Commerce Bank founder takes helping of Saladworks

Commerce Bank founder Vernon W. Hill II is on the move and having a blast.

Less than a week after voting no on the sale of Commerce Bancorp Inc., Hill said yesterday that he had agreed to invest in Saladworks Inc., a Conshohocken restaurant chain with 88 locations.

Hill declined to say how much he invested, but John M. Scardapane, another South Jersey entrepreneur who founded Saladworks in 1986 in the Cherry Hill Mall, remained the majority owner.

"I was excited to find another company I could get involved with and get onto a fast growth track," said Hill, 62. "I like things to grow, and I like them to grow fast."

In previous interviews, Scardapane, 44, expressed his admiration for Commerce Bank, which was for years one of the country's fastest-growing banks and is now being sold to the Toronto-Dominion Bank.

"We didn't do this deal for money. We did this deal for Vernon's expertise," said Scardapane, who remains chief executive officer of Saladworks.

Hill's experience includes a partnership in a chain of about 40 Burger King restaurants in Bucks and Montgomery Counties. In the late 1960s, he scouted McDonald's locations in upstate Pennsylvania.

The deal between Hill and Scardapane has its origins in Scardapane's efforts to hire Site Development Inc., of Mount Laurel, to find good locations for new Saladworks restaurants.

Site Development, which is part-owned by Hill, is best known as the real estate firm that found hundreds of locations for Commerce Bank branches on busy corners from Connecticut to Washington.

"The bottle-stop for Saladworks growth was real estate," Scardapane said. "We've always had enough franchisees."

About two months ago, Hill asked Scardapane out to lunch - at Saladworks in Cherry Hill.

Now, Scardapane has both Site Development and Hill in his corner, and he is thrilled.

"What are the odds of me getting to work side by side with Vernon Hill?" Scardapane, who trained as a chef at the Tavistock Country Club, asked rhetorically.

Hill said he saw similarities in the growth trajectories of Commerce Bank and Saladworks: "We grew slowly as we learned what we were doing" until the bank got big enough to have a "platform to dramatically grow."

That is where Saladworks is now, Hill said.

Hill and Scardapane said a top priority at Saladworks had to be top-notch customer service from every employee in the restaurants, a big challenge in an industry dominated by part-timers.

Jim Dooney, a Saladworks franchisee, said he was happy to have Hill on board. "I think it can't be anything but a great thing. He's obviously a very sharp businessman," said Dooney, who banks at Commerce.

In an interesting twist, Scardapane had moved Saladworks' corporate banking business from Commerce to Firstrust Bank of Conshohocken about a year ago, after the company's relationship with Commerce became strained.

"That was a failure of Commerce. We let a good customer get away," said Hill, who has kept himself busy since his ouster as chairman and chief executive of Commerce in June.

Among his other ventures is an investment company in Maryland and a banking blog.

"I'm having more fun now . . . than I've had in 10 years," Hill said.

Founded:

1986 at Cherry Hill Mall.

CEO and founder:

John M. Scardapane.

Employees:

31 in corporate operations plus an estimated 2,250 in restaurants.

Locations:

88, mostly in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Sales in 2007:

$60 million.

SOURCE: Saladworks Inc.