Your Pie featured in Pizza Marketplace

Your Pie was recently featured in Pizza Marketplace in an article titled, "Your Pie aims for 100 locations by 2015." The article discusses some of the background information about the Your Pie customized pizza franchise and then transitions into a Q&A with vice president of development, Ken Caldwell.  Ken talks about his excitement joining the Your Pie team, the switch to a pizza concept, what makes Your Pie the leader in the fast casual pizza space, plans for growth, and why the fast casual pizza concept is so hot right now.

View the article online here. 

Your Pie aims for 100 locations by 2015

November 8, 2013 - Alicia Kelso

The growth of the fast casual pizza category is staggering and many young concepts have aspirations to quickly surpass the 100-unit mark.

One of those brands is Atlanta-based Your Pie. First opened in 2008 by founder Drew French, Your Pie has grown to 18 locations and recently announced a partnership with Georgia Oak Partners to spur further expansion.

The company's plan is to reach 100 units by 2015. As part of that strategy, Ken Caldwell was recently named VP of Development. Previously, Caldwell led start-up concept Heavenly Ham from 10 units to 230. He then helped HoneyBaked Ham dive head first into franchising, and led that company's growth from 35 units to 180. PizzaMarketplace.com had the chance to talk to Caldwell recently about the fast casual pizza trend and Your Pie's differentiators in an increasingly crowded space.

PizzaMarketplace.com: Why did you take a risk and join a young company in a young subsegment of pizza?

Ken Caldwell: There is always a risk with everything. I've been in franchising for 20 years. Part of my personal thrill is to take emerging brands and grow them. As a customer, I saw what Your Pie was doing and I loved the quality of the product and the emerging category and Your Pie's place in it.

PizzaMarketplace.com: What has the learning curve been like for you getting into the pizza space?

KC: I am new to pizza and there is some difference in the day-to-day operation. But we believe pizza is about as simple as restaurant operations can be. Yes, there is training involved, but we feel that we can teach anybody how to operate a pizza store. The key, though, is to find people who can run a business profitably. We can teach operations, but we need to make sure we teach unit level economics.

PizzaMarketplace.com: As the top-your-own category grows, what is Your Pie's differentiator?

KC: Our primary focus is offering the ability for customers to create their own pizzas. But we also do salads, Panini, craft beer, gelato. We encourage our franchisees to develop relationships with local beer distributors in their markets, and craft beer lovers appreciate that. And, a differentiator is the brick oven, which brings a fantastic flavor to the pizza — a crispy, light flavor. We also use the oven to bake bread for our Panini, so our advantage is in the quality of the product. The brick oven is our focal point.

PizzaMarketplace.com: Does a brick oven slow down speed of service, compared to a concept that uses a high-tech conveyor oven?

KC: From an operations perspective, we believe a brick oven can cook pizza as fast as a conveyor oven and has other advantages. We hand-toss our dough, whereas a lot of competitors hand-press their dough ahead of time. It creates an operational efficiency for them, but we don't take the 'time perspective.' We take the freshness and flavor perspective. We can hand toss our dough, let our customers choose their toppings, bake the pizza and still have it to them in 7 to 10 minutes.

To continue reading Q&A, click here.