Build Wealth Serving Seniors At Home

This is a transcript from Episode 29 of The Franchise Champion Show. Listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube.

Alan: My guest today spent over three decades inside one of the most recognizable franchise systems in America. He's seen it all. Private equity, leadership turnover, and the full arc of a franchise brand from scrappy startup to corporate machine.

When it was time for a change, he chose something with a mission. He's now Senior Director of Franchise Development for Heart to Home Meals, a concept that's quietly been building a track record overseas for decades and is just now gaining serious traction in the US. Rick Peroe, welcome to the Franchise Champion Show.

Rick: I really appreciate the opportunity to join you today. I think we've got a lot of exciting things to cover, and I'm just looking forward to being your guest.

Alan: Yeah, it's great. I'm excited to have you here. Got a lot of questions for you. I'm excited about this brand and excited about learning more. So take us back to the start, Rick. How did you get into franchising?

How Rick Got Into Franchising

Rick: That's a long story, but I'll be real quick. I was a young kid coming out of college and ended up meeting a young lady who had an opportunity with a little bit of travel. It was a three-month gig with a company, Jackson Hewitt Tax Service. We only had about 20 offices. At the end of three months, at the end of the tax season, my job was over. And they said, "Rick, we think you can sell franchises." And I thought, you know, I don't have another job, and it's going to take about three weeks to three months to figure out I can't do that. And then I'll go find another job.

So, like most people, it was really just by accident. But Alan, it's probably been one of the best things that's ever happened to me. Starting with a young company like Jackson Hewitt and being able to see it grow through various stages, I was blessed. I was lucky enough to be on the development side of it, transitioned into more of an operations role to support franchisees, and really learned that I loved entrepreneurs. I loved helping them start their dreams, helping them grow their businesses.

So 30 years later, as they say, it was history. When I joined the other company, I knew every franchisee and knew their spouses and knew their kids. And I'm looking forward to that same opportunity here at Heart to Home Meals. We're really just getting kicked off and getting started. And we're truly drawn to the franchise because of the mission, being able to help others. There are so many franchise systems you can choose from these days. There's a franchise system for everybody. But really what resonated with me was the industry, and the opportunity to help our seniors.

What Is Heart to Home Meals?

Alan: Okay, well let's hear about that. Tell us first what Heart to Home Meals is, and then I'd love to hear how you got into it and how you found it.

Rick: Absolutely. You know, Heart to Home Meals looks like a brand new company, but we truly aren't. The parent company, Appetito, is based out of Rhein, Germany. They're a global food producer. They do about $1.2 billion in revenue a year and serve over 1.3 million people a day.

So as much as it looks brand new, the company itself is about a 30 to 40-year-old company that's been involved in franchising and food production. Its roots actually go back to about 1958 in the United Kingdom, where they started Wiltshire Farm Foods. That was really the catalyst for what eventually started here in the US. It was a home-based delivery food business.

As the parent company, Appetito, we operate in about seven different countries. In Germany, school-age children is probably one of our biggest segments. In Amsterdam, we provide foods to private sectors as well as commercial B2B sales with hospitals, nursing homes, and things of that nature. It really has been a company that's growing. And in the United Kingdom and Europe, the company has seen a lot of growth, but they really saw North America as a true opportunity to come in and see large growth. They started franchising in Canada, and that's really how they got here to the US.

Alan: Okay. So take a step back for a little bit, because you mentioned a few different things. Food production back in Europe, working with schools and other facilities. Is that all part of a franchise as well, or is that separate? And how exactly did this morph into a franchise business and what the franchise actually does?

Rick: Yeah. So the parent company, Appetito, is a global food producer. We produce food and provide meals. And anywhere you look in the healthcare sector, whether it's the very young, the infirm, or the older population, any type of intersection where food and health and nutrition becomes very important, you'll find Appetito.

Wiltshire Farm Foods was really our first step into franchising. We have several franchisees in the United Kingdom that operate under that brand. The success of that business led them to think, "We really would like to get to North America."

They started looking at whether it was Canada first or the United States, and they actually found a company in Canada that was already doing B2B. They were already delivering foods to hospitals, care homes, and nursing facilities. So it was just a natural expansion of the Wiltshire Farm Foods business. "Wiltshire" means nothing in North America, and so that's why they changed the name to Heart to Home Meals.

