Your Pie featured in Nation's Restaurant News

Your Pie was featured in the November print edition of Nation's Restaurant News sharing the inception story of the Your Pie franchise concept by Drew French. Currently in the fast-casual marketplace, the down-the-line pizza segment is growing quickly and Your Pie was one of the first major players in the industry opening the first location in Athens, Georgia in 2008. Since opening their first restaurant in Georgia, Your Pie has expanded into Tennessee, Florida, South Carolina and North Carolina and are actively looking to grow into new states across the country.

See the PDF article online here.

Industry Veteran Ken Caldwell Joins the Your Pie Executive Team

Proven Franchise Expert Set to Steer Growth of the Originator of the Down-the-line Pizza Category

ATHENS, Ga. – Your Pie, the originator of the down-the-line pizza category, continues to grow and get stronger.

Ken Caldwell, one of franchising’s best known and most successful developers, has joined the Your Pie team as the Vice President of Development, the company announced today.

Caldwell brings 20 years in franchising and a documented track record for growth to the brick-oven, personalized pizza brand. He will spearhead Your Pie’s expansion throughout the Southeast and beyond.

“Ken is one of those rare talents that truly understands and can convey the value of becoming part of a franchise family,” Your Pie Chairman of the Board David Barr said. “Ken brings a wealth of experience and talent to the team. We believe we have a special opportunity with Your Pie. Ken’s presence only makes us stronger, and we couldn’t be any more pleased to have him aboard.”

Caldwell began his career with Heavenly Ham alongside current Your Pie CEO Bucky Cook. Caldwell helped take the then-startup ham purveyor from 10 to 230 units before the brand was sold to competitor HoneyBaked Ham.

Caldwell remained with HoneyBaked, which had just ventured into franchising. Under his leadership, the company grew from 35 to 180 units. He also aided in the transition after the merger and operated the HoneyBaked company-owned stores.

“This was truly a very easy decision for me,” Caldwell said. “Your Pie is an exciting, exceptional brand that offers franchisees that rare opportunity to get in at the start. We have a great story to tell about an authentic concept that will revolutionize the way that people look at pizza. I couldn’t be happier to be part of it.”

No other down-the-line pizza brand in the United States has grown more steadily or has opened as many stores.  Your Pie remains committed to becoming the first in the segment to reach 100 operating stores.

With a powerful combination of company assets that includes Drew French, who conceived the concept of down-the-line pizza, a franchise-development team that ranks with the best in the industry and a solidified relationship with Georgia Oak Partners, the brand has established a formula for success to achieve and exceed goals for growth.

Caldwell is actively engaged with franchise partners interested in joining this successful brand. He is working with multi-unit franchise owners and franchise owners looking to diversify, he said. 

The brand will add locations in Atlanta, Charlotte, Tampa, Nashville, Charleston, Birmingham, and Augusta. Although the brand is looking for partners to join the Your Pie family in the Southeast, they also boast a model to support locations in other areas of the country. 

ABOUT YOUR PIE

Your Pie is the world’s originator of the quick-serve, brick-oven, customized personal pizza category. 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.

Your Pie featured in Nation's Restaurant News

Your Pie was featured in Nation's Restaurant News in an article titled, "Your Pie eyes growth in Southeast." Founder, Drew French and partner at Georgia Oak, David Barr, were both interviewed discussing the growth plans throughout the Southeast and the plans to have a total of 100 restaurants in the next two years. The article shares the potential of the brand in the industry and the type of franchise partners that Your Pie is currently seeking out.

See the whole article online here.

Your Pie eyes growth in Southeast

After investment, the fast-casual pizza chain aims to open 100 units in two years

Oct. 18, 2013 

Mark Brandau

The chain received an undisclosed investment from Atlanta-based private-equity firm Georgia Oak Partners

Drew French might have been among the first restaurateurs to start the burgeoning fast-casual pizza segment when he opened Your Pie in Athens, Ga., in 2008 at age 24. But long before that, he was developing the concept of customized individual pizzas made quickly — mostly because he was not fond of sharing his favorite anchovy-and-black-olive pizza as a kid.

Now, as the sector heats up, with developing fast-casual pizza brands like Solos, Live Basil and Pie Five, French is not as keen on sharing franchisees or customers with fellow upstarts as he is with leading the category.

“Before there was any other competition, the goal was to be a globally admired brand,” French said. 

“Everybody loves pizza, so it made sense to me that Your Pie would scale, not just out of Athens but across the nation.”

In August, as Your Pie opened its 18th location, one big admirer did come calling: Atlanta-based private-equity firm Georgia Oak Partners. The firm’s undisclosed investment in Your Pie Franchising was intended to bolster the brand’s infrastructure and capital for growing to 100 units in two years.

French remains involved in Your Pie as a franchisee of three restaurants, and the company’s chief executive, Bucky Cook, also runs one location as a franchisee. The brand also brought in Ken Caldwell as vice president of development to oversee the new growth push.

“We realized that if we really want to take it to the next level, we’ll need the capital to do it, and our experience would only take us so far,” French said. “In the first conversations I had with David [Barr, a director at Georgia Oak], we knew it would be a good fit. I felt like it was time to invest in the company and make a move to build our infrastructure and give us the ability to scale faster.”

Georgia Oak was not the first private-equity firm to do its due diligence on Your Pie, French said, but the firm made the right partner because it understood that French wanted to expand Your Pie meticulously outward from the Southeast.

“What drew us to the segment was fast casual in a broad sense,” said Barr, who leads Georgia Oak’s restaurant, retail and consumer division. “Consumers are reacting to controlling their dining experience and customization. Then we looked at pizza, and Your Pie intrigued us because they were the first, and they are the largest. Other chains boast about how many units they have in the pipeline, but Your Pie is the largest.”

Upon meeting with French and Cook, Georgia Oak quickly was assured that the restaurant brand and the investors were aligned on how the system should continue to grow organically and contiguously in the Southeast.

French reiterated that Your Pie’s internal goal is to have 100 units open by the end of 2015. The target markets are Atlanta; Charlotte, N.C.; Nashville, Tenn.; Charleston, S.C.; Tampa, Fla.; and Birmingham, Ala.

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