Mike Bathurst didn’t set out to work in restaurants. The chemical engineer found his way into the fast food business thanks to a call from his best friend in first grade. That call led him to Barney Enterprises, a Wendy’s franchise group based in Northwest Indiana that was growing fast and needed fresh leadership.
Bathurst joined in 2017, just as Barney Enterprises had expanded from four to eleven locations. Today, they operate 14 Wendy’s restaurants. That kind of growth brought big wins—but also operational growing pains. One of the biggest? Repairs and maintenance.
“You could have the best location and the best team,” Bathurst said, “but if one of your key pieces of equipment goes down, you can’t serve fresh food to your customers.”
That reality became increasingly clear as Barney’s operations scaled. The team had previously relied on a vendor that promised to handle everything—HVAC, plumbing, kitchen equipment—but underdelivered. When that relationship faltered, Bathurst began searching for something better. That search led him to 86 Repairs, a solution designed specifically for restaurants managing the chaos of R&M across multiple units.
Bringing Order Together
Before 86 Repairs, Barney Enterprises had no unified system for tracking their restaurant equipment. Model numbers, serial numbers, and maintenance logs lived in a mix of spreadsheets and photos—nothing scalable or reliable.
“One of the first things 86 Repairs did was inventory all our assets. Just having photos, model numbers, and serials in one place was amazing,” Bathurst explained.
That foundation helped streamline everything. When issues popped up—whether it was a grill, a frosty machine, or plumbing—Bathurst and his team could quickly submit a service ticket, loop in the right vendor, and track the entire process.
Not every vendor worked out—and that’s part of the process, according to Bathurst.
“We lined it up in the beginning with vendors we thought would work, but it’s been a constant iteration,” he said. “Some you immediately want to remove. Others are great and you want them at all your locations.”
With 86 Repairs, Barney Enterprises could easily test new vendors, remove underperformers, and refine their vendor list store by store. Over time, they built a curated roster of reliable partners across every key category.
The Frosty Machine
Bathurst’s role also includes managing the tech stack. In recent years, that’s meant overseeing a significant transformation—from analog operations to fully digital systems.
“When I started, we didn’t even have a mobile app. Now we have kiosks, AI ordering, digital menu boards, and about 15% of our orders come through digital channels,” he said.
One of the newest innovations: an AI ordering system named, you guessed it, Wendy, who handles drive-thru orders at one location. She’s polite, consistent, and always shows up for work—even if she still can’t take your Big Mac order.
At the same time, Bathurst knows that no amount of AI can replace the basics: working equipment and responsive support. For staples like the frosty machine, which is infamous in other chains for frequent downtime, it’s all about preventative maintenance and having expert techs on call.
The Solution
For Bathurst, one of the biggest advantages of 86 Repairs is how well it fits a company like Barney Enterprises—not too small to operate with spreadsheets, but not big enough for expensive enterprise systems.
“There’s really nothing built for mid-sized operators like us. 86 Repairs gave us a system to manage everything without the big corporate price tag,” he explained.
His advice to other operators?
“Not everything is going to be perfect right away. But if you iterate and keep refining, you’ll get there. For us, 98% of our repairs now go through smoothly. That’s huge.”
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