Franchisee Spotlight: Clay and Debi Huckaby, Watkinsville, Georgia

Clay and Debi Huckaby met in college while attending Georgia Southern.  After graduation, Clay started a career in governmental affairs while Debi began a career in printing.  The two still maintain jobs in those fields while running their two Your Pie locations.  Clay, a lifelong foodie, always had an itch to open a franchise but never found just the right one.  He was able to scratch that itch after he and Debi made a trip to one of Your Pie Founder Drew French’s locations in the Beechwood area of Athens.  The two fell in love with the customizable pizza concept, the family-friendly atmosphere, and the delicious pizza. The two opened their Watkinsville Your Pie in September 2010.  They opened their 2^nd location in on the East side of Athens in February 2013.  The couple has three boys, ages 8, 13, and 16, who attend Oconee County schools.

How did you learn about the brand?

Clay is a foodie so we go to new restaurants all the time.  We’d heard about this new place called Your Pie so we went and checked it out.  Clay had always been interested in opening a franchise, and had been thinking about it for 10 or 15 years.  We went to Drew’s (Your Pie Founder Drew French) store in Beechwood and loved it!  We liked the whole experience.  We loved the customizable pizza concept, the ingredients, and the beer and wine.  Your Pie is a completely family-friendly place.  Kids love it, and that’s been a really fun part of it.

What makes your business unique in the community?

You get to make your own pizza.  It’s as simple as that.  Being able to customize their own pizza is a big deal to our customers.  We have regulars who come in 3 or 4 times a week and our managers can start making their unique and personalized pie when they see them walking down the sidewalk toward the door.  We have great employees too and we’ve been very lucky in our hiring.  We have some of the high school kids and students from UGA.

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

We do a lot of “Spirit Nights” where groups, organizations, and teams, come in and we give back a percentage of the profits to the group.  We host youth trivia nights.  We worked with Coaches vs. Cancer recently, a 3-on-3 basketball tournament, and we gave the prize of free pizza for a year to the winner.  We’re very active in our local church. 

What challenges have you overcome to get where you are now?

We, like most business owners, are constantly in a battle to keep our food and labor under control.  We gave a ton of discounts in our first year trying to get people in the doors, but we’ve had to adjust and adapt how we do things each year to make sure the experience is the best it can possibly be for our customers.

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

We just opened our Athens – East Side location in February so we don’t have any plans to open up additional locations right now.  We’d like to focus on our two restaurants and make them the best they can be.

Do you have any superstar employees?

We have two great GMs at our restaurants who are actually brother and sister.  Caroline works at Watkinsville and her older brother Grant works at our Athens – East Side location…and their other brother works at the Watkinsville restaurant with Caroline.

Forrest is a fantastic employee who we actually interviewed at the Mexican restaurant next door before we were even open.  She was in high school when she started here, and is now in college.  Forrest won the Your Pie Lineage Scholarship last year.  This year, another one of our employees, Katie Hilton, won the Your Pie Lineage Scholarship.

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

We spend most of our time with the kids.  We just celebrated our 20^th anniversary and went to Mexico for a week which was fantastic.  We also stay involved with the school council, Oconee County Chamber of Commerce, and our church.

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.