Macon Evans and
Barrett Feighner both come from families of longtime Columbus natives and the
two have known each other since early childhood. The lifelong friends attended Columbus’s Brookstone
School from kindergarten
through middle school, and while they attended separate high schools they
stayed close friends and went to the University of Georgia together where Macon
studied economics and Barrett studied business management. During their time at UGA, they both worked at
Five
Points Deli in Athens.
After college, Macon
stayed in Athens and went to work in the corporate offices of Barberitos and Barrett returned to Columbus to work in
the real estate industry. Their jobs
kept them on the road for a significant portion of 3 to 5 years, and they both
realized that they wanted to pursue their own business together. After looking into a variety of franchise
restaurant options, they went back to one of Macon’s favorite restaurants in
Athens, Your Pie. They opened their
location in The Landings in September 2011 and opened their second location in
Uptown Columbus in March 2013.
Macon and Barrett have
won several awards since opening, including the Top Sales award for the
Landings location at the recent Your Pie franchisee conference. Only in business since March 2013, the Uptown
location is already on pace to beat those sales numbers by as high as 40%.
The success of the
Uptown area can be attributed, in part, to the big push to revitalize the area
and bring in vibrant young businesses like Your Pie.
How did you learn
about the brand?
It was one of Macon’s favorite places to eat in Athens. When we decided we wanted to open a
restaurant together, we looked at frozen yogurt as an option and several other
concepts. None of them seemed to be
exactly what we wanted. Your Pie was a young
company that offered a lot of different markets for growth and we liked that we
could grow with the company. Pizza is a
proven concept, and Your Pie is a unique and innovative twist on pizza. It was a different way of experiencing the
pizza concept…and also, the product is just really good. We decided Your Pie was the concept for us,
so we went and met with Drew and secured the Columbus (Georgia) and Auburn
(Alabama) markets.
What are your
expansion or development plans? What is your end goal with Your Pie?
There is probably only room for one more in Columbus. If all goes well, we can open one in Auburn. We haven’t done anything in Auburn yet. We decided to open our second Columbus
location instead of moving into Auburn.
I mean, if it goes well, we’d love to have a dozen of
these…but right now we’re committed to three or four and growing at a realistic
pace. There are no specific plans yet to
open in Auburn, but I’ve been looking into potential real estate for when we
decide to make that move.
Are you involved with
any charities or do any community outreach with your business?
We are involved in Young
Professionals with the Greater Columbus Georgia Chamber of Commerce. We host “Spirit Nights” where people from a
charity or organization can come and a certain portion of the sales are donated
back to the organization. We also work
with a local shelter called PAWS.
Do you have any
superstar employees?
Columbus State University is the local college and 80% of
our staff is from there. The theater
department building at Columbus State University is downtown, so half of our
staff at the downtown location is from the theater department. They’re great because they have big
personalities and have been excellent employees.
Do you have any
hobbies, pastimes, and passions outside of work?
Barrett
lives on the water and loves to spend time wake boarding and paddle boarding, he
plays basketball, they both golf. They
both like to spend time with their dogs.
Barrett is engaged while Macon is single.
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