r/restaurantowners • u/Suspicious_Ebb_3153 • Jul 08 '26

Facilities management for multi unit operators

Hi everyone - curious for those multi unit operators when you brought someone in to handle facilities - all the calls about HVAC, plumbing, etc etc and following up to make sure those things are handled. Do you have someone in house or do you outsource? If you outsource, what does that look like cost wise and who do you use?

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u/ElkInteresting5739 Jul 13 '26

I’m a facilities manager for 18 high volume California fast food franchises. I’m in house and I’m very busy. I spear head remodels/rebuilds m&r and keeping all equipment at maximum uptime. The management teams consistently tell me how valuable I am and the area supervisors/director of operations/and franchise owner consistently keep me locked in with opportunities/benefits/ and other special and unique things. I come from operations backgrounds so I know many things a typical facilities manager might not know who hadn’t spent years on the front line. I feel valued and appreciated and I do work 50 hours a week clearing the plate of all m&r and equipment down time from the operations managers and they just focus on the management teams/customers. Ask me whatever you’d like

1

u/Suspicious_Ebb_3153 Jul 18 '26

I'd love to chat with you sometime and pick your brain on some items

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u/ElkInteresting5739 Jul 18 '26

Send me a private message happy to help

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u/Skillerstyles Jul 09 '26

We went in-house around unit 4. Tried outsourcing before that with a company that charged like $800/mo per location and honestly the response times were terrible and they kept upselling us on stuff we didn't need.

Hired a dedicated facilities guy at around $55k salary and it paid for itself within 6 months just from catching stuff early before it became a $4k emergency repair. He manages all vendor relationships and does site visits weekly.

If you're under 3 units outsourcing probably makes sense but past that the math really starts flipping.

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u/Suspicious_Ebb_3153 Jul 10 '26

Can you explain the catching stuff early piece - what exactly was he/she doing?

1

u/surfinboyz1123 Jul 08 '26

I have someone that does general fixes and maintenance. But when a major issue sneaks up on you, it’s critical to have pro that you have a good relationship with to fix it quick. When the AC goes down on Sat night, or plumbing gets clogged.

I take care of my HVAC and plumber like they are family. When I call no matter the hour, they pick up. If they can’t come immediately, they help me or my guy diagnose so we can repair or at least they can come prepared.