Sponsored by Hunt Brothers Pizza
It can be challenging for smaller, locally-owned convenience stores to compete with larger national chains. Food offerings can help mom-and-pop shops remain competitive and offer more variety with greater consistency to the customers they serve, but oftentimes this can be expensive and complicated.
Hunt Brothers Pizza is a pizza program whose goal is to ensure even the smallest operator can offer consistent, easy, pizza that communities can rely on. They do this by offering an in-store pizza oven and counter set-up that is personalized for any c–store layout.
“The original owners were four brothers and their mission was to be a blessing,” says Dee Cleveland, head of marketing at Hunt Brothers Pizza. “They wanted to serve underserved communities and food deserts where smaller cities and towns have less access to restaurant options, they wanted to bring foodservice to their communities. It’s really about doing the right thing for individual mom-and-pop shops. Our entire business model is based on our mantra, ‘keep it simple; simple gets done.’”
The simplicity of this business model and the mission of supporting underserved communities drives Hunt Brothers Pizza programs around the country. It aids small shops with everything from marketing to training customers as it strives to be a true partner.
“We make our program as simple as possible so smaller operators can continue to execute it,” Cleveland says. “Many times store owners are the only employees, so we don’t want them to have to stretch out dough or have to train over and over again. Our program is a flash-frozen dough that comes topped with cheese and sauce—the only thing operators or employees have to do is add toppings for their customers.”
This simplicity is not only apparent in the support and consistency offered to operators, but also in the reliability of price and quality for customers. “We offer 10 toppings, and our value to the consumer is we offer all toppings at no additional charge,” Cleveland says. “The charge of the pizza is consistent, whether a customer orders just cheese or they get all 10 toppings on it.”
With one program made as simple as possible and at one price, Hunt Brothers Pizza ensures the least amount of complexity with the most return on investment possible for any store of any size. “Our goal is to continue to establish ourselves as the foodservice leader for convenience stores,” Cleveland claims. “We know pizza is the number one food in the United States, so how do we capitalize on that? Hunt Brothers does not charge our c–store owners for advertising. It’s just part of what we do to support their business.”
Hunt Brothers tries to maintain a connection with the communities its partnering c–stores serve, which is why the Hunt Brothers team keeps up with social media and sponsors a car for NASCAR.
“If a store has a specific need, such as a competitor offering a Monday pizza discount, an operator can call us and say, ‘Hey, can we run this for 30 days?’ And we produce that for them,” Cleveland says. “We’ll create signage and send it to them. Hunt Brothers Pizza tries to help operators in whatever way they need help with support and shared services so they don’t have to do any heavy lifting.” Hunt Brothers Pizza offers consistency, quality, and support for customers and operators of any background by keeping it simple
By following its mission of ‘keeping it simple’ and being a blessing Hunt Brothers Pizza has been able to grow to more than 9,000 locations. While, remaining a consistent source of high-quality, tasty, pizza for customers and a reliable source of income for thousands of small business owners.
For more information on partnering with Hunt Brothers Pizza visit their website.
By Ya’el McLoud