TITANS OF FRANCHISING
Zoup! Spotlights Three Successful Franchise Owners during Black History Month To celebrate Black History Month, Zoup! would like to highlight not one, but three exceptional franchise owners that have shown commitment, perseverance, and heart during an extremely difficult year. The common thread is a passion for their business, their teams and serving their communities. Zoup! could not be any prouder to share their stories. Earl Harris
ZOUP! FRANCHISE OWNER Bloomf ield, MI
Eric & Dia Ames
MULTI-UNIT ZOUP! FRANCHISE OWNERS Delaware Eric and Dia Ames both left careers in financial services to open their first Zoup! restaurant in Wilmington, DE in 2013 and their second location in Newark in 2016. In the true sense of a family business, husband, wife and both sons work together to manage the two busy restaurants. The Ames family live Zoup!’s core values, especially “Passion for the Brand.” This passion brought them worldwide TikTok
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fame with a viral “12 Days of Christmas” video in 2020. Dia’s TikTok account grew from 20 followers to 13,000 and earned 1 million likes in one week. The hashtags #zoupeatery and #zoupdelaware have gained over 50 million views, boosting Zoup's brand awareness to previously untapped markets. The Ames family’s embrace of the Zoupsim “Have Fun, Be Proud” was rewarded with a new market of zealous fans helping to spread the word about Zoup! WATCH THE AMES TIKTOK: https://vm.tiktok.com/ ZMJv5DT6C/
FEBRUARY 2021 | WWW.FRANCHISEJOURNAL.COM
Earl Harris opened his Zoup! restaurant in Bloomfield, MI, it was also the first newly redesigned and rebranded Zoup! Eatery, on January 20, 2020. Coincidentally his dream of opening a restaurant came to fruition on Martin Luther King Jr. Day! Earl’s love of cooking and hosting made his transition from management at a national cable company to restauranteur an easy one. The expanded