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Lyles BBQ Lands an Extraordinary Deal With Marcus Lemonis

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The Lyles family converted their roadside barbeque into a multi-location restaurant serving up fresh, homemade dishes to the greater Lexington, Kentucky area. While they may look like the average family business from the outside, Marcus Lemonis quickly discovered that the Lyles family is anything but ordinary. Greg and Jennifer Lyles own the majority share of Lyles BBQ (90%), while their son, Chandler, owns 10% of the company. Although they share a last name, that is where the similarities end for how each of these shareholders view their company’s path forward.

Lyles BBQ catches Marcus’ attention because this is the first time that a business has reached out to Marcus to help their company, while someone from that company is simultaneously applying for an open position at one of Marcus’ companies. Marcus decided to go to Kentucky to see why Chandler Lyles has applied to work for him and conduct an on-the-job interview. There is just one catch. Chandler and his parents did not know that Marcus was testing him to see how he would handle various situations. Let’s take a step back and understand just how Chandler came to apply for a job with Marcus Lemonis.

Greg Lyles and his son, Chandler, are both airforce veterans who saved some money from their time with the military to open up Lyles BBQ four years ago. They began as a tent on the side of the road and have now grown to one sit down restaurant and food-court quick service restaurant at the local shopping mall. All of Lyles BBQ is handmade and each recipe is crafted by Jennifer Lyles. Her primary role in the company is the creation of recipes and high-quality food items. Chandler handles the day-to-day business of the company while his father, Greg, works fulltime outside of the business.

Chandler’s vision for the company is that they would rapidly grow and expand to many more densely populated locations. Jennifer is greatly concerned that the more they grow, the less control she will have over the food. She has a passion and commitment to each of her customers that they should get homemade food and nothing processed. She is concerned that the more they scale, the less this will be possible. She also is concerned that more locations create training hardships and if chefs are not properly trained they could sour the company’s reputation for quality.

Aside from not agreeing on the company’s path forward, Lyles BBQ has another issue. Greg Lyles can sometimes go rogue and make big business decisions without Chandler and Jennifer’s input. One example of this was his decision to expand to a local food court. They only had 2 weeks to throw together that branch of the company and there were several sacrifices made to the aesthetics of the storefront and the quality of the food. In order to produce their recipes quicker, they did have to rely on some processed foods which upset Jennifer. With both Chandler and Jennifer being unsupportive of their second location and Chandler disregarding Jennifer’s opinions, Lyles BBQ is facing many significant internal struggles.

After reviewing both location and their financials, Marcus decides to make them an offer that is structured differently than his typical offers. Marcus offers Lyles BBQ $100,000 that is intended to be used for an aesthetic upgrade to the mall location and to exploring new products to sell. One line of products he would like to see them offer are bottled versions of Jennifer’s BBQ sauces. She has delicious recipes that are representative of many areas of the country. He thinks these could sell very well as an add on item.

None of the money that Marcus gives should be put into the main location as he feels that it is successfully running and he wants the Lyles to continue to have full ownership of that location. He proposes that $10,000 – $15,000 are invested in designing the front of the food court location to make it more on-brand. The remaining investment should be used for exploring the products they have developed and scaling them. In exchange for his investment, Marcus would want to make 60% of the profit from the mall. Chandler is disappointed with this offer but has no idea what is really in store for him. They accept Marcus’ offer and enter into a formal partnership together.

Chandler doesn’t realize it, but as they are going through this process, Marcus is testing him out to see if he can critically think about expanding their product line and overall business strategy. Marcus also entrusts Chandler with another key change, the remodel of their second location. By watching how Chandler refines their products, menu, and aesthetics, he will learn a lot about his work ethic and problem-solving skills. Marcus will also be focusing on how he meets deadlines, works with others, budgets, and follows through with his plans. Chandler still has no idea that Marcus is aware that he ever applied to work for him.

In order to focus on new product creation, Marcus connected Jennifer and Chandler with a chef to provide them with some pointers in their recipes. They also visit a co-packer to see how their products can be made to sell. Compromising, the Lyles discuss that product integrity and being able to properly scale the product are their top two priorities. When meeting with the co-packer to see if it would be possible to co-pack both their BBQ sauce and their meat, Marcus gets a good view of how Chandler operates. He is asking good questions and pushing the meeting forward despite objections from Jennifer on key changes that would need to occur with the product to move forward with copacking.

Marcus meets with Chandler one on one to discuss the upgrades to the business and get a progress report. Chandler shares that the Lyles are committed to compromising and making the mall location work, even if they weren’t initially supportive of the idea. He confides in Marcus with why he applied for a job with one of his companies. Chandler felt that if he removed himself from the business, his mom (who currently does not take a salary) can actually make money from the company and become financially stable. He feels that his mom is a more valuable part of the business than he is. In the character-defining part of the interview, Chandler confesses that he wants to make the restaurant work for his mom, the mall work for his dad and then he will worry about his career after that.

After their discussion, Chandler goes back to work on their projects. He rebranded the space at the mall location and condensed the menu. Marcus is very impressed and they have received great feedback. They predict sales to increase by 300% at that location. The sauces are also completed and ready to be sold. They estimate that they will generate approximately $100,000 in sauce sales alone. Marcus is very pleased with the changes and feels that Chandler passed the interview.

As they sit down to discuss the results of the business upgrade, Marcus lays it on the table and shares with Jennifer and Greg that Chandler had applied for a position at his company. He thought the best way to interview him was to come down and give him the opportunity to turn their business around–a true review of his skill and growth. It became more clear through the interview process that he cares more about his parents than himself. Chandler is absolutely shocked when Marcus hands him a job offer. His primary job function will be to work on this project with his mom as well as some other opportunities that Marcus has in mind. Chandler accepts his dream job from Marcus Lemonis.

What did you think of this episode of “The Profit?” Did you feel that this process gave Chandler a fair interview and Marcus enough insight into his work habits? Start the conversation in the comments below!

“The Profit” airs Tuesday at 10 p.m. on CNBC.

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