Jerry DeFeo serves as the Vice President of Development for ZIPS Franchising LLC, widely known as ZIPS Cleaners. He has spent twenty-six years working in the franchise industry, and his career path has taken him through several important roles, including Vice President of Operations and Vice President of Franchising.
Jerry DeFeo | VP of Development | ZIPS Franchising LLC
This long journey through different sides of the business has given him a rare, well-rounded view of what it actually takes to grow a franchise brand the right way. At EliteX, we are proud to have Jerry DeFeo as Cover Story of the edition: Trailblazing Franchise Development Leaders to Follow, 2026.
ZIPS Cleaners operates on a simple but disruptive idea. The company offers one low price for any dry-cleaned garment, paired with genuine same-day service under the promise, in by nine, out by five. The brand runs on what is called a plant-and-drop system, a model built to support efficient growth across many locations at once. The roots of ZIPS trace back to a group of independent dry cleaners in the Mid-Atlantic region who joined forces in the early two-thousands. They standardized their operations and began franchising in 2006. Today, the company focuses on attracting experienced multi-unit operators, people who are looking for a scalable, high-volume business with strong economics at the store level and limited direct competition in the value-priced segment of the industry.
Franchising will remain one of the most powerful vehicles for entrepreneurship when brands and franchisees treat the relationship as a true partnership focused on mutual long-term value.
Jerry was drawn to franchise development because it blends two things he finds deeply satisfying, entrepreneurship and structured systems. Early in his career, he saw firsthand how a well-designed franchise model could help independent business owners reach a level of consistency, scale, and profitability that most standalone businesses never achieve on their own.
He describes franchise development as work that sits at the crossroads of strategy, people, and execution. It is not simply about selling a business concept to someone. It is about carefully selecting partners who will protect and grow a brand for decades to come. That long-term nature of the relationship, and the chance to build something far larger than any single store, has kept him energized throughout his career.
His path to where he is today began on the operations side of the business. Working in operations taught him the everyday realities of running multi-unit companies, things like labor models, quality control, customer flow, and the numbers that make a single unit profitable or not. That grounding in day-to-day operations became the foundation for everything that followed. When he moved into franchising roles, he was able to take those operational insights and apply them to system design, training programs, and ongoing franchisee support. Later, as he stepped into franchising leadership and then development leadership, his focus shifted toward growth strategy, candidate selection, and expanding the network in a healthy, sustainable way. Joining ZIPS brought all of these threads together. He found a proven, differentiated concept in an industry still dominated by independent operators, along with the opportunity to help experienced business owners scale a high-volume model that works.
When asked about the core responsibilities of a franchise development leader, Jerry points to several key areas. These include defining and carrying out a clear growth strategy, identifying and qualifying the right franchise candidates, managing the sales and discovery process with complete transparency, supporting site selection and development, and making sure new partners are properly set up for long-term success. He stresses that it is just as important to collaborate closely with operations, training, marketing, and finance teams, so that development never moves faster than the system can support. In his view, a development leader is responsible for both the quantity and the quality of growth, and neglecting either one creates problems down the road.
Jerry has watched the franchise industry change significantly over the past several years. Candidates today are more sophisticated and selective. Multi-unit and multi-brand operators now dominate many of the conversations happening across the industry, and these operators expect sophisticated unit economics, proven support systems, and a clear path toward scaling their businesses. Technology has sped up nearly every part of the process, from generating leads and running virtual discovery days to providing real-time dashboards that track store performance. At the same time, labor challenges, rising costs to build out new locations, and increased regulatory scrutiny have raised the bar for franchisors across the board. Jerry notes that brands offering real differentiation, technological advancements, strong margins, and dependable operational support are the ones pulling ahead, while brands relying only on hype are struggling to keep up.
Consistency is sustained by selecting partners who value the brand standards and by giving them the tools and coaching they need to deliver those standards every day.
For successful franchise growth, Jerry believes certain qualities are essential. Disciplined candidate selection stands at the top of the list, along with a scalable and genuinely profitable unit model, consistent brand standards, and true partnership with franchisees. He is careful to point out that growth achieved without the right partners, or without proper operational readiness, tends to create long-term problems that are difficult to undo. The strongest franchise systems, in his experience, maintain a culture of continuous improvement and open communication, so that franchisees feel heard and genuinely supported as the network continues to expand.
When it comes to identifying and attracting the right franchise partners, ZIPS looks specifically for experienced multi-unit operators, people who already understand what it means to own a profit and loss statement, lead a team, and execute well in their local market. The company attracts these candidates through targeted outreach, participation in industry events, and clear communication about the advantages of its model, including simple pricing, strong volume potential, same-day service that sets it apart, and a plant-plus-drop design built to support efficient multi-unit development. Jerry describes the discovery process at ZIPS as thorough and transparent from start to finish. The goal is to find candidates who are genuinely excited about the concept and who also have the operational capacity and capital needed to execute it well.
