By Ben Coley
Little Caesars has completely revamped its unit growth story.
After shuttering a net of roughly 170 restaurants between 2018 and 2022, the pizza giant has rattled off net growth of 43, 65 and 93 units over the past three years. Only Domino’s has opened more U.S. restaurants in this span among pizza peers.
Finishing 2025 with 4,374 domestic locations, Little Caesars is the third-largest pizza concept in the country, behind Domino’s and Pizza Hut. Meanwhile, according to Little Caesars’ FDD, it projects 108 franchise and 10 company openings in 2026.
“What we’re hearing from our franchisees as well as new franchisees that we’ve brought in, in the last six to 12 months, is obviously the long-term stability, operational simplicity that we offer, the flexible growth opportunities, scalable systems, and we have a very strong valued positioning,” says Bryan Ketelhut, VP of franchise and business development. “And then our support systems. Being family-owned, we support our franchisees and really hold their hands throughout the whole process, whereas, I think there’s not a lot of brands out there that can say that nowadays.”
Despite growing construction and commodity costs, ongoing geopolitical issues, and volatile gas prices, franchisees’ interest in expansion hasn’t wavered, according to Basil Kazepis, the brand’s national vice president of development.
One of Little Caesars’ most attractive offerings is its flexibility. Depending on real estate availability, operators can open freestanding drive-thrus, endcap drive-thrus, or an inline unit. Additionally, last year the brand unveiled its Elev8 prototype, the company’s first major refresh in more than a decade. The design supports off-premises sales, lowers buildout costs, and simplifies operations. All new units have the look, and existing stores are being remodeled.
“We can leverage and move with the times,” Kazepis says. “Certain markets, your real estate costs have escalated more than others, and we can pivot to something that is more tailored to what that market would afford us to do. It’s exciting to continue to do that.”
Another major project is Little Caesars’ self-service concept. Customers can either order ahead through the app/website or grab items from warming stations, scan them, and pay at a self-checkout kiosk. The first opened in Rockford, Illinois, late last year. A second recently debuted in Dearborn, Michigan.
It’s a sign of constant evolution for Little Caesars—all for the sake of customer convenience. In 2017, the brand launched Reserve-N-Ready, allowing customers to order ahead and pick up their pizzas from a heated station called the Pizza Portal. In 2020, the chain added delivery nationwide via DoorDash months after the pandemic began. More recently, the concept has delved into robotic and drone delivery companies.
Kazepis emphasizes that the cashierless concept is still in a testing phase but adds that Little Caesars is “excited to try something new and innovative as we always are.”
“It’s fast, convenient, and self-serve hot and ready, which is fantastic,” Kazepis says. “And a certain demographic doesn’t even like to talk to anybody anymore, so they really don’t have to talk to anybody. They walk in, get the pizza, and put it on this innovative panel that checks them out, and they go on their way.”
Little Caesars’ growth is coming from a mixture of existing and new multi-brand franchisees. One recent example is CMG Companies, a Plano, Texas–based operator, which has a presence inside Allen Fieldhouse, home of the University of Kansas’ basketball and volleyball teams. CMG oversees more than 60 Little Caesars, in addition to other brands like KFC, Taco Bell, and Sonic.
“We have opportunities for everyone,” Ketelhut says, “whether it’s a single-store operator all the way to a 100-plus-unit operator. I think our sweet spot is really that two to 10-store operator from other brands that can build the scale of markets that maybe they’ve already built out their other concepts in, and there’s room for growth with us.”
Little Caesars’ recent growth success comes amid major struggles in the pizza segment. On Tuesday, Yum! Brands officially announced it was selling Pizza Hut for $2.7 billion after years of sales declines and hundreds of store closures. Papa Johns, which has gone through its own shares of missteps, is reportedly in talks with Irth Capital Management to go private as well. The fast-casual pizza segment has struggled as well, with Blaze Pizza undergoing a CEO change, Pieology entering bankruptcy and MOD Pizza being acquired.
Kazepis attributes Little Caesars’ tailwinds to industry-best tools in analytics and real estate that look at mass mobile data, potential cannibalization, and how potential sites fold into a marketplace. The next step is exploring how AI can help augment the process.
“Everyone is probably in the feeding stages of looking at that,” Kazepis says. “How can we leverage those analytics a little bit better? At the end of the day, particularly on the real estate front, the people aspect, the relationship aspect is not going to be replaced. However, those that do not augment what they do with AI, I think will find that it’s a little bit harder than when competing with folks that do so. We’re going to continue to be at the forefront of all those things using that technology, using that mass mobile data, etc. to really hone in on what will be the best site within a particular trade area and continue to do that going forward.”
Kazepis and Ketelhut both believe the brand is in good shape moving forward because it has operational clarity and proven systems for franchisees and longstanding value-oriented menu offerings for customers.
This article originally appeared on QSR.com, PMQ Pizza’s sister publication. Click here to view it.