We've been franchising in Canada since 2010. We have about 20 franchisees that have completely developed that market. And in 2019, we looked at expanding into the United States.

Alan: Got it.

Rick: You know, when you look at franchising, one of the most important things is: is there a system, is it viable, is there support there, and does it resonate? So coming into Boston was really our opportunity to figure out whether the American population wanted to consume food like we were delivering, whether delivery systems worked, and things of that nature. We operated in Boston with the thought of starting to franchise in 2020. As you and I know, when COVID hit, being a meal service company delivering meals into the homes of seniors when nobody was even supposed to be in anyone's home, that really wasn't a good opportunity.

So for the last six years, we've kind of redeveloped the business. We've been extremely successful in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. And we just started franchising in 2024. Our first franchisee joined us in 2025 in Raleigh, North Carolina. We had another franchisee in Naperville, Illinois, right outside of Chicago. And I had a third franchisee sign on that very day for Somerset, New Jersey.

Alan: Wow, that's great. So with the evolution of this business in Canada, it sounded like it was more B2B. But now with Heart to Home and what's being launched in the US, it sounds like you're going direct to consumers, specifically seniors. Is that correct?

The Mission: Helping Seniors Age in Place

Rick: Absolutely. That really is our mission. Our mission is to help seniors age in place and to provide them healthy, nutritious meals. That's really our focus. Anything and everything that we do, we look at through the lens of a 70-year-old individual. How would they like to do business?

It's amazing out there when you take a look at the silver tsunami, the aging senior population that we have coming.

Alan: I just heard it's been updated to 11,000 per day now, turning 65.

Rick: You're pretty in tune. You're absolutely right. 11,000 individuals turning 65 every day. So it's going to be over 80 million people by 2040 — about one in five Americans. And I just don't think the healthcare system is set up to support that.

Things get difficult as you become a senior. And being able to age in place and stay at home is what most seniors want. If I ask a senior where they want to age and grow old, no one says, "Send me to the senior citizen home." They all say, "I want to be here. I want to be here where I raised the kids, where I took care of the family, where I went to church and knew my neighbors. I just need to stay here." And unfortunately, for a lot of individuals, it's just not that simple.

Life and aging isn't that simple. They need assistance to be able to maintain their independence. Some days are better than others. As a senior, some days you're okay — you can stand, you can cook, you can dice onions. But other days you just need that help and support. And unfortunately, with the breakdown of the family unit we've seen, where I live in New Jersey and mom and dad live in Florida, or vice versa, being able to provide additional support for seniors is tough. Being able to give them healthy, nutritious meals really is a help to them.

Alan: Yeah, I bet. With my franchise business, ShelfGenie, it looked like we were just selling wooden boxes to homeowners, retrofitting their cabinets so their shelves could pull out. But really what we were doing was helping people live in their homes longer. And when you can help someone who wants to age in place, who wants to be there as long as they can because that's where they're comfortable, that just makes you feel really good. It's quite a mission.

Rick: Absolutely.

How the Business Works

Alan: So tell me a little bit more about the mechanics of the business. How does it work? Is the owner going out and driving around these meals? Are they making the meals? How does this all work?

Rick: What's the magic, right? So starting with the easy part, the food. We provide healthy, nutritious meals to seniors. We produce all the food in our factory in Ottawa, Canada. I have two chefs who produce all the food, the menu, the sauces. I have two registered dietitians who keep my chefs in line, making sure they're preparing exactly what they should.

I have meals that are low in sodium, high in fiber. Heart healthy meals. Renal friendly meals. Diabetic friendly meals. About 160 meals to choose from. We have a rotating menu with about 150 stable items and 10 to 20 meal items that come on and off depending on the season. When it gets to be August or September, there's pumpkin spice something on the menu. We really try to keep it fresh.

All the meals are frozen. They're flash frozen. And we just invested about $11 million in a new spiral freezer system that allows us to plate the meals warm and freeze them hot, in about two and a half hours. What does that mean? My vegetables are crisp and fresh. They taste much better. My mashed potatoes don't get ice crystals. They stay fluffy. So it really is a great process.

All the meals are made in Ottawa, Canada. So as a franchisee, I don't have stoves or ovens or hoods or fryers or anything of that nature to deal with. I'm kind of in the food space. Maybe I'm food adjacent.

