Your Pie Releases Eggnog Gelato Limited Time Offer

Getting into the holiday season yet? Well, we are already prepared at Your Pie! We recently launched our Eggnog Gelato in our restaurants throughout the Southeast. If you are in the mood for a creamy holiday classic with a swirl of chocolate and sweet cake, then we have just the flavor for you. But you better hurry in because this seasonal specialty will only be around for a limited time.

Find the nearest restaurant on our website!

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.

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. 

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 in Tampa Bay Business Journal

Your Pie was recently featured in the Tampa Bay Business Journal in an article titled, "With New Backing, Your Pie Pursues Tampa Bay." The article discusses the growth and expansion plans of the custom pizza franchise in the Tampa Bay market as well as the overall growth plans with the new financial backing of private equity firm Georgia Oak Partners. The overall goal for development is to have 100 Your Pie restaurants by the end of 2015.

Check out the article here.

With new backing, Your Pie pursues Tampa Bay

Margaret Cashill

Staff Writer- Tampa Bay Business Journal

Owners of build-your-own pizza chain Your Pie have plans to expand rapidly in Tampa Bay during the next few years.

Now, an undisclosed investment from private equity firm Georgia Oak Partners has furthered Your Pie’s efforts to grow, Nation’s Restaurant News reported.

Your Pie, based in Athens, Ga., has 18 locations in Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Florida, including a restaurant at 2219 South Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa.

In July, CEO Bucky Cook told TBBJ he expects to add a second Tampa Bay location in the next year, and he intends to add another 25 locations in area in the next five to seven years.

Since closing the deal with Georgia Oak this summer, Your Pie has condensed that time frame to two to four years, Cook said.


Four of Your Pie’s locations are company-owned and 14, including the Tampa restaurant, are owned by franchisees.

To continue reading, click here.

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.

To continue reading, click here. 

Your Pie featured in the Birmingham Business Journal

Your Pie was featured this week in the Birmingham Business Journal with their details for expansion in the market, looking to add 8 to 10 restaurants by the end of 2015. The article was titled, "Your Pie targets Birmingham for 8-10 pizzerias," and was built from the interview with Vice President of Development, Ken Caldwell. Your Pie also looks to have 50 locations across the state of Alabama and shares franchise costs associated and information about opening a Your Pie franchise. 

Click here to visit the article online. 

Oct 1, 2013, 8:22am CDT

Your Pie targets Birmingham for 8-10 pizzerias

By: Ryan Poe

Your Pie, a Georgia-based pizza franchise, is scouting for local franchisees to open a total of 8 to 10 stores in Birmingham by the end of 2015.

Vice President of Development Ken Caldwell said the quick-serve franchise – like Subway, but with pizzas – doesn't have any potential franchisees in metro Birmingham yet, but already has a prospect in the Auburn area.

The group's timetable calls for franchisee agreements by the end of the first quarter of 2014, with the first stores opening the following summer.

To continue reading, click here.