Shopping Centers Today

MAR 2015

Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)

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driven, and indeed such is the case with Blaze. The company has signed 30 franchisees, many of which are ma- jor franchise operators that own doz- ens of other stores. These franchisees have already committed to opening 300 units. Wetzel guesses he will sell out with 40 franchisees. Part of the reason for the fast growth has been this particular void in the im- mense pizza restaurant sector. "Pizza is a $39 billion category," Wetzel said. "Over 90 percent of Americans eat pizza once a month, and there are 71,000 pizzerias in the country. But when you look at those stores, you see they are pizza by-the-slice, delivery or fine dining. There was no one doing whole pies quick." Part of the reason for that was tech- nology. Pizzas take a relatively long time to cook compared to other fast food, especially in traditional fire-heat hearth ovens. However, newer gas-heat hearth ovens have been introduced, and this, combined with a general pal- ate shift toward thin-crust, artisanal pizza, means that cook time has not only been reduced, but can be made consistent as well. "Blaze uses a line approach," Wetzel said. "We make our dough in-house, and when you enter the line, we will press a dough ball. We put on the pizza whatever ingredients you want, and while you are paying for your pizza, it is already in the oven. The cook time is about two minutes. After paying, you get your drink, and your pizza is ready before you get to your table. Again, the linchpin for this was the hearth oven that uses gas instead of wood." The setup is very Chipotle. Blaze offers about 40 toppings, including mushrooms, pepperoni and other tra- ditional mainstays, but extending also to the more exotic, such as chopped zuc- chini or artichokes. Otherwise the menu is narrow — mostly pizza, but one can also order a side salad. Drinks include not just sodas, but also beer and wine. The restaurants typically mea- sure about 2,500 square feet and seat roughly 70. The original restaurants were all street sites, but expansion has reached to neighborhood shopping centers and malls, where the chain has been operating in the food courts and also at in-line positions. "Individual store sales are growing year over year," said Wetzel. "We are finding sales picking up speed because it is a new category. As word of mouth spreads, the units fire up. We're pro- jecting $100 million–plus in system- wide sales next year." SCT 30 S C T / M a r c h 2 0 1 5 r e T a i l i n g T o d a y

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