Nick-N-Willy's Rolling Out

A trio of chains has been cocooning in the Pacific Northwest and Colorado for nearly two decades. Now, one of the leaders, Nick-N-Willy's World Famous Take-N-Bake Pizza, is ready to sweep across Texas as an area developer, Stephen O. Dixon, scouts for franchisees for 60 locations in 32 counties. Similar missions are underway on the East Coast, West Coast and multiple states in between by scores of area developers lined up to spread the word about the concept and make Nick-N-Willy's a neighborhood name.

"It's part of the next big thing," says Scott Adams, Nick-N-Willy's CEO, who bought the 12-shop, Boulder, CO-based chain in May 2001 after a nine-year stint of lining up area developers to plant the Quizno's flag across America. Adams started with the Denver-headquartered Quizno's when it had 18 stores and left after it surpassed 1,000.

"I recognized the passion for this product and for Nick-N-Willy's was similar to what I saw at Quizno's in the early days," Adams tells GSR. He's teamed with Richard Weil, a colleague from the mid-1980s when they worked for the Northfield, IL-based Kraft Foods Inc. Now Nick-N-Willy's president, Weil left an executive vice president's slot at Multi-Foods Distribution Co., to help take the pizza chain nationwide.

The hurdle is selling the concept to consumers in states where take-and-bake is practically unknown. Take-and-bake, Nick-N-Willy's style, means made-to-order, uncooked pizzas with fresh, hand-tossed dough and fresh-cut ingredients that are picked up, taken home and baked. "Not everyone knows what it is," Adams says. "Once they've done it, they think it's great." And, the pies come with baking tips from the grill to the oven because, he says, "there are lots of ways to bake it." A fully loaded pie takes 12 to 15 minutes to bake at home.

Nick-N-Willy's pizzas aren't pre-baked or frozen like those found in grocery store cases. Nor do they bear the hazards of home delivery. "If you've ever had a cold pizza delivered or one in a soggy box, you know what I mean," Adams says. To ensure food quality and meet the fresh-cut mandate, franchisees order supplies from a nationwide distributor picked by the parent, he says.

Adams and Weil started the brand rollout in 2002 in select markets; now it's ready to go full throttle. Forty franchise stores will open this year, of which 10 will be in Texas.

Dixon returned to Dallas in early 2003 to lead the Lone Star State expansion. Nine months later, he cut the ribbon on a Nick-N-Willy's in Richardson and last year added franchisees in Plano and Rowlett. He now has franchisees waiting to open shops along Preston Road in Dallas, Flower Mound, McKinney, Colleyville and Frisco. With a territory spanning the upper half of Texas, Dixon plans to have 60 franchise locations up and running by 2009.

Dixon says Adams' background in growing Quizno's was the convincing factor for him to become an area developer. "He's someone who knows how to build a brand and grow a franchise to a national name," he says.

Adams says there are 20 area developers working territories that match television markets. Dixon oversees a five-million population while most developers are given a three-million population base. The chain's just signed a Houston developer, Richard Schmoekel, whose wife is one of Dixon's franchisees. Franchises cost $25,000; another $175,000 is needed for set-up costs.

Adams says the goal is to have one store per 100,000 people in seven years. At last count, there were 50 stores in 12 states and 100 locations in various development stages. There are three corporate-owned stores, all in Denver.

Dixon hired Jay Ceitlin with the Woodmont Co. in Fort Worth to find grocery-anchored shopping centers that are prime candidates for his plan and negotiate five-year leases with two five-year options. A Nick-N-Willy's shop is roughly 1,300 sf of prep space along with counter and table areas so there's room for the lunch crowd.

Because take-outs, mostly after-work pickups, constitute 70% of the business, the hours are aligned to the workday: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, noon to 7 p.m. Sundays and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays. Prices vary according to market, but basically a "grab-and-go special"--a 14-inch pepperoni pizza--is $5.95 from 4 to 7 p.m. Gourmet pizzas run basically from $9.95 for a 12-inch medium to $19.95 for a 16-inch, family-size pie with nine toppings. Menus include salads, wraps and a "light" pizza.

Nick-N-Willy's competitors, Figaro's Pizza, founded in 1981 in Salem OR, and Papa Murphy's, a Vancouver, WA-based chain with 820 stores in 24 states, also plan to add locations this year. According to Internet research, food-service experts estimate take-and-bake shops account for less than 2% of the $33 billion of annual pizza sales so there's market share to be gained as grocers learned in the last five years with the steady increase in demand for their frozen lines, which rung up $3 billion at cash registers nationwide.