AT A GLANCE
WHO:
Happy’s Pizza
WHAT:
Restaurant chain whose menu
includes pizza, ribs, chicken, seafood,
sandwiches, pasta and salad
WHERE:
Corporate headquarters in
Farmington Hills, Mich.; 84 locations
in seven states
WEBSITE:
said. “We never want to have a franchisee go
into their store without being able to do
every job there.”
Trainees are evaluated on a weekly basis to
assure comprehension during the process,
and a corporate team comes in to help with
pre-opening hiring at a new location, then
stays on for shadowing purposes for another
fewweeks after restaurants are open.
A team recently stayed on for a full month
when Happy’s opened a restaurant in
Georgia, because the store was so busy and
it was the first venture into a new region,
and the company wanted to make sure that
guests walked away with a completely
positive first impression.
“We wanted to guarantee that customers
were very well-serviced in that instance,”
Rice said, “so they didn’t have a situation
where the first time was the last time with
Happy’s Pizza.”
A new concept, Happy’s Pizza and Pub, was
rolled out to a pair of locations in 2013 as a
full-service restaurant that features a
standard Happy’s menu along with
specialty items like fish tacos and craft
beers. The concept will feature both a
college campus model and a neighborhood
restaurant model, and Rice said three
locations have been awarded that will be
rolledoutwithin sixmonths.
June-July 2014
138 | BusinessWorld |
