Garlic Jim’s Famous Pizza promises its customers delectable, gourmet pizza with a delivery time of about 20 to 25 minutes. They are in a competitive market with the top chains in the country, but have only been in operation since 2004 and, according to President and CEO Dwayne Northrop, their gourmet pizza is not just a place to park toppings. “A true gourmet pizza starts with crust, then sauce, then toppings, then cheese,” Dwayne said. “Our pizzas taste better. We use 100 percent whole milk mozzarella, gourmet ingredients (tomato sauce, not paste), fresh vegetables and meats instead of frozen, and our crust is delicious, hands down,” Dwayne said.

FROM EXPERIENCE PREVAILS GREATNESS
For Dwayne, the concept of opening his own pizzeria goes back about 10 years ago at a time when he was managing multiple Domino’s stores. He said he was looking to buy a Domino’s franchise and a friend asked, “Why Domino’s?” to which he had no clear answer. “I just wanted my own store. I wanted to make a better pizza. It didn’t have to be Domino’s, that’s just what I was familiar with,” Dwayne said. “I needed to dispel the myth that you can’t make a gourmet pizza with a conveyor oven. If we were going to do high-volume, we had to use these big Middleby Marshall commercial ovens that will do 200 pizzas an hour. That’s the kind of volume we needed.” Dwayne said the inside of Garlic Jim’s kitchen is comparable to that of Domino’s or Papa John’s, a setup that he says is brilliant. Since Garlic Jim’s is run by a seasoned team of pizza veterans, they have been able to compete with the large chains in volume, delivery time, and taste.

SAMPLING SELLS SLICES
Garlic Jim’s currently has 23 restaurants operating in Washington, Oregon, and Arizona with sales at each store averaging over $12,000 a week. Dwayne said the best marketing plan they found was used with the very first store, which opened in March 2004, in Bellevue, Washington, and other stores successively. “We actually reach people in the community by setting up samplings in front of different businesses—Blockbuster Video, apartment complexes—and hand out slices of our pizza,” Dwayne said. “Giving free pizza to radio DJ’s always gets our name mentioned, but we aren’t doing too much advertising, besides a few local radio spots. We don’t want to play the price game with our competitors, so we simply don’t send out books of coupons. We are in the pizza business—no pasta or sandwiches. Our pizza speaks for itself, and over the top chains, customer feedback is 90 percent positive.” Ten more stores are in construction in California, Philadelphia, and New Jersey and 65 franchises have been sold in total. Dwayne said expectations are high that these stores will clear the $15,000 mark for the first week, in accordance with the last 11 stores.

Garlic Jim’s franchisee Bill Volm has opened three stores in the Portland, Oregon, market, and has two more in construction. He said the best marketing tool for him has been giving out free samples to all the apartment complexes. Dwayne said Garlic Jim’s grassroots marketing plan is the main reason the stores open with such success. “In the earliest part of the pre-open weeks, usually nine or 10 weeks ahead of time, we go around and talk to apartment managers about feeding their residents and staff. The key is not just sampling, but sampling before we open. It creates a buzz and people can’t wait for us to open. People tell their friends, and they say ‘Hey, I had a slice of pizza and it was great. I can’t wait until they open’. The day the store opens, there’s a line out the door, and everybody sees that. Everybody likes a busy place, so you own the town from day one,” Dwayne said.

“We have a move-in package that we work with all the apartment and condo units where they give the person that moves in a free pizza,” Bill said. He also said that prior to opening, he sends a crew of people out, since all the kids want extra hours, and they hang 2,500 to 3,000 door hangers a week. “That’s the first step,” he added. “Once they taste the pizza, they’re sold right there.”

Bill has been able to get involved in the community too, which is another step in getting people to taste the product. “On Monday nights, we give three dollars of every pizza sale to the ‘Partners of Education’, which goes to different groups in the schools—sometimes the band, sometimes the football team or other sports. We don’t make much money on those nights, but again, if we do a good job, we believe you’ll buy another from us sooner or later,” he said.

WHAT IS GOURMET?
Dwayne said doing high-volume business was the focus of Garlic Jim’s, along with fast delivery and a great tasting gourmet pizza. Their slogan, “Gourmet Right Away,” is the epitome of what Garlic Jim’s is doing. “A lot of people call artichoke hearts and pesto sauce gourmet, but ours goes beyond just the toppings,” Dwayne said. “When we first started kicking ideas around, we realized that the crust was going to be the foundation of the gourmet pizza. When Papa John’s or Domino’s delivers a pizza and our guy delivers a pizza, and they all get there within 20 minutes, our crust had to taste better.” With the help of his business partner, Craig Roberts, they developed a dough, both for crispy thin and hand-tossed, that would go through a conveyor pizza oven in five or six minutes. When developing a crust, they even went so far as to drive the pizzas around for 15 minutes to be sure the crust wouldn’t go soggy. Dwayne admitted that although there were many trial and errors, they were able to create two delicious crusts—a thin crust with a little garlic in it and a hand-tossed with parmesan and buttermilk, or as Dwayne put it, “It’s not just flour and water…it tastes good. You want to eat the crust.”

They use 100 percent whole milk mozzarella with no extra mix-ins or cheese combinations, as opposed to pizza cheese. Dwayne said the cheese is also an important factor because dressing a pizza with gourmet toppings on a plain crust with pizza cheese doesn’t constitute a gourmet pizza. Garlic Jim’s gets their fresh mozzarella from Sorrento Cheese.

COMPETING WITH THE BIG GUYS
“If your customer service and your staff is doing a great job, and you’re honest with your customer, telling him the pizza will be there in 25 minutes, and arriving in 25 minutes, that’s the best way to compete and keep customers happy and keep them coming back,” Bill said. “For me, I wanted to be a better pizza at a great price, but it’s a little tough to keep up with the big guys because they’re all over the radio and the TV—to me, it’s a marathon, not a sprint. And that’s what I tell all my employees. If we do a great job and keep our customers happy and our product stays very good, we’ll win in the long run.”

Bill said his stores are doing great, selling about 350 to 400 pizzas on a Friday night. With an average of $15,000 a week, it is easy to see that Garlic Jim’s has a special product to offer. Something a little different and something good that works. Dwayne says that they are expecting even more business once they establish enough locations in each market to make television advertising worthwhile.

Bill admitted that the pizza business isn’t complex. “It’s a simple process, and if you manage it right, you can be very successful.”