Rachel Wallace is living proof you can achieve at the highest level and remain true to your roots.

A franchisee of three major businesses located throughout the region – Subway, Scooter’s Coffee and Best Western Plus in Centralia - Wallace has built an enterprise rooted in family atmosphere and tight-knit relationships.

“We have a really great group of people. They would do anything for me, and I would do anything for them,” said Wallace. “They are all very close and have a great culture, and I think that makes a huge difference. You don’t do all of this without great people.”

Much of Wallace’s outlook was generated from her parents, franchisees Elvan and Carol Wallace, both of which worked in the hotel industry before investing in Subway restaurants in 1989.

Wallace, who was born and raised in Effingham, said she began working in the family business at age 14. Though she would eventually study accounting at Tulane University and Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, and later spend five years as a cost accountant, she returned home in 2003 to work in the family business.

“When I came back, I started at the bottom,” Wallace recalled. “I would go out with one of our district managers and learn how to manage stores.”

Working her way up the management ladder, Wallace eventually purchased her first four Subway stores with her brother in 2010. A few years later, Wallace began working in the operational management of the family business upon her parents’ retirement.

“In about 2012, my parents started to retire, and I started to spend more time in our office, which meant I was doing a lot more operational management,” Wallace said. “I was more on the development side. During that time, I really began to develop our management team.”

Wallace, who purchased her first four Subway stores in the early 2010s with her brother and her first solo-owned store in 2016, said the family owned 13 stores when she returned home in 2003. Wallace currently operates 25 Subway stores in the region.

Subway wouldn’t be Wallace’s only local business venture, however, as she became the franchisee of the Best Western Plus hotel in Centralia at the behest of her mother, Carol.

“In 2016, we got into the hotel business,” Wallace recalled. “My mom was always looking for more to do. My parents and grandparents came from the motel industry, and she wanted to get back to that. She felt Centralia had an opportunity for a hotel.”

“Granted, my mom was retired at the time, so that meant I would be getting into the hotel business,” Wallace continued. “She asked me if I wanted to do it, and I said of course I did. I would go on to build the hotel, and then we built the strip mall out in front of it.”

After successfully supplying the community with a new hotel, Wallace would find her next franchise, drive-thru coffee shop, Scooter’s Coffee, in 2021.

“One day I was looking through an industry magazine and found Scooter’s Coffee. Coffee had been an up-and-coming thing, and we that was another thing we saw a need for in some of the towns we’re in,” Wallace explained. “We got in touch and really liked them.”

Wallace said she opted to share the operation with Marcy Wallace, a devoted employee who had worked with the Wallace family (no relation) since the age of 16.

“Marcy Wallace is my partner with Scooter’s Coffee. She has worked for me for over 20 years, she is my right hand,” said Wallace. “She knows every business that I’ve opened, and she’s the person that’s right there and knows how to run all these stores. I wanted to offer her the chance to become a franchisee and a partner in the business with me.”

The Wallaces have built several Scooter’s Coffee locations since the pair began the endeavor in 2021, with stores Centralia, Olney, Mt. Carmel, Harrisburg, Benton, and most recently Salem.

Though she owns businesses throughout southern and central Illinois, Wallace has maintained a strong presence in the local area, not only as a prominent business leader, but as the current chair of the Centralia Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors.

“[This area] has always been very receptive to Subway, it has always been very supportive of us,” said Wallace. “Sometimes you go into towns, and they are not receptive to a franchise, or what can be perceived as ‘corporate’. But the franchising is done by a local person, it’s just that person buys the name to use, and the right to use the product.”

“The people here have always been very supportive of that,” continued Wallace. “Everyone here tries to support the businesses that we have. There is more than enough here for all of us, and I feel like the people here know we can support each other.”