By Ben Coley
Pie Five, the fast-casual pizza chain that once numbered 100 restaurants, is now down to 17 franchised stores.
The down-the-line concept was founded in June 2011 in Fort Worth, Texas. By November 2012, the chain had signed its first franchise development agreement. The 100th location opened in February 2017, but the brand has been on a steady decline since then.
Parent company RAVE Restaurant Group said, “We believe that Pie Five units will decrease modestly in future periods,” according to an SEC filing.
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Pie Five ended Q2 2021 (the period ending December 26) with 34 restaurants, meaning the chain’s footprint has been cut in half over the past three and a half years. Since fiscal 2017, the brand has lost about 80% of its footprint.
The company’s same-store sales decreased 7.2% in Q4 2025. During fiscal 2025, it earned $11 million in retail sales, down $5.6 million, or 33.2%, compared to the year-ago period. The slide was primarily due to the decrease in store count, supplemented by a drop in comparable retail sales, the company said. The highest-volume Pie Five unit shuttered during the final week of fiscal 2024, and this unit accounted for roughly 13.6% of the brand’s retail sales in 2024.
Here’s a look at how Pie Five’s store count has trended over the years:
- End of fiscal 2017: 84
- End of fiscal 2018: 73
- End of fiscal 2019: 58
- End of fiscal 2020: 42
- End of fiscal 2021: 33
- End of fiscal 2022: 31
- End of fiscal 2023: 27
- End of fiscal 2024: 20
- End of fiscal 2025: 17
RAVE has used sister brand Pizza Inn to boost volume in Pie Five restaurants. According to a filing, the company has “attempted to strategically locate” Pizza Inn ghost kitchens inside Pie Five stores. There are currently seven of these ghost kitchens in the system, up from four in fiscal 2024.
Pie Five restaurants are typically found in inline or endcap spaces of 1,800 to 2,400 square feet and seat around 65 to 85 customers, with patio seating where available. Sales are predominantly on-premises.
RAVE said it will “opportunistically evaluate developing franchised Pie Five units domestically.”
“The rate at which we will be able to continue to expand the Pie Five concept through franchise development is determined in part by our success at selecting qualified franchisees, by our ability to identify satisfactory sites in appropriate markets, and by our ability to continue training and monitoring our franchisees,” the company said in a filing. “We intend to continue to focus on franchise development opportunities with experienced, well-capitalized restaurant operators.”
Ben Coley is editor of QSR magazine, a sister publication of PMQ Pizza. Click here to view the original article on QSR’s website.
