Marc Ready owns the five-unit PieWorks Pizza by Design, headquartered in Shreveport, Louisiana. The corporate has just lately stepped up franchising efforts after streamlining its operations and expects to open two new shops subsequent 12 months.
PT: Your identify alone implies your pizzas operate as a murals. How is that carried by to the product?
MA: We’re specialty pizza, and now we have greater than 60 completely different toppings. We used a company chef for a number of years within the ‘90s to create quite a lot of completely different style profiles, working not solely presentation but in addition textures, colours and style. We see “works” as two various things: art work and (the) works of overwhelming selection.
PT: You supply uncommon toppings resembling alligator, crawfish and gulp sizzling canines. We’ve to ask: how effectively do these promote?
MA: It depends upon the place we’re. In North Carolina, we’d promote 220 kilos of alligator a 12 months or a year-and-a-half. In Louisiana, we’d promote 20 kilos in two weeks. Crawfish, in fact, is a giant vendor in Louisiana. We promote quite a lot of crawfish. Alligator isn’t actually as common because it was and I’m probably not positive why, however crawfish is steadily turning into an ingredient of alternative, particularly in Louisiana.
PT: The place most pizzerias may supply one or two seafood pies, your menu boasts 5. Why so many?
ME: Uniqueness, to begin with. Lots of people supply seafood, and we’re a Louisiana-based idea it’s very excessive in meals tradition right here. We’ve a protracted historical past of meals style and culinary sophistication. Seafood simply appears to go together with what we do and who we’re.
PT: Pieworks sits at No. 71 on Pizza Right this moment’s Scorching 100 Independents listing. How have you ever used that in your advertising?
MA: We use it in our franchising efforts and once we open a brand new restaurant. We’ve quite a lot of completely different awards that we’ve gained, and we wish to listing them, particularly once we’re introducing ourselves to a brand new market. We use the Scorching 100 particularly once we’re selling franchises.
PT: We all know Pieworks has stepped up franchising why now, and what’s your anticipated progress?
MA: We’ve been round since 1990. Though we’ve been providing franchises since 2002, we actually haven’t gone after it like we’re planning on doing within the subsequent 12 to 24 months. Primarily, I had felt that we didn’t have a powerful sufficient base. We’ve fi ve places now, and three of them are our new prototype. Simply now, I believe we’re getting a powerful sufficient base to assist franchisees no matter the place they’re. We’ve needed to evolve our idea through the years half within the altering instances, and half to develop into extra modern. We have a look at providing franchises as a technique to develop as our idea evolves.