The meals are sent to Rhode Island, where we have a large facility with 300 to 400 pallets of food. As a franchisee, you have a freezer or a depot. It's about a 400-square-foot industrial freezer where you store all your meals. We deliver to you on a weekly basis. As that inventory depletes, we continue to send you more meals as you order them.

As a franchisee, you really are customer service and distribution. What I'm looking for is somebody who is the mayor of their community. Somebody who's getting involved, visiting senior citizen homes, getting involved in recreation facilities, working with case managers in hospitals as people are discharged and going back home without someone to look after them. It's a great opportunity to get introductions to those customers who would need food.

Alan: So when you mentioned getting out in the community, you said senior homes. Do you mean individual homes or more group homes?

Rick: Same or similar. You're looking at communities that are 55 and over. They take different formats. Some are single-family houses, some are townhouses, some are apartments where seniors are staying active, coming to the clubhouse, playing pool, socializing. It's a great opportunity for us to do what I call a lunch and learn, where they come in, find out a little bit about health and nutrition, and are able to taste the food we have for them. It's a great way to get to know the customers and for them to sample your food.

We will also work with assisted living institutions, where the individual is living on their own but has somebody who comes in frequently to make sure they're okay. As a franchisee, you really just get involved in the senior community and look for ways to help out.

Alan: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. The 55-plus communities where people are still active and living independently — if you can go to the community center there and do that lunch and learn, present and let them know you're there — that makes a lot of sense. I know I just helped my parents move a couple of months ago. They moved to a one-story house, a nice rambler, and they're near my brother now. And it's funny, my mom is like, "I don't feel like cooking anymore." She loves cooking, but when it's just her and my dad, it's a lot to cook for two people. A service like this, even if it's not every single night, would be really handy.

Rick: Yeah, it's kind of tough as a senior. Cooking for yourself or cooking for two people isn't as easy as it used to be. A lot of trips to the grocery store that seniors aren't able to do as frequently as they'd like. It is convenient for them to just pop a meal in the microwave or put it in the oven and heat it up. It's that age-old question: what's for dinner? It kind of solves that for them.

Three Departments, One Business

Alan: Okay, so let's get back to the mechanics. You have a freezer at your location, the meals are stored there. What's the owner spending their time doing? Who's delivering the meals, and what does that process look like?

Rick: Yeah. So I look at this really as three departments as a franchisee.

First, you have a marketing department. You as the franchisee, the mayor of the community, are out there marketing and promoting the business.

The next department is customer service. You have a customer service representative answering phone calls. Most of our orders are placed over the phone. Remember, we look at everything through the eyes of a 70-year-old individual. They're not picking up their phone and ordering Grubhub or Uber Eats. They like being able to pick up the phone and place an order. So you've got a customer service agent taking those orders.

The third person you have in the business is the driver. That's the individual making the trip out to the senior, visiting with them, dropping off the meals. And the third piece is logistics, somebody in the freezer actually picking the orders.

It's kind of like the milkman of the fifties. A customer gets a weekly delivery, and as long as my order is in by Tuesday at noon, I can get my Wednesday delivery. Those are really the three big functions that take place in the franchise.

The tough thing about being a franchisee is working in your business and not on your business. Too many times I see a franchisee get sucked into being the delivery driver or answering the phone. I can pay somebody $14 to $21 an hour to do that function. I can't pay anybody $20 an hour to run and grow your business. What I'm looking for is somebody to run that business.

So the calls come in, the orders get picked, and in the morning the driver gets a sheet and jumps in the van with 50 or 60 boxes of meals to deliver. Just like Amazon, we have routing systems. We have a CRM system that allows us to track drivers, take pictures of deliveries, and really manage the business with a very high-tech back-end system.

Why the Driver Is the Secret Sauce

Rick: As far as the driver is concerned, he or she really is the secret sauce of our business. That's the value proposition.

You've heard of Factor Meals, HelloFresh, Blue Apron, and so on. But they really are not in the same type of business that we are. They produce the food and take the order, but that customer is really nothing more than a label on a FedEx or UPS box. You order HelloFresh and get a 30-pound box of food and dry ice dropped off on your steps. And now your 85-year-old father has to come outside, get to the porch, lug that 30-pound box into the house, unload it into the kitchen, and deal with 20 pounds of dry ice. It's just not a good value proposition.

