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Feature Article, October 2004
Upper Crust
Arizona-based pizza buffet operator Eatza Pizza pushes into mainstream world of national chains.
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The pizza buffet at Eatza Pizza allows for quick service.
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Mom–and-pop restaurants have their place, but that place is no longer on the map for Eatza Pizza. The all-you-can-eat quick service pizza restaurant was founded in Phoenix in 1997 and began franchising in 1999. And with an aggressive expansion push in the works, the company’s mom-and-pop days are long gone.
“We got to the point with twenty-some restaurants where we knew we had to take it to the next level, and we had to make it much more professional,” says President Ron Stilwell.
Stilwell heads up the new senior management team at Eatza Pizza, which possesses over 50 years of experience in the quick service restaurant industry. The company has been completely revamped since Barry Smith, founder of the VistaCare Inc. hospice chain, purchased the organization in October 2003, and has moved its corporate headquarters from Glendale, Arizona, to Scottsdale.
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A family dining at Eatza Pizza.
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Eatza Pizza’s metamorphosis includes redesigned prototype units, new store development, company-wide branding and franchisee training. Earlier this year, Eatza Pizza initiated its new branding program and expansion plan, designed to attract qualified franchise owners and introduce the new restaurant design to existing stores in Arizona, Utah, Washington, Oregon and Ohio markets.
The company set out to redevelop the concept both in image and design as well as in the types of locations it chooses. The firm also put franchise sales into high gear and since October has sold 56 restaurants in the Ohio Great Lakes area; a six-store deal in Portland and another six-store deal in Southern California.
“We’ve been able to take it to the next level and, at the same time, keep our economics in-line,” notes Stilwell.
The company tried to keep two things in place with the new design prototype — the buffet concept and the economics.
“We can typically build a restaurant from between $250,000 to $300,000 — that includes furniture, fixtures, equipment and tenant improvements,” Stilwell adds. However, we wanted a really sharp, mainstream look, where Middle America would feel comfortable coming in.”
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Eatza Pizza’s interior allows for large capacity.
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So Eatza Pizza hired a design firm to help create the new prototype and re-engineer everything the customer sees, touches and experiences inside the restaurant. The restaurant went from a bare-bones space with used furniture and equipment to a brand new, stylized dining room. The designer incorporated low walls to break up the seating, installed booths around the low walls and exterior windows and put in softer lighting packages, new artwork and a new menu board.
“Now it just feels like a mainstream national chain compared to the old mom-and-pop way it started,” Stilwell notes.
Eatza Pizza currently has 23 locations in Arizona, Utah, Washington and Ohio — 18 of which are franchised. More restaurants are under construction or in development in Arizona, Utah, Ohio, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Washington and California. The chain has signed an area development agreement for the construction and operation of up to 50 restaurants throughout the state of Ohio over the next 10 years with Feasta Pizza, a privately held company headed by Parma Heights Mayor Martin K. Zanotti. The agreement is the first of several area operating agreements for the company.
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Eatza Pizza’s prototypical unit at a shopping center.
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The company’s strategy of choosing locations has changed dramatically since the expansion plans were put into place, going from predominantly inexpensive B and C centers to A neighborhood and lifestyle centers, most of which are ground-up developments. The ideal site is a 5,000- to 6,000-square-foot facility on an in-line endcap or pad location or in a small strip in front of a major retailer.
“One of the beauties about our concept is we’re fast,” says Stilwell. “Most sit-down restaurants have a parking problem because they take so long to turn over a table. Because it’s a buffet, and the pizza’s ready when you walk in, our average length of stay is 15 to 20 minutes. So even though we’re a sit-down, fast-casual restaurant, we’re more like fast food from that aspect.”
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Games in the dining room keep families coming back.
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Eatza Pizza’s all-you-want buffet menu features an array of freshly baked pizza selections. Specialty pizzas, such as Spinach Alfredo, Garlic Ranch Chicken and Chicken Alfredo or “Tostaco” are available. Every dine-in meal includes fresh pasta and choice of Marinara, Meat or Alfredo sauce, fresh salad bar and “pizza desserts.”
Eatza Pizza plans to expand its current restaurant total to 55 units by early 2005 and 75 units by the end of 2006.
“Now is a good time to build the company,” says Stilwell. “There seems to be a lot of boxes available, and we seem to be having good luck right now finding sites.”
— Susan H. Fishman
©2004 France Publications, Inc. Duplication or reproduction of this article not permitted without authorization from France Publications, Inc. For information on reprints of this article contact Barbara Sherer at (630) 554-6054.
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