Your Pie in Grayson Local

We were featured in the Grayson Local. Your Pie franchisees Andrew Williams and Ross Bradley recently celebrated the three month anniversary of their restaurant in Snellville, GA. To celebrate their success as one of the busiest locations in the franchise system, the duo hosted a Customer Appreciation Day and ribbon cutting ceremony.

Read the full article here. 

Your Pie on Food Management

We were featured on Food Management.  The article was a trend piece on holiday desserts that contribute to revenue.  Your Pie was mentioned as a fast-casual pizza concept with more than 20 units in Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina and Florida, this year has created an “Apple Pie Pie.” Your Pie Founder, Drew French was quoted saying, “It’s pizza à la mode,” says founder Drew French. “We’ve always had gelato on our menu, but last year we started messing around with the idea of pizza desserts. We want to use seasonal ingredients for desserts like we do for our regular pizzas.”

Read the full article here.  

Your Pie Buckhead Grand Opening

We’re having our Your Pie Buckhead Atlanta Grand Opening this Friday starting at 11 a.m. EDT. The first 50 people will receive a free Your Pie and we will be serving up pies for $3.14 until 9 p.m.

We’re located at 5 West Paces Ferry Road NW, Atlanta, Georgia, 30305. Click here for our contact information and hours.  

Can’t wait to see you there!

Your Pie in the Northside Neighbor

Your Pie in the Northside Neighbor

Your Pie was recently featured in an article in the Northside Neighbor. Your Pie, an Athens-based pizza restaurant company with 11 other locations in Georgia and others in Southeastern states, will open its Buckhead location in early May. The originator of the down-the-line pizza category will be located in what was previously a Johnny Rockets and a Lime Fresh Mexican Grill, at 5 W. Paces Ferry Road. “The Buckhead mentality is the perfect match for the spirit of Your Pie,” said Drew French, founder. The Buckhead location is the first of three new Atlanta restaurants that will open before the end of summer and will feature the company’s new prototype. The company plans to continue growing in metro Atlanta, with plans to open up to 40 additional restaurants in the area over the next three to five years. 

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 2^nd 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.

Franchisee Spotlight: Macon Evans and Barrett Feighner, Columbus, Georgia

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.

Franchisee Spotlight: Britt Hendrix, Statesboro, Georgia

After graduating from the University of Georgia, Britt Hendrix took a job in the field he’d earned a degree in, turf management.  However, he soon learned that he was more passionate about the restaurant industry, having worked in a restaurant the whole time he was in college.  With very little notice, Britt was contacted by Your Pie Founder Drew French about the opportunity to take over ownership of the Statesboro Your Pie location.  Britt jumped on the chance, and in a two month period had signed on to take over ownership, and moved to Statesboro the day before he assumed ownership of the location.  Britt is excited about trading in the red of the University of Georgia for the blue of Georgia Southern University and bringing a fresh energy to the Statesboro Your Pie.  He’s keeping the entire staff that was in place and is hoping to make the location a fun place for both families and the Georgia Southern crowd.

How did you learn about the brand?

After graduating from the University of Georgia with a degree in turf management, I took a job as an assistant superintendent at The Landings in Savannah.  After working there for two years, I came to the conclusion that this wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life.  During my entire time attending UGA, I worked at a restaurant called Hilltop Grille.  Summer came, and I quit the job at The Landings and took a job at Stingrays at Tybee Island and worked the whole summer there right on the beach.  I had the summer of my life, and decided that the food industry is where I wanted to be.  After that summer, I moved back to Athens and went back to work at Hilltop Grille where I’d worked during college. I worked there for 6 months and had that moment where I realized I wasn’t in college anymore, so that lifestyle wasn’t for me.  I went back to Tybee Island for vacation and realized that I needed to open up my own restaurant to truly be happy.  I had been talking with Drew about opening up a Your Pie since I loved the place during my time at UGA, and I wanted to move back near Savannah.  The opportunity to take over the Statesboro Your Pie came out of nowhere.  Drew contacted me to let me know that the Statesboro location was up for sale because the owner had the Your Pie and some other businesses, including a brewery in the area that he wanted to focus on.  It kind of fell in my lap, so to speak, but it was perfect timing so I jumped on the opportunity.

I like the fact that by owning this Your Pie, I’m essentially creating my own job and taking control of my work life.  I had reached a point through my experience that I knew what I DIDN’T want to do, so this was an opportunity for me to create my own job and have my own business in an industry where I’m truly passionate.

