Collingwood, ON – Topper’s Pizza, a thriving 35-store franchise business has been short listed as Canada’s best family run business – an award that is handed out each year by the Canadian Association of Family Enterprise (CAFÉ). This comes in the wake of winning the family business of the year award late last year by the CAFÉ Georgian Bay district.
In winning the regional award, Topper’s was recognized for its remarkable transition from a small family bakery at the turn of the century, followed by a single pizza store in the 60’s, to the current Ontario-wide operation with over 700 employees.
Remarking on the recent award and being nominated as one of the best family-run businesses in Canada, Topper’s president Keith Toppazzini attributes much of the company’s success to his own family values of perseverance. “Over the years, we’ve learned hope to cope with some pretty brisk competition. Initially, it was the family bakery up against the major grocery stores… then it was finding a way to grow a single location pizza store into a strong regional chain that today is almost twice as profitable at the store level as the industry average.”
Toppazzini adds that the company’s family values have spilled over into the strategic partners who run the store’s franchises. “Virtually all of our franchisees are family-run businesses as well… so on the one hand we’ve transcended the typical family business and become a much larger corporate entity… but on the other, it’s strong family values that are shared within the organization that helps us to continue to be successful.”
The CAFÉ award for Canada’s top family-run business will be announced in late May at the organization’s annual conference.
ABOUT TOPPERS
Topper’s is a Foodservice and Hospitality Top 100 Company and has won numerous community awards for the company’s quality product. Founded in 1982 by Ron Toppazzini, nearly 60 years after Toppazzini Bakery – the family bakery first opened in Sudbury, Topper’s Pizza has grown from a successful family-run business to an Ontario-wide chain of 35 stores. Topper’s Pizza’s past and future growth is tied to the promise of providing consumers with the best-tasting pizza, on time, as promised. The company delivers on this commitment, by combining a family value system with proven management practices. For a list of Topper’s locations, go to www.toppers.ca and click on the ‘Store Locations’ tab to the right of the page.