Expanding a franchise network is never without its challenges, and Jerry has faced his share along the way. Common obstacles include finding operators who match both the financial and operational profile the brand needs, managing the timelines that come with real estate and construction, and making sure corporate support grows in step with the brand itself. ZIPS has addressed these challenges by tightening its candidate qualification criteria, strengthening its site-selection and construction processes, investing more heavily in training and field support, and maintaining a realistic pace of growth rather than chasing numbers for their own sake. Jerry also emphasizes that transparent communication with existing franchisees about expansion plans has played a critical role in preserving the overall health of the system.
Maintaining consistency and quality across many franchise locations starts, in Jerry’s view, with clear and well-documented standards, paired with a strong training program for both franchisees and their managers. Ongoing field support, regular performance reviews, quality audits, and the sharing of best practices all help reinforce expectations across the network. Technology plays a growing role in this effort as well. Point-of-sale systems, production tracking tools, and customer feedback platforms give both franchisees and the franchisor greater visibility into how each location is performing. Ultimately, Jerry believes consistency is sustained by selecting partners who genuinely value the brand standards, then giving them the tools and coaching they need to deliver those standards every single day.
The best franchise relationships are long-term partnerships, not transactions.
Technology, Jerry explains, touches nearly every stage of modern franchise development. It improves how leads are generated and candidates are screened, enables virtual discovery days and training sessions, supports site analytics and territory mapping, and provides real-time visibility into how stores are performing once they open. For a concept like ZIPS, production and workflow technology also helps maintain the speed and consistency that define the customer experience and drive profitability for franchisees. Technology also shapes the customer experience directly. The company’s twenty-four-hour drop stores allow customers to drop off and pick up their clothes at any time of day, offering a level of convenience that matters greatly to today’s consumers. For Jerry, the goal is never technology for its own sake, but rather tools that make franchisees more efficient and help the brand deliver a consistent, best-in-class experience.
Looking back on his career, Jerry is especially proud of the times he has successfully onboarded multi-unit developers who went on to become strong contributors to the overall system. These are operators who not only opened their locations successfully but also raised standards across the network and helped mentor newer franchisees coming into the system. Watching a well-selected partner build a profitable group of locations, while also strengthening the brand as a whole, remains one of the most rewarding outcomes he has experienced in this line of work.
Supporting franchisees toward long-term success, in Jerry’s view, begins well before a location ever opens its doors. It starts with thorough training, help with site selection, and support with grand-opening marketing. After a store opens, that support continues through field operations assistance, performance benchmarking, marketing resources, supply-chain advantages, and ongoing education. He also places real value on peer learning, where successful franchisees share what is working for them with others in the network. Long-term success, he believes, requires treating franchisees as true partners rather than simply as sources of royalty payments. That means listening closely, adapting systems when needed, and helping each franchisee get the most out of the unit economics the model offers.
Looking ahead, Jerry sees several trends shaping the future of franchising. He expects the continued dominance of multi-unit and private-equity-backed operators, along with growing demand for data-driven decision making. Pressure on labor and occupancy costs is likely to continue as well, alongside an increased focus on concepts that offer clear differentiation in the customer experience and strong returns at the unit level. Convenience, transparency, and value, he believes, will remain powerful drivers of consumer behavior. Brands that can deliver consistent execution at scale, while giving franchisees real tools to manage their businesses, will be the ones best positioned for the future.
For those hoping to build a career in franchise development, Jerry offers direct and practical advice. He encourages aspiring professionals to spend time in operations first, to understand what it actually takes to run a successful location before trying to sell or support a franchise system. Knowing the details matters. He also urges development professionals to prioritize the quality of growth over its speed, and to build genuine relationships with the franchisees they work with. For entrepreneurs considering franchising as a path, his advice is to do rigorous due diligence. He recommends speaking with existing franchisees, both the top performers and those who have struggled, in order to understand the true investment required, the level of support available, and whether the model truly fits their skills and their market. The strongest franchise relationships, he believes, are long-term partnerships rather than one-time transactions.
Growth without the right partners, or without operational readiness, creates long-term problems.
Looking toward the future, Jerry’s vision for ZIPS centers on disciplined, sustainable expansion alongside the right multi-unit partners. He wants to see continued refinement of the plant-and-drop model, while preserving the simplicity and value that customers have come to expect and respond to. His goal for the brand is to become the clear leader in accessible, high-quality, same-day garment care. For the wider franchise industry, Jerry sees a period of continued professionalization ahead, with stronger systems, better data, more sophisticated operators, and higher expectations placed on franchisee success. Franchising, he believes, will remain one of the most powerful vehicles for entrepreneurship, as long as brands and franchisees continue to treat their relationship as a true partnership focused on mutual, long-term value.
Franchise development sits at the intersection of strategy, people, and execution. You are not just selling a concept; you are selecting partners who will protect and grow a brand for decades.