With a lot of seniors, unfortunately, our drivers can be the only person that senior really sees all week. There's a lot of isolation. There's a lot of loneliness. And for our driver to be able to show up, come into the home, and break up that monotony for five or ten minutes, it's a godsend.

I'm convinced that as much as our food is great, there are a lot of people who order from us just because they love that connection they have with the driver. And we encourage drivers to come in, ask about the Seattle picture on the wall, ask about the grandchildren, ask about the piano in the corner, and really take an interest in that senior. It just goes so far.

So as a franchisee, as much as you're in the food business, or food adjacent, you're really in the delivery and customer service business. You're there to help seniors stay independent for as long as they can.

Alan: That's awesome. And so the driver comes in, they're interacting with the homeowner, providing some engagement. But what are they actually doing with the food? They're not just dropping it off at the door, right?

Rick: Right. They come into the senior's home. They actually take the meals out of the boxes and put them in the freezer. They'll organize the freezer. If there are any meals from last week left over, they'll pull those to the front. All of our meals can be put in the oven or microwave, and the driver can explain and go over the instructions with them, show them exactly what was delivered.

It really is more of a personal touch than just drop the food and run. Now, some people want to spend a half hour and have a cup of coffee, and some people just want a quick transaction. But a lot of them truly do enjoy the interaction with the driver. So we encourage drivers to get involved and get to know the customers.

Early Results and the Food Is Medicine Movement

Alan: That's really cool. Well, that sounds like a great business. Very impactful for the lives of the people you're serving. Let's talk about what the business looks like right now. I know it's early on, but can you share what early results you're seeing?

Rick: Sure. As we all know, I'm bound by what I can and can't say about profitability and what's in our Franchise Disclosure Document. What I will say is the early indications have been great.

If you take a look at our FDD right now, we'll show that we went from about $1.5 million in revenue last year in our corporate operation to just over $4 million in revenue this year. And you're going to see another big increase.

Why? There's a big change right now. We're seeing it throughout the country where we're moving away from treating people who are chronically ill with medications, just treating symptoms and prescribing a drug for everything. There's a huge movement called Food Is Medicine. People are starting to realize that what we put in our bodies really makes a difference. So there's a lot of attention going toward improving the health of seniors through providing them healthy, nutritious meals.

Up until about 18 months ago, we were 100% private pay, customers paying out of their own pocket. In the last 18 months, we've started to get involved with Medicare and Medicaid. There is now an insurance piece of the business. In our Boston operation, we're probably 50% insurance and 50% private pay.

There are case managers out there managing health plans for individuals who just know that giving them healthy food is a much better option than loading them up on more drugs. And they've seen the difference.

When you look at insurance companies managing an aging population, one of the things they truly look at is readmission rates. How often somebody comes out of a hospital and gets readmitted back in. Healthy food and nutrition is really what drives that. So insurance companies are now willing to pay, when people get out of hospitals, to make sure they have good quality meals to keep them from going back in.

I'm seeing a big change in the country with the Food Is Medicine movement.

As for our franchisees, Patrick Ignacio is our first franchisee in Raleigh, North Carolina. He and his wife are both from the Philippines and are compound pharmacists. They own a compound pharmacy in Raleigh. As people were returning home from COVID, they were stopping at the pharmacy to get their compound drugs. And they realized, wow, these individuals are going back home with no one to take care of them and no one to provide food for them. So it was just really an easy transition. I see some good signs of early adoption.

Alan: Yeah, that sounds amazing. The growth from $1.5 to $4 million is incredible. And with the Medicaid and Medicare piece, that thing could really take off.

Rick: Absolutely. When you start looking at different counties and states and how they manage their elderly population, there are a lot of what I call waiver programs out there. There's money that counties and states have to provide assistance to seniors, whether they're brain injury waivers, aging waivers, or chronic illness programs. So there's a lot of opportunity in that space.

What They Do With Your Franchise Fee

Rick: I'm excited about Heart to Home Meals because we're not a franchise system that has to sell franchises to feed the mouths of our corporate staff and hierarchy. I'm not counting on franchise fees to be successful and run the business.

As a matter of fact, for the first group of franchisees, our $40,000 franchise fee — we've actually put that back into marketing for the franchisees to grow their business. Not into their general market, but their specific area.

Alan: Wow. That's amazing. I've never even heard of that.

