Over-The-Top Pizza - PieWorks evolves into $6 million franchise operation - Brief Article

Mark Richard Moss is a flee-lance writer in Winston-Salem N.C.

Some people like Spain on their pizza. Others appreciate pizza sprinkled with alligator and rattlesnake. Then there are those who simply enjoy a good old-fashioned pepperoni pie.

No matter how exotic or conventional one's desires, most likely they can be fulfilled at PieWorks: Pizza by Design, a chain of North Carolina restaurants whose owners are prepping to take on the world.

Started in 1990 in the wake of a franchising deal that went sour, PieWorks has, ironically, embarked on a franchising effort of its own, one that the owners believe will succeed because of the company's concept.

"We are a specialty-pizza company that provides the broadest toppings selection available," says PieWorks' president, John Weaver, who founded the Greensboro-based company with Kelly Bohlen, vice president of finance. "There's enough interest on the part of other individuals who appreciate the distinction of the concept and are interested in franchising."

What the partners believe is exportable is a menu that carries 150 toppings, including--besides those already mentioned--buffalo sausage, ostrich, hot dogs, and andouille, a Louisiana sausage. You can design your pizza or order one of the nearly 50 pies on the menu, such as the "Pepperoni Classic" or the "DiamondBlack," which features black-bean salsa and rattlesnake sausage.

PieWorks, with six restaurants in five cities, has become a $6 million operation by serving the fantasies of pizza enthusiasts.

Franchising is "going to add a different aspect to the daily operations around here in the corporate office," says Bohlen, who has been working with Weaver for 15 years, first as his employee at previous businesses and now as a partner at PieWorks. "And I think that it's going to be very exciting," she adds.

But life for Weaver and Bohlen offered a different kind of excitement eight years ago, just after they became Pizza Miracle franchisees. Pizza Miracle specialized in nutritional pizza, and Weaver and Bohlen thought the idea would fly "But the franchisor went out of business about two weeks after we opened our first restaurant," says Weaver. "We were cast adrift. We had no guidance, no suppliers, no advertising support, and virtually no concept." Both were neophytes in the restaurant business. In 1989, Weaver had sold his chain of check-cashing stores, where Bohlen was an employee.

Dennis McCreary, who was director of training and development for the Original Diet Pizza Co., Inc., Pizza Miracle's parent, says Original Diet Pizza was about to go public when an Arizona franchisee, who operated four Pizza Miracle stores, filed a lawsuit against Original Diet. That abruptly halted the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's approval process, and investor interest dried up. "Everybody would have made money and the franchisees would have been happy" if the stock offering had gone through, says McCreary

Including the Greensboro restaurant, six Pizza Miracle stores were operating in three states in 1990, and Original Diet had sold franchise rights to an additional 20 or so investors. "A lot of people lost a lot of money," says Weaver, adding that his loss was considerable.

Left foundering without franchisor support, Weaver and Bohlen decided to try to recoup their losses by selling the restaurant. But in order to attract a buyer, they had to increase the establishment's sales.

"I had an epiphany," Weaver says of the moment he decided that toppings were the answer. When a customer told him that a national pizza chain didn't carry fresh tomatoes, Weaver says, he was astounded. "I had a number of customers who really, really enjoyed having fresh tomatoes on their pizza."

Weaver and Bohlen began offering fresh vegetable toppings. Soon after, they solicited suggestions for toppings from customers, and when the list reached 35 they found that sales had increased. Four months after opening, the partners shut down Pizza Miracle and reopened the next day under the PieWorks name.

PieWorks rang up about $300,000 in sales in its first full year, a respectable figure but not enough to compensate the owners for their investment in time and money. It was late 1991, says Weaver, and "by this time I had no choice but to go on.

By early 1992, PieWorks' toppings had grown to 100, and sales continued to rise. In 1993, with $300,000 from profits and a loan guaranteed by the U.S. Small Business Administration, Weaver and Bohlen opened a second PieWorks in Greensboro, following it later that year with the opening of a third store, in Winston-Salem.

In 1995 they added their fourth store, in Cary, a suburb of Raleigh. By the end of 1996, PieWorks bad stores operating in Raleigh and Durham as well.

The company's franchising program, begun in July, focuses on the Southeast and is searching for established franchisees with the capital to help with the expansion. "The initial objective," says Weaver "has been to identify several experienced, larger franchisees who are interested in finding a concept to overlay on their current operations."

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