Pizza franchise expands further into California after first store opened February 2007
 
EVERETT, WA (March, 2007) Garlic Jim’s Famous Gourmet Pizza®, the first and only “gourmet” carry-out and delivery pizza chain, is taking the industry by storm, further expanding into the California market. A successful and media hyped grand opening of the first California store in Valencia by franchisees Joe and Sally Brown occurred on February 7, 2007, with sky rocketing sales. The Brown’s second location is slated to open in Stevenson Ranch in July 2007, with a pending third store to open in Canyon Country. Following the great success of the first store opening, three additional locations were quickly bought by a new Southern California franchisee, with many more areas in the works.
 
“Our first month in business has produced record sales figures, and they just keep getting better,” says franchisee Joe Brown. “When I pitched the Garlic Jim’s team the value of bringing their Seattle based chain to the Santa Clarita Valley, we all saw the potential and knew it would be a perfect fit. The proof is in the sales!”
 
The three additional locations, purchased by franchisees Issa and Jamal Shehadeh, will be located inChino Hills, Pasadena, and Rancho Cucamonga, in Southern California. The Pasadena location will open in about six months, with the others to follow shortly after. “I heard about Garlic Jim’s through my daughter that lives in Washington where Garlic Jim’s is based,” says Jamal Shehadeh. “She was very impressed with the franchise system and obvious local popularity, and urged me to check out the franchise opportunities. I had been researching other businesses and Garlic Jim’s stood out among the rest as being the best opportunity I’d found.”
 
This rapid expansion into the California market adds momentum to Garlic Jim’s national development plan. Garlic Jim’s locations currently are found in California, Oregon, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Washington with franchise agreements in place in New Jersey, Dallas, Denver, Florida, Tennessee and Nevada.
 
“Joe and Sally Brown’s vision for California expansion mimics our ideas for national growth and is an enormous value to our company,” says Dwayne Northrop, chairman and CEO, Garlic Jim’s. “California has been waiting for a quality ‘gourmet pizza’ option with quick delivery, and we’re fortunate the Browns and Shehadeh’s are on our team. We are now working to bring Garlic Jim’s to every market in California!”
 
ABOUT GARLIC JIMS
 
In the $33 billion dollar-a-year, highly competitive U.S. pizza industry, Garlic Jim’s Famous Gourmet Pizza is proud to be the first pizza franchise to focus on quick delivery pizza made fresh with gourmet toppings. Garlic Jim’s in-store system and team member training allows them to make pizza in 20 minutes or less “from order to out the door,” thus pioneering the concept “Gourmet, Right Away.”
 
At Garlic Jim’s the term ‘gourmet’ signifies more than just the finished pizza – it refers to the finest ingredients: fresh packed sauces, fresh 100% whole milk mozzarella and fresh dough made daily, where the customer can certainly taste the difference. Garlic Jim’s offers customers two crust choices; hand thrown thick crust, made with parmesan cheese and buttermilk, or garlic thin & crispy, four cheese options; mozzarella, cheddar, feta and parmesan, five sauces; classic red, basil pesto, zesty chipotle pesto, Smoky BBQ sauce or olive oil, and a variety of meats, vegetables and gourmet toppings such as roasted garlic, marinated artichoke hearts, corn salsa and sun dried tomatoes.
 
With gourmet pizzas such as Nutty Chipotle™, zesty chipotle pesto topped with spicy sausage, pepperoni, red onions, tomatoes and cashews, Jim’s Gourmet Garlic™, basil pesto sauce, marinated artichoke hearts, roasted garlic, sun dried tomatoes and feta cheese, and Chicken Bacon Ranch, premium chicken, bacon, cheddar cheese, tomatoes, red onions and creamy ranch sauce, Garlic Jim’s is putting a new spin on pizza. “We’ve gone out of our way to source the best ingredients available to create our specialty pizzas and as a result we also have the best tasting pepperoni pizza you will ever find”, says Smith.
 
Garlic Jim’s has grown from two open units in 2004 to 36 open units and 93 franchises sold in 2006.  In addition to current locations in Oregon, Arizona, California, Pennsylvania and Washington, Garlic Jim’s has units under development in New Jersey, Colorado, Florida, Tennessee, and Texas. With projections of doubling in size in 2007, Garlic Jim’s is sure to become the fastest growing gourmet pizza franchise in the country. For more information on Garlic Jim’s pizza and franchising, visit their Web site at www.garlicjims.com, or call 866-918-jims (5467).