow standpoint, about three per year is doable.”

When looking at potential markets, Dekle takes several factors into account. One indicator is a test run with food trucks—“we run it into a market a sufficient number of times,” he says—and if the effort finds smashing success, that’s a pretty good indicator of how an immobile restaurant will perform.

Secondly, Dekle uses analytics through a software program called Placer, which tracks cell phone data that is run through a regression model. Those numbers provide a range of expected revenue in each market, and if the analytics fall within the company’s sweet spot, it’s probably a good signal that the restaurant will perform well.

Though Milo’s has added nine new stores since Dekle came on board as the company’s CEO in 2011, he wouldn’t fancy himself as a restaurant magnate or entrepreneur. With a background in accounting, Dekle is a numbers guy whose role is simply to help others to be their best. “I really am a support mechanism for the frontline people, to make sure they have what they need,” he says. “I clear the path for them because I can’t do what they do. I view my role as managing the different pieces of the business to make sure they don’t get out of balance.”

Part of Dekle’s recipe for success is establishing connections once boots are on the ground in each community. Some places, like Jasper, are already familiar with the Milo’s product, but as the restaurant continues to expand further from its Magic City origins, the more Dekle’s dream team must snap to action to build the brand.

Needless to say, it’s an exhilarating time to be in the fast-paced world of Alabama’s favorite homegrown burger company.

The only question left is, “Will Milo’s be coming to your town?” 78