Husband and Wife Duo Team Up to Bring Toppers to Fort Worth
The big pizza chains serve their purpose: mediocre food; mediocre promises; mediocre connections.
Toppers Pizza, a 44-unit eclectic pizza delivery franchise brand, doesn’t follow those characteristics. To prove its tasty promise to consumers, Toppers will celebrate this reprieve with a huge grand opening celebration unmatched by the big guns at its new location in Fort Worth – marking the brand’s first opening in Texas.
On August 22, Toppers will open its first location in the state of Texas in Fort Worth (2911 West Berry Street). To celebrate the brand’s arrival into Texas, Toppers will host a grand opening event on September 8, and will give the first 50 guests in line free food for a year and reward fans that day with prizes and giveaways (fanatics should watch facebook.com/toppersrocks for details).
“When we open a location, it truly is a celebration. No fake grand openings with boring ribbon cuttings. We go for the grand slam with the way we open, the way we connect with our customers, and the tastes we offer on our menu,” said Scott Gittrich, CEO of the emerging chain and former Domino’s Pizza delivery driver. “Trust me; I quickly learned what not to do with our customer bonds. This is their party, not ours.”
When Gittrich decided to rebel against big box pizza chains, he did so with a methodical vision to test and test again every aspect of his pizza-concept. Starting off with the simple goal of recapturing the magic of a made-from-scratch pizza in a sea of cookie cutter chains, Gittrich laid the foundation for his vision. Nearly 20 years later, his Whitewater-based pizza brand is showcasing its growth potential, as it now comes armed with 44 locations and an incredible average unit volume ($932,761) plus average per unit net profit ($131,341).
Along with its ability to tap into the most influential demographic, 18-34 year olds, Toppers has made a name for itself as innovators of unique menu items. Toppers was the first delivery brand to capture the cheesy bread marketplace with its famous TopperstixTM. Toppers has never shied away from innovation with its Mac ‘N Cheese, Potato Topper, Cool C-B-R (Chicken-Bacon-Ranch), and Hangover Helper House Pizzas, Buffalo Wings, Quesadillas, Grinders, and dozens of other menu items. Differentiating itself from the competition, 70 percent of Toppers’ sales come from items not traditionally found on competitors’ menus.
The Fort Worth location will be the first Toppers Pizza location owned and operated by Heidi and Jim McGregor. Heidi works in pre-hospital sales for one of the world’s leading medical technology companies and Jim currently owns an ambulance dealership called Professional Ambulance. After recognizing a lack of late-night food delivery options, the couple saw the value in bringing Toppers to the area, marking this as their first venture into the restaurant industry.
The new Fort Worth location is part of a larger growth strategy for Toppers Pizzas’ expansion beyond its core Midwest markets. Toppers seeks to open an additional five to six locations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in the next 2 years, and has plans to open 50 throughout the state of Texas. “The Dallas Fort Worth market is the ideal location to spearhead growth of Toppers in the state because of its dense population and vibrant culture,” said Mark Cairns, Director of Franchise Development for Toppers.
Beyond Fort Worth, Toppers’ 2012 footsteps are focused on its exponential growth plan to reach 150 restaurants by the end of 2015 and 500 by 2020. The company already has 30 new locations under contract to be built by the end of 2013. Currently, Toppers has 44 locations in Wisconsin, Kentucky, Ohio, North Carolina, Illinois, Indiana and Nebraska. Upcoming openings include locations in Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, and Missouri.
“As we grow, like a balloon, out of Wisconsin and into surrounding states and then nationwide, we want to maintain a stronghold on top-tier franchisees. By doing so, we can maintain our core culture, our brand evolution, and our methodical growth pattern,” said Scott Iversen, Toppers Pizza Director of Marketing , noting that the new Fort Worth Toppers features the brand’s newest blueprint with an updated, vibrant, “chill”-friendly atmosphere.
When the big chains are down, Toppers has remained up, taking names and gripping its share of the $40-plus-billlion pizza industry. In 2011, Toppers increased average unit volumes and system-wide sales, opening four stores with 30 more under contract. Why the upswing?
“The reason for our success is simple, meaning that we are not one of the ‘Wal-Marts’ of the industry. The big chains have lost identity and brand connection,” Gittrich said. “Our customers are fanatical about our brand. Our quirkiness and edginess has given our brand character, so we have been able to continue our growth and bonding with an untapped national demographic: the 18-34-year olds.”
Toppers Pizza franchisee Nathan Leder was recently featured in The Grand Rapids Press. The article highlights Nathan Leder opening Toppers in Grand Rapids at 947 Wealthy St. SE this June or July. Nathan also mentions his past experiences with Taco Bell and how he transitioned to Toppers. The article also mentions Toppers demographic and the different menu items Toppers offers.
Toppers Pizza was recently featured in the Chicago Sun-Times Local - Oak Leaves. The article talks about how Toppers Pizza will be opening a location in Oak Park. Chris Cheek talks about how Toppers got its start in Champaign, that the Toppers
location closed in the mid-‘90s and that the company is now
headquartered in Wisconsin. Furthermore, the article talks about how
Jackie Apkarian hopes to open this location by the end of the year and
that she is still looking at possible locations. 
Toppers Pizza was recently featured in the Chicago Sun-Times Voices. The article talks about how Toppers Pizza will be opening a location in
Wrigleyville at 3404 N. Sheffield in August. Chris Cheek talks about how
Toppers got its start in Champaign and that Toppers is looking for
areas with a lot of night traffic, foot traffic and nightlife in Chicago
to open. Furthermore, the article talks about how this is one of eight
stores that will be opening up in Chicagoland this year and that the
first will be opening up in Mount Prospect.
Toppers Pizza Owner, Denise Downing and Toppers team member Abby Laas were recently featured in The LaCrosse Tribune. The article focuses on Abby Klaas celebrating her 10th year
with Toppers. Abby discussed how much she enjoys working at Toppers and
her responsibilities as the primary dough maker for Toppers. Denise
Downing also discussed how much Abby has grown over the past 10 years.
Toppers Pizza Owner Brad Vinton was recently featured in Pizza Today. The article focuses on the art of scheduling at a pizza restaurant. Brad
is quoted about looking ahead when you’re planning out a schedule. He
touches on the use of technology to make the scheduling process easier,
especially when dealing with a young staff. Finally, he talks about
finding the sweet spot between keeping a busy staff but not letting
customer service suffer.
Denise Downing, owner of Toppers in Onalaska and La Crosse, Wisconsin was recently featured on News 19 WXOW. The segment highlighted Denise Downing and Toppers team member
Abby Klaas. The segment mentioned how Abby just celebrated her 10 year
anniversary with Toppers and is the head dough maker for the Onalaska
location. 
