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In this episode of the Pizza Marketplace Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace, talks to Mike Burns, CEO of &pizza based out of Washington, D.C.
The brand was founded in 2012 by Michael Astoria who's still involved with the brand today. Astoria traveled the country and found D.C. was a blank slate and ripe for a gourmet pizza brand.
"Really, there wasn't a staple pizza here in D.C.," Burns said in the podcast. Astoria built one shop, unsuspecting that it would take off.
Burns said the brand got "too corporate" and lost the edginess it was known for after Astoria stepped away from &pizza in 2018. He came back into operations, but then the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Astoria wanted to stay as the creator and founder, but didn't want to run it on a daily basis.
Enter Burns, who joined about a year and a half ago.
"It's been everything I thought it would be," Burns said. "It's a really fun brand and we're just trying to kind of bring it back to its roots of the fun, urban-centric college campus brand when it first started."
The brand has begun franchising. Burns said &pizza wanted to stay corporate for a long time thinking it could grow faster and the leadership team could control the brand.
Burns said he believes &pizza should have franchised six or seven years ago when it was at its peak. "It's such a cool, fun brand," he said. "Everybody loves it. There's a need for it in the market. Potential franchisees have been reaching out for years trying to franchise this brand, and to me to be at 45 restaurants, or 46 with a couple of airport units, is a shame."
To learn more about &pizza's franchising efforts and how it has increased business listen to the podcast above in its entirety.
