ST. LOUIS, April 24, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Your own perfect personal pizza. Using only the freshest ingredients. Baked to order. At one low price. All in less than five minutes.
Sound too good to be true? It won't be for pizza lovers in the St. Louis area, once Pie Five Pizza opens its first local restaurant this fall.
Franchise co-owner Jamey Tasker said he and his partners at TFPie Group LLC plan to open the first of up to 20 Pie Five franchise units in the St. Louis area in the October time frame. The group, comprised of experienced restaurateurs, logistics experts and seasoned operators, spent roughly a year searching for the right opportunity and finally found it when Tasker walked into a Pie Five restaurant in Allen, Texas.
"From the first time I tried it, I knew this was the one. And when I introduced it to my partners, they fell in love as well," Tasker recalls. "The fast casual market is clearly where the growth is and the Pie Five concept in particular seems ideally suited to the demographics and restaurant landscape of the St. Louis market. The company's leadership is second-to-none, the operational model is excellent and the food is fantastic!"
TFPie Group's franchise territory spans from the five Illinois counties around St. Louis as far west as Columbia, Missouri.
"We've been scouting the St. Louis area for quite some time, and I just don't think we could have found a better group to carry our brand into the market than Jamey and his partners," said Chris Smith, Senior Vice President of Operations at Pie Five Pizza. "They understand our concept and operating model, share our passion for providing impeccable customer service and know the local area backwards and forwards. We're very pleased they are joining our team."
At Pie Five, guests can choose from more than a million combinations of handcrafted pizzas and a variety of specialty pie choices prepared in less than five minutes on one of four crusts all for one low price. The rapidly expanding chain is capitalizing on growing consumer demand for fresh dining options and artisan pizzas in stylish environments without the wait.
"Of course, the first thing you notice about Pie Five is the cool look and feel of the restaurant," said Tasker. "Then you see how fresh their ingredients are, and how quickly they can make such a delicious, made-to-order pizza. It's really impressive. But what really hit home is how committed they are to supporting their local communities. That, to me, was the clincher. We can't wait to bring the Pie Five revolution to St. Louis!"
Pie Five has been named a 2013 Top 50 Restaurant Brand of the Year, a 2012 Hot Concepts winner by Nation's Restaurant News and one of "10 Hot New Restaurant Chains from Established Brands" by Forbes.com.
The leading brand in the rapidly growing fast casual pizza segment has 13 locations in Texas, two each in Kansas and Utah, and one each in North Carolina and Florida. The addition of the St. Louis market brings the total number of franchise units to more than 170 currently under contract in Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Washington, DC.
ABOUT PIE FIVE PIZZA CO.
Pie Five is a subsidiary of Pizza Inn Holdings, Inc., headquartered in the Dallas suburb of The Colony, Texas. Pizza Inn Holdings, Inc. is an owner, franchisor and supplier of a system of restaurants operating domestically and internationally. Pie Five Pizza Co. is a fast-casual concept offering individual pizzas made to order and cooked in less than five minutes. Founded in 1958, publicly traded Pizza Inn Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: PZZI ) franchises approximately 300 restaurants and directly owns and operates 14 restaurants. For more information, please visit www.piefivepizza.com .
Ladd Biro, Champion Management 972.930.9933;