How did you meet Drew and learn about the brand?

Me and my friends used to go to Your Pie when we were at the University of Georgia.  We’d go to the concerts there, and it was always a really good time.  I want to provide that lifestyle and experience with the Statesboro Your Pie now.  I met Drew after I contacted them to see if there were any opportunities available.  When I was deciding on what type of restaurant to open, I knew I didn’t want a fryer or a grill in my restaurant, so Your Pie was perfect for what I was looking to open.

What are your plans for the location?

We’re working right now to bring the craft beers back to the Statesboro Your Pie.  We’re going to do pitchers and flights of beer.  We’re going to have trivia, football, and live music.  I’m working to build a stage right now so that we can have live music.   I know a lot of bands from around the state, and I’m looking forward to them coming in to play.  I play myself, and so do some of the employees here, so I think it would be a lot of fun to play at my restaurant.  I mean, how many places can you go to where the owner is up on stage?  We’re also looking at getting heavily involved with Georgia Southern University and the fraternities and sororities on campus.

What makes your business unique in the community?

Your Pie is fresh and it’s healthy.  The Statesboro Your Pie is in a college town with students from Georgia Southern University.  It’s the same thing we did in college at UGA.  We looked for places that were classy, and it’s a nice pre-gaming spot before we went out for the night.  I want it to be a good first date place, a great place for singles to mingle, and that sort of a scene.  I also like that it can be a great place for families to come with the kids, enjoy the gelato, and have a good time.

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

I’m planning to work with the local schools to help them out.  One day during the week, I want to have a uniform day so that any public service officials, nurses, doctors, anyone in uniform really, gets a discount.  I’m looking into what’s available and hoping to be a positive influence in the community.

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

I am looking to open more Your Pie locations once I get this location up and running and successful.  I’d love to open up more in the area and keep expanding.

Do you have any superstar employees?

The staff is the same as it was before.  They’re all college kids and the transition has been great so far.  I’m not a whole lot older than them, so I can understand the problems they’re going through and can talk on their level.  It’s been great getting to know them, and we’re going to have a strong staff under my ownership.

One of my employees is fluent in three languages.  She is a graduate and spent time in China for study abroad.  She’s very diverse and interesting.  She tutors English for a German family.

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

                                                                                                                                          

I play acoustic guitar and write country and Southern rock music.  I’m hoping to be playing some acoustic sets at the location.  Two of my employees play guitar too, so I think it’ll be cool for us to be performing at our restaurant.

Your Pie Featured in Athens Banner-Herald

Your Pie was recently featured in the Athens Banner-Herald in an article titled, "Your Pie aims to double number of restaurants in Southeast".

The article announces the franchise growth and how the brand looks to double in locations.  Also, the article talks about the number of locations in the country with reference to states, and about the expected number of locations Your Pie plans to expand to in the next five years. Founder Drew French says the brand has gotten better because of its franchisees, and franchisee Debi Huckaby added to the article stating  she joined the franchise “after ‘falling in love’ with the restaurant after their first visit” and “chose to invest in French’s pizzeria because the concept is ‘brilliant and easy to operate.’” 

Click HERE for the full article or begin reading below:

Your Pie aims to to double number of restaurants in Southeast

By: Katherine Sims

Your Pie, the Athens-based custom pizza franchise, is hoping to more than double it number of stores in the Southeast over the next several years.

There are now 17 Your Pie locations in Georgia, South Carolina, Florida and Tennessee, and founder and CEO Drew French says the company expects to open another 10 to 20 stores in the Southeast over the next three to five years. But French said he also doesn’t want to lose sight of his shop’s roots.

“We know we have a business model that is well-received in many markets,” French said. “Our goal is to be a national brand, but we don’t want to outgrow our support system in Athens.”

Quick-Serve Pizza Innovator Continues to Expand the Dynamic Your Pie Brand

Concept Originator Drew French Plans Smart Growth for 18-Unit Customized

Pizza Franchise Brand, Targets Multi-Unit Operators Looking to Get a Piece of the Pie

ATHENS, Ga. – When Drew French was a kid, he wasn't fond of sharing his pizza. And who could blame him, really? Anchovies and black olives aren't for everyone.

Like every other pizza lover, French simply wanted to enjoy his own pie, his own way. This fast-casual innovator today believes that you should have your pie your way. Therein lies the origin of Your Pie – a personal, build-it-yourself, quick-service pizza restaurant concept.

