Your Pie
From the JR:
Pick a pie: Cousins bring build-your-own-pizza chain to Oklahoma
By: Molly M. Fleming The Journal Record February 6, 2015
DEL CITY – The Your Pie pizza company started offering franchise opportunities in 2009 and was slowly expanding west from its Athens, Georgia, headquarters. It had only made it to Tennessee when it received a call from Oklahomans Darren Buck and Jason Martin.
The cousins had been evaluating franchise opportunities, and took an interest in the pizza chain.
Your Pie CEO Bucky Cook said the company hadn’t considered expanding into Oklahoma. It didn’t know if it would be able to get supplies to the area.
“Ideally, you don’t jump quite that far,” Cook said. “But it’s a lot harder to find really good people than it is to figure out logistics. With them having found us, we thought it really was a no-brainer.”
The company did its homework and learned that its Toledo, Ohio-based supplier would be able to get products to central Oklahoma efficiently. Once those details were figured out, Martin and Buck were given the go-ahead to bring the chain to Oklahoma.
They will open the first Oklahoma Your Pie this summer in Del City, with plans to open a second one in Moore. A third restaurant is still being determined. The Del City store’s lease is still being negotiated, so the cousins were hesitant to give the exact spot. However, it will be near Interstate 40 and the Tinker Diagonal.
Your Pie lets customers choose toppings and watch their pizzas be assembled before it goes into a brick-oven pizza. The cousins plan to offer high-point craft beer as well.
“Truly, the product quality is something I had not had before,” Buck said.
He had never tried the product until he and Martin started exploring franchises. His niece texted him a picture from a Your Pie and said it was her favorite place. About that same time, Martin read an article about the company. Buck and Martin went to Georgia to meet company representatives and try the pie.
“(When we went to a couple of stores) it just absolutely confirmed our decision because their food quality is off-the-charts good,” Buck said.
Martin agreed that the product is something that will be new to the area.
“Everyone else is sit down, order your pizza,” he said. “Here it’s more of a theater effect. It’s a whole presentation. I just think the overall experience is something no one here has had the opportunity to experience yet.”
This will be the cousins’ first time together in the restaurant business, though it runs in their blood. Their grandmother ran restaurants in Guymon for many years. Her picture will hang in the Del City store, because it was always her dream to own her own place. Buck still lives in Guymon, where he works on the family farm. Martin works in finance at the Air Force Logistics Center on the Tinker Air Force Base.
“We just grew up around (restaurants) and learned to enjoy serving people and letting them have a great experience,” Buck said.
Cook said the company would be interested in letting more Oklahomans have the Your Pie experience now that it can get supplies to the state. The chain has nine stores in development, ranging from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Phoenix. Cook expects to open 15 stores in total.
“Typically, from a logistics point of view, it’s ideal to start building a cluster in (the Oklahoma) market,” he said.
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Originally Posted by bombermwc
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