Thursday, October 3, 2013

Franchisee Spotlight: Paul and Michael Childers, Savannah, Georgia

Meet our Savannah Your Pie franchisees, Paul and Michael Childers! 

How did you learn about the brand?

Paul: I was in the furniture industry and when things got real bad in 2008 or 2009, I had to make the decision to sell the business.  A friend of mine and I kicked around and did some bone fishing, which was fun, but hit a point where I had to start thinking of paying the bills.  An accountant friend of ours had a daughter who was going to the University of Georgia and kept raving about this place called Your Pie and this cool concept out of Athens.  We love pizza and we knew what was going on with places like Chipotle and Moe’s, so we knew if someone could put that interesting twist on pizza, which is such a wide favorite, we knew it would take off.  We also thought the healthy options available made it attractive to customers.  Mike and I went to Athens and met Drew and Bucky.  We believed in it, so hopped on board and opened the downtown location.  Once that got going we opened the one in Sandfly.

Michael: I graduated from Georgia Southern and got a job with a firm in Savannah doing logistics.  I did that and my dad and I started looking into the Your Pie concept idea and did the trips to Athens to check it out and took time off to look in to it.  We opened the store in November 2010 and in early 2011, I decided to leave my job and focus on growing the business and opening our 2nd store.

What are your expansion or development plans? What is your end goal with Your Pie?

Paul: It’s always a possibility that we’ll grow.  We grew pretty quickly into the second store, so we’re trying to settle in and make sure things are working smoothly and people are happy.  We’ll take a look at it again down the road.

Are you involved with any charities or do any community outreach with your business?

Michael: We’ve both lived in Savannah for the majority of our lives.  My dad grew up here, moved away and came back.  I’ve lived here for my entire life.  So we love giving back to our hometown community.  We tie in with a ton of local groups and do charity nights where we give a percentage of sales back to the group.  We’ve done them for local baseball teams, schools in the area, organizations and any good cause that needs a boost.

Do you have any hobbies, pastimes, and passions outside of work?

Paul: I golf and love to fly fish, bone fish, and go salt water fishing.


Michael: I do any kind of fishing in the Savannah area too, and boating too.  Really, anything out on the water.

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