Taco John's is celebrating 50 years of business

Taco John's is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. In honor of the celebration, Taco John's spent time working on a book documenting the history of the company.

President and CEO, Jim Creel, said he knew a lot of the stories already since he's been with the company for nineteen years. He shared a story about the two founders. Creel said, "They used to fly around in a little twin engine plane and they'd land in a town that they thought might be big enough for a Taco John's. One of them would go looking for land and one of them would go looking for a franchisee. That's really how the brand started, so it's kind of a neat story."

The company recently had its convention in Maui. Creel said that 615 people attended the conference -- a record number. He said that they took time to reflect on what has been accomplished in the past fifty years, but also made sure to look towards the future. Creel said, "One of the final things I said to all of the franchisees was we can only do what we do by working together. We can only start looking forward when we stop looking back. So fifty years is something most companies don't even get to, but for us its a brand new start."

The company has several things planned for this year, including the launch of a Taco John's food truck. Creel said there are currently 394 stores and Taco John's is looking to increase that number to 500 over the next five years.