Rick: Our goal is to get this launched. Our Boston operation, Chris Webb, our president who came over from the United Kingdom, is running fine. It's on cruise control. My major job and Chris's major job is to hand-hold what I call the freshman class of franchisees, our first 10 or 12. Chris has been out to see Patrick probably four or five times. I've been out to see Jesse Singh, our franchisee in Naperville.

The nice thing about Heart to Home Meals — if someone wants to come aboard, they're not going to be the 500th or 600th franchisee who maybe gets two minutes of the CEO's time at a convention. They're going to have a direct relationship with our corporate staff and with the executive leadership team. I really see that as a huge benefit of what we're doing.

Scaling the Model

Alan: Yeah, that's fantastic. It sounds like there's definitely an opportunity for people who want to be an owner-operator and be that mayor of the community. Is there an option for people looking to be semi-absentee, whether at the beginning or a couple of years in?

Rick: Yeah. As much as I'd love to say, "Absolutely, come on in, we'll take everybody," we really are going to be very pointed and selective about how we do this. We truly want the first 12 franchisees in this system, my freshman class, to have success.

In any franchise system, you really need somebody who's involved, who has their blood, sweat, and tears into it. At this time, I'm not in a position where I want to take the chance of having to apologize because someone just didn't have the right people there. I was a franchise owner myself, and I lived that. It's really tough to run a business from afar. It needs to be someone closely connected who's there on a day-to-day basis to see it grow.

Alan: Yeah, that makes sense. There are certain business models that lend themselves to that semi-absentee style, but there are a lot more that really do require an owner-operator, someone in the thick of things and paying attention as the business grows.

Rick: Yeah. I will say that having six years to really get the proof of concept, the test kitchen in Boston, has taught us a lot. Our concept originally was one franchisee, one territory. But as we've grown the Boston operation, we've really seen how we can scale this.

The area we're servicing right now is much larger than what a single franchisee would service. And it's very easy to scale. If I were a franchisee who started in Atlanta with one territory and wanted to expand to a second or third, I'm not going to have to rebuild the infrastructure. I don't need to build another cooler, another call center, anything like that. I can just leverage the existing infrastructure I already have. That ability to scale is another huge opportunity with this brand.

Alan: Yeah, it's not like you're having to build out a new brick-and-mortar location. You just leverage exactly what you have and add bigger routes, more vehicles.

Rick: We started out with one truck in Boston and we have over 12 vehicles now on the road delivering. As a franchisee, you're not going to start out delivering five days a week. You'll start one or two days a week, but eventually it'll get to five days a week. And that's when you start adding a second or third truck. Certainly a good growth plan.

Rick's Advice for Any Franchisee

Alan: All right. So you were a franchise owner yourself, and you've also helped other franchise owners grow their businesses and become better operators. What suggestions and tips do you have for people going into Heart to Home Meals? How do you be successful in this business?

Rick: Well, in any franchise system, the number one thing to understand is that this is a marriage. You're getting into a long-term relationship. Really spend the time asking the right questions. Go through the Franchise Disclosure Document. And the most important thing you'll have in the FDD of any franchise system is a list of their franchisees. Pick up the phone, call them, talk to them, ask them questions.

You're going to find people who are extremely successful and people who aren't. Start doing some research and figure out: am I more like the guy who's successful, or the guy who isn't? Be honest with yourself about where your strengths are. Your strength may not be in marketing. If you realize that, you need to have a plan for somebody to take care of that. Maybe you're not the tech guy. You need a plan for somebody who can step into that role.

Give yourself a realistic timeframe. Anybody who tells you you're going to be making money on day one and supporting yourself right away — run. It's just not like that. Anything worth working for, you're going to have to put the time in. If you put in the time, have the patience, and come in capitalized, it'll work out.

You need to be committed to the process. Don't think that you're a franchisee who knows better. "I've been in business for 30 years, what can they tell me?" Do it the way the franchisor asks you to do it the first year. Give them 12 months to figure out what works and what doesn't. There's a reason they do things the way they do in any franchise system.

And be willing to leverage the network of existing franchisees. Once you're in, you're going to want to hear from me, from Chris, about how to be successful. But sometimes you're also going to want to pick up the phone and talk to somebody who's been in the business. Somebody who can say, "Yeah, there are bears in that cave. Don't go down that path." Any brilliant idea you might have? Somebody else has already had that idea. And there's a reason it works and a reason it doesn't. So have the patience for the opportunity to come to light. If you're dedicated and work the system hard enough, there's a reason that it works.

