Irwin Kruger, a McDonald's franchisee for 42 years, left his franchise earlier this year and has since inked a deal with Smashburger. His company, ISK Systems LLC, will open its first Smashburger later this year on Long Island.

Kruger sold his four New York McDonald's locations back to the franchisor in February, including a high-revenue, 17,000-square-foot location in Manhattan's Times Square area. He says that under the terms of his noncompete agreement, he will not be able to open a Smashburger restaurant within a 10-mile radius of his former restaurants for the next 16 months. As a result, he is focusing on Long Island's Nassau and Suffolk counties.

Smashburger founder and chief concept officer Tom Ryan, who was once executive vice president and chief concept officer at McDonald's, says, “Irwin and I have worked together at McDonald’s and I know his extensive operations experience will be a great asset for Smashburger as we introduce our unique concept and ‘better burger’ to the Long Island community.” Ryan left McD's for Quiznos before founding Smashburger.

Smashburger was developed and is owned by private equity and concept-development firm Consumer Capital Partners (CCP), where Ryan is also the managing partner and chief concept officer.

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