French never set out to create one of the most entrepreneurial innovations in the history of the pizza industry. But that’s exactly what he did. His long-established love of cooking naturally drew him to the restaurant industry, and he worked his way through college in the kitchens of some of the best-known franchise brands.

That his vision for Your Pie was prompted by a visit to Italy only adds to the flavor of his rich story. While on his honeymoon visiting his wife’s family in Ischia off the coast of Naples, French couldn't escape the delicious brick oven pizza made on every corner and in the backyards of his new family and friends.

“Everywhere we went in Ischia, the pizza was amazing,” French said. “It was the kind of pizza you just couldn't put out of your mind. It was the pizza that influenced the creation of the Your Pie menu, and allowed us to tap into some of our family’s favorite recipes.”

But what truly amazed him was how quickly the brick ovens could produce an artisan, customized pie. It was while French basked in the aroma of Ischia’s brick ovens that he sketched out the concept for a build-it-yourself pizza concept on a napkin. He had no idea that his rendering would revolutionize the way that a generation looks at quick-serve pizza and fast-casual dining.

It was French’s vision that quality, selection of toppings and speed could come together, and that the brick oven was the missing piece to the puzzle. French knew that a flavorful pizza made from brick ovens and delivered quickly would win customers’ hearts and create a new dining experience.

“Nobody was thinking brick oven for fast-casual,” French said. “That’s what makes Your Pie unique, and so consistently good.”

Less than six years from the launch of his first Your Pie, French’s concept has taken the industry by storm and elevated the art of pizza making. His ingenuity and innovation have sparked a number of copycats to attempt a knock-off of Your Pie. Some run their pizza through toasters or across conveyors, which doesn’t come close to delivering the taste of Your Pie. Despite the “growth” in this segment, the Your Pie quality never has been duplicated. Commitments to quality product and a proven process are the Your Pie brand’s key differentiators.

“Pizza makers talk about using the ‘best-quality’ ingredients,” French said. “But you've eaten those pizzas, and you know their quality standards. Our thinking is that quality is our only standard. At Your Pie, we want everyone to have exactly the pizza they’d like to eat, and we want each pie to provide a great experience.”

In 2008, at 24, French brought the concept and its business plan to a local bank. The bank said no. But his father said yes. Shortly thereafter, French opened his first store in Athens, Ga., and had opened two others nearby in the University of Georgia’s hometown within two years. With its concept proved and refined, Your Pie today has 18 restaurants located throughout the southeastern United States. The company plans to add eight franchise restaurants in 2013. Opting for smart growth to preserve the quality of the brand, French’s goal is to identify multi-unit operators to join the franchise system and scale from the regional base already in place.

With a franchise fee of $25,000 and total investment averaging $350,000, a Your Pie franchise includes pre-opening development assistance for site selection and analysis, lease negotiation, architectural layout and restaurant design, comprehensive restaurant build out, four weeks of training, and full marketing and communications support.

“Without question, we aspire to be a globally admired brand,” French said. “But we’ve seen plenty of ways not to grow a pizza franchise, and we’re committed to best practices. We will become a national brand in the next two to five years, and believe we have the wherewithal to become an international brand in the next 10 years.”

The path to that growth runs through French’s kitchen, where in addition to creating new combinations of pizzas, fresh-grilled Panini sandwiches, salads and Italian-inspired gelato for dessert, the emphasis is on constant improvement and raising the bar on quality fast-casual dining.

“We’re not trying to copy anyone,” French said. “There’s an art to making pizza, and we’re committed to the artisan approach and customization. I believe that Your Pie will maintain a competitive advantage over everyone making pizza – whether in the quick-serve or traditional space – by doing what we do best. We just do pizza better than anyone else.”

ABOUT YOUR PIE

Your Pie is the world’s originator of the quick-serve, brick-oven, customized personal pizza concept. Your Pie owner and originator Drew French tapped his restaurant background and knowledge of the conveyor-driven quick-serve and married it with brick oven technology to create the highest quality pizza available at incredible speed. Drawing from family recipes from the island of Ischia, Your Pie uses only fresh ingredients, homemade pizza sauces and salad dressings, and offers vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free pizzas, as well as traditional pizzas. Customers who dine at Your Pie have come to expect a custom-made and delicious pizza delivered to their table well within 10 minutes of ordering – the definition of fast casual. As a result, the Your Pie brand is synonymous with success and a fan favorite of families in the communities it serves. For more information about Your Pie or franchising opportunities, please visit www.yourpie.com.