The Ideal Heart to Home Meals Franchisee

Alan: Great advice. What does an ideal candidate for Heart to Home Meals look like?

Rick: We're looking for somebody who is mission-led. Somebody who really cares about the senior community.

I spoke with one of my franchisees in Canada and he said, "Richard, there are all types of metrics and levers I can pull to make adjustments to my business. I really wanted to dial this thing up and get it working on all cylinders. But anything I touched just didn't work." He said, "And then I stepped back. I just got involved in the business. I started caring about the people. I started listening to the customers." He said, "And all of a sudden, the business started to take care of itself."

So I'm looking for somebody who's willing to get involved and let the business take care of itself. This business is very profit-driven. But it's also very mission-oriented. If my franchisee comes in thinking, "How do I help people? How can I help my seniors?" — I think that's truly what's going to make them successful. You've heard the expression "givers get." The more you give, the more you get. And it's not about giving because of the end result. It's about giving because that's who you are.

Alan: Yeah, for sure. Focusing on purpose, on the impact you're having on your clients, your customers, your team — I think that goes a really long way. It becomes more natural to serve everyone, to do a better job, and therefore have a more successful business.

Rick: Absolutely. You know, I love this company. I've been in other large corporations where things get siloed. "That's marketing, that's not my job. That's legal, that's not my job." I haven't run into anybody at Heart to Home Meals who's like that. It's always, "How can I help? What can I do? What's our mission?" I'll stop my day to help you figure out how to resolve something. And it really is a culture.

I'm excited because, much like yourself talking with potential franchisees, people are burnt out on the American corporation. People are looking for a place that fits. People are looking to give back. There's got to be something else here.

Alan: There's got to be something else. Yeah, totally agree.

Onboarding and Support

Alan: One more question. When you do find that ideal candidate — someone who's mission-driven, really cares, wants to make an impact, but also wants to build a profitable business — what does the support look like for them out of the gate?

Rick: Sure. Once they sign, it's like a baptism by fire. It's all hands on deck. We have a mobilization call on a weekly basis. We all own things. You'll have your list of things you own, and I'll have mine. There are probably about 150 things we need to accomplish to get you up and going.

I'll be on that committee. Chris, our president, will be on it. Our supply chain person, our marketing coordinator. And we literally go through the checklist with you every week to help you get up and running.

Once you're almost there, we'll have you come to our corporate office in Boston, Massachusetts. We'll spend a week with you and run you through all the training programs you'll need. Everything from how to place an order to how your mapping system works to how you get paid to how to negotiate relationships with insurance companies.

Then you'll go back to your hometown. You'll get your truck, your freezer, your location up and going. And you will have forgotten everything you learned.

Because of that, we'll send a trainer out to spend a week with you. We'll have somebody on location with you as your business gets up and going that first week to figure out how to place orders, do deliveries, and things of that nature.

Our customer service representative is one of the most important positions. We actually send our call center manager from Boston out to spend two days with you training your people.

And after you're up and going, it continues. We meet on a weekly basis to make sure you're getting all the support you need. We're following your numbers just like you are. You're the last mile in my delivery system. If you're not selling food, I'm not selling food. So it's in my best interest to keep you motivated and keep business coming in your door.

Alan: You touched on a key point that a lot of people don't think about until they get back home from training. You're drinking from a firehose. There's so much information coming at you at once. The training is there, the information is there, but how much of it actually sinks in? Having your people go out and help them open up — I think that's really crucial, because it's that learn-by-doing approach. On-the-job training is so much more impactful. You've got to do both, but without that piece, it would be very difficult for most businesses.

Rick: Yeah. You don't know what you don't know. And there are easy ways to solve problems if you just know the system. Not having somebody there to show you is tough.

Alan: Yeah, for sure. Well Rick, I appreciate your time today. That was a wealth of information. Congratulations on the launch of this business. I see a lot of potential in it, and I'm excited to send people over, especially those who want to be in this industry because it is growing and growing and growing. But maybe they don't want to be in in-home senior care the traditional way, or they like food but don't want a restaurant. Food adjacent — I like that. So thank you for being here, Rick. I appreciate it. And congrats on being a franchise champion.

Rick: Awesome, I appreciate it. Thanks for your time.