Sawsan Abublan, Founder & CEO
Shawarma Press
What does it take to walk away from one hard-won career and build an entirely different one from scratch?
In this episode, we sit down with Sawsan Abublan, who spent years as a pharmacist before stepping away from her pharmacy career to become a restaurant franchisor — co-building Shawarma Press, one of the first authentic shawarma franchise brands in the United States, with her husband.
Sawsan and her husband identified a gap in the U.S. market for standardized, high-quality shawarma — a staple street food across the Middle East — and turned that idea into Shawarma Press, which opened its first location in Irving, Texas, in 2017.
Today, the brand operates 11 locations across Texas, Georgia, and Kansas, with a mix of company- and franchisee-owned stores, and operates regionally to maintain supply chain efficiency. In this conversation, Sawsan walks us through the real mechanics of franchising, including the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD), how she audits franchisees without micromanaging them, and why her pharmacy background and discipline became an unexpected advantage in food service. She also opens up about the early skepticism she faced as a woman entering the restaurant franchising industry, the financial literacy every franchisor needs, and how rising costs and tariffs are squeezing margins across the restaurant industry.
In this episode:
✦ Her leap from pharmacist to restaurant franchisor and what skills transferred along the way
✦ What an FDD (Franchise Disclosure Document) is and why it’s non-negotiable
✦ How to audit franchisees and protect brand consistency without damaging trust
✦ Building confidence as a woman in restaurant franchising
✦ The finanacial literacy every franchisor needs: reading a P&L without needing to produce one
✦ How tariffs and rising packaging costs are reshaping restaurant margins in 2026
Whether you’re considering franchising your own business or just want to understand what’s behind your favorite shawarma spot, this episode is a real, unfiltered look at building a regional restaurant brand from the ground up.
MBTI vibe: ESTJ / ISTJ / ENTJ / ESTP
Decisiveness • Structure orientation • Accountability • Financial Literacy • Rule respecting • Composure under pressure • Directness
Need to Know Facts*
Franchisor Fees
varies by franchise brand:
Entry-Level Education &
Additional Certification
Work Experience in Related
Occupation:
Type of organizations to
work for:
Job Outlook:
Resources:
• Initial franchise fees
• Ongoing royalty fees
• Real estate & rent markups
• Supply chain markups
• Marketing fees
• Profitability ranges:
– Emerging (1-15 stores)
Net loss – $100K
– Mid-Tier (30-75 stores)
$500K – $2M
– Enterprise (500+ stores)
$20M – Billions
• No formal degree required
• Strong working knowledge:
– Business & Leadership
Training: economics,
accounting, management
• Industry certifications
• Franchising certification
• State compliance:
– Laws & Regulations
• Key skills include:
– Business management
– Strategic planning
– Franchise operations
– Communications
– Financial Planning
– Legal compliance
– Leadership
• Brick & Mortar Retail & Food
• Service-Based Businesses
• +1.8% overall employment
• +1.5% industry growth
About Sawsan Abublan
Sawsan transitioned her illustrious career as a pharmacist to living her dream as a successful Franchisor. Going from comforting patients to comfort food using her family recipes, her management and training experience, and strong attention to detail.
Her restaurant “Shawarma Press” opened its first location in Irving, Texas, in 2017 and survived COVID without closing its doors. The brand emerged even stronger as the first authentic Shawarma franchise in the US after the pandemic, with a strong app and online ordering presence and a faithful customer base that believes in the Mediterranean diet, which has ranked as the #1 diet for several years in a row.
Shawarma Press has grown from 1 to 11 locations in the past 3 years and is expanding in Texas, Georgia, and Kansas. The brand earned several awards in 2022, 2023, and 2024, including Fast Casual’s Top 100 Movers and Shakers and the Most Innovative Supply Chain by Franchise Update Media. Sawsan won a Gold Stevie for Best Entrepreneur in Franchising, a Gold Stevie for Woman of the Year in Franchising, and a Silver Stevie for Achievements in Diversity and Inclusion.
Sawsan represented Shawarma Press at the prestigious 2024 Multi-Unit Franchise Conference in Las Vegas and was a speaker at the Fast Casual in 2024 and 2025. The brand is well known for supporting local charities, especially homeless shelters, by donating freshly made wholesome meals, and is a supporter of CORE (Children of Restaurant Employees), a non-profit organization.
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