Toppers featured on NRN.com

Toppers was recently featured on NRN.com in an article titled, "Pizza players slicing up success." The article provides information regarding the rising success of pizza chains and players in the industry. Toppers Pizza is mentioned for their fun and unique toppings such as their Mac ‘N Cheese Pizza.  Click here for the entire article or begin below.

Pizza players slicing up success
By: Nancy Kruse

That blinding light isn’t a reflection of the sun; it’s the collective smile power of happy pizza makers, who started 2013 with good news. According to retail-grocery researcher IBISWorld, the supermarket frozen-pizza category has seen revenues fall nearly 9 percent over the past two years as consumers, seeking freshness, authenticity and perhaps a little adventure, abandoned freezer cases and returned to pizza parlors.

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Toppers featured in Nation's Restaurent News

Toppers was recently featured in the Nation's Restaurant News in an article titled, "Toppers Pizza ramps up growth efforts." The article discusses Toppers’ aggressive growth and strategy to have more multi-unit franchisees. Mark discusses Jennifer and Barry Friends’ deal in the article.  Click here for the entire article or begin below.

Toppers Pizza ramps up growth efforts
By: Mark Brandau

Toppers Pizza is planning aggressive growth with new franchise deals that could add 30 new restaurants to the 50-unit chain’s portfolio this year.

The Whitewater, Wis.-based concept took 22 years to grow to 50 locations, but plans could see it quadruple that unit count by 2020, necessitating a new focus on multiunit franchise deals, executives said.

The chain has inked its largest franchise agreements to date in the past few weeks, with two separate deals calling for five locations in the Minneapolis and Little Rock, Ark., markets. Since its founding in 1991, Toppers has grown via 13 corporate restaurants and single-unit franchise agreements, though several longtime operators now have built additional restaurants.

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Toppers featured Nation's Restaurant News

Toppers was recently featured in the Nation's Restaurant News in an article titled, "Breakout Brands: Toppers Pizza."  The article details Scott Gittrich, founder and chief executive, and his booming brand.

Breakout Brand: Toppers Pizza
By: Vanessa Van Landingham

Best known among its growing fanbase for menu items that founder and chief executive Scott Gittrich calls “weird,” Toppers Pizza is using its irreverent, underdog attitude and eclectic pizzas to steal share from the industry giants.

When he opened the first Toppers store in 1991, Gittrich said he was filling a void in quality and innovation that he saw in the pizza segment.

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Toppers Pizza featured in Nation's Restaurant News

An article called “Pizza chains gear up for Thanksgiving” published in Nation’s Restaurant News, which discusses Thanksgiving weekend as a big pizza sales weekend among Pizza Hut, Domino’s and Papa John’s. The reporter mentions the end of the Toppers Pizza’s “Spank Your Pizza” contest, and how the contest will wrap up right around the Thanksgiving holiday. This is a great placement for Toppers as they are mentioned among the nation’s biggest pizza chains and gives great validation to Toppers as a legitimate pizza contender. Check out a portion of the story below or read the full story here.

Pizza chains gear up for Thanksgiving Eve

While Wednesday is the start of a big sales weekend for many pizza chains, it also marks the end of the “Spank Your Pizza” contest at Whitewater, Wis.-based Toppers Pizza. The 28-unit chain for the past several weeks has hosted the contest on its Facebook page, inviting fans to create the next house pizza for toppers and have their inventions face off against the others in a tournament-style bracket. The final four contestants squared off in a semifinal Tuesday, and the winner will be decided during voting from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday.

The grand prize winner gets the pizza named in his or her honor, plus free Toppers for a year and a $500 gift card. (Read more)

Toppers taps Five Guys vet for franchising role

Nation’s Restaurant News recently published an article about Toppers Pizza’s new growth strategy moving into the next decade. Toppers plans on taking the 26-unit eclectic pizza chain to 500 units by 2020. How will they get there? With the help of experienced franchise guru, Brett Larrabee, a former member of the franchise development team at Five Guys Burger and Fries and Panchero’s Mexican Grill. Read a portion of the article below or check out the full story here.

Toppers taps Five Guys vet for franchising role
Regional pizza chain has goal of having 500 stores in 10 years

Toppers Pizza has hired a franchising expert, most recently from Five Guys, to spearhead its own expansion plans, which include growing the 20-year-old chain from its current 26 units to 500 by 2020.

Brett Larrabee, the fast-casual pizza chain’s new director of franchise development, most recently was director of New York City operations for Five Guys Burgers & Fries, which has undergone rapid expansion over the past few years. Before Five Guys, Larrabee was director of franchising at Pancheros Mexican Grill in Coralville, Iowa, and before that he was a Subway franchisee.

Larrabee said he moved to Whitewater, Wis., to join Toppers because he liked the economics of the restaurants, which in 2009 had average unit sales of $966,000 and $186,250 in profit — a margin of more than 19 percent.

“There are few opportunities that have strong economics that are consistent and viable,” Larrabee said, pointing to the chain’s 20-year track record as an asset. (Read more)