Mountain Mike’s Pizza LLC wants a much bigger slice of the pie.
The Newport Beach-based chain has added nearly 50 locations since it was bought by Chris Britt and Ed St. Geme three years ago, bringing its total to more than 200, all franchised.
The brand—which got its start more than 40 years ago as a gathering go-to for families and sports fans—now ranks No. 24 among the country’s largest pizza chains, according to the latest data from trade publication Pizza Today.
It reported about $182 million in gross sales last year, up some 11.6% year-over-year,
Among OC-based chains, Mountain Mike’s ranks No. 14 by sales, according to the Business Journal’s latest restaurants list.
Average unit volume was $872,000 last year.
Fountain Valley, Costa Mesa
Along with the growth push, the new ownership group has refreshed the brand, redone the company’s website and boosted corporate employment in Orange County from four employees to about 20.
Also new to the fold: a recently opened franchisee training center and headquarters sits at 26 Corporate Plaza in Newport Center, about 50 feet away from the company’s prior, temporary offices. It was previously based in Oakland before the 2017 ownership change.
The company expects between 20 to 25 restaurant openings this year; spots in Fountain Valley and Costa Mesa are among the new locations. They’ll be the second and third spots in OC, after one in Lake Forest, and will tout a new prototype design.
The Costa Mesa location is set to open first, at a site on 17th Street previously occupied by Paris Baguette in an area the two owners had been eyeing since buying the concept.
The 3,000-square-foot restaurant in Fountain Valley Square will boast a research and development kitchen, test and training center, party room, arcade area, bar counter and a pizza-salad buffet.
The company’s real estate sweet spot is generally in the range of about 2,500 to 4,000 square feet, with locations typically in strip centers.
3-Year Plan
Much more’s on the way. Britt and St. Geme have ambitious plans to grow the chain to 350 doors over the next three years.
That level of growth would place it around the top 15 in the country, a notch below Pasadena’s Blaze Pizza, according to Pizza Today’s latest figures.
“Near term, we’re putting a stake in the ground at 350 [locations], but we expect to be doing this for quite a number of years,” Britt said.
Management aims to focus near-term growth on the western United States, with the company eyeing Oregon, Nevada, Utah and Arizona as prospective new markets for entry.
Company officials said they see the potential to be even larger in the long run.
“The sky’s the limit,” Britt said.
In-Store Focus
Don’t mistake Mountain Mike’s for delivery giants like Pizza Hut, or do-it-yourself concepts like Blaze or Tustin’s Pieology Pizzeria (ranked No. 43 nationally among pizza chains with some $61 million in sales).
Company officials see a place in the market for a concept focused on quality product with dine-in ambiance.
They’re banking on, in their own marketing lingo the “crispy, curly pepperonis,” to help them earn more points among consumers, along with a renewed focus on the dine-in experience.
That runs somewhat antithetical to the current drumbeat of many restaurant operators focused around digital.
“It seems all the winds are blowing toward home meal replacement,” President and Chief Operating Officer Jim Metevier said.
“Pizza’s a commodity and ‘how can I get it quick and cheap’ … we’re not about that,” Metevier said. “That’s what really sets us apart.”
Dine-in accounts for 25% of sales, and is Mountain Mike’s largest growth area, officials said.
Other large pizza chains get upward of 90% of their sales from take-out and delivery.
Digital Push
Britt said that the volume of the company’s dine-in business could likely double without taking away from scaling the company’s carryout or mobile businesses. The latter two, he said, are also seeing their own steady growth.
On the digital front, a mobile app and loyalty program are set to launch at the end of the second quarter.
Loyalty will focus on three status levels—base camp, mountain guide and trailblazers—based on the points customers accumulate with their purchases.
The app will offer the ability to store or share gift card values similar to what other operators, such as Starbuck’s, offer.
Juice, Burgers and Pizza
Mountain Mike’s Pizza LLC was acquired in 2017 on undisclosed terms through Chris Britt’s Britt Private Capital LLC and Ed St. Geme’s Jupiter Holdings LLC, in addition to Los Angeles-based Levine Leichtman Capital Partners.
Britt and St. Geme are no strangers to the restaurant industry.
They once owned 43 Burger Kings, and also went in with Dover Shores Capital to buy Irvine-based Juice It Up in 2018.
They also knew Mountain Mike’s well: they both frequented one of the company’s locations while in college.
“It’s rare you find an opportunity with a franchised brand that’s been around for 40 years,” Britt said. “Ed and I go back to this brand to the early 1980s.”
That’s when Mountain Mike’s was a single-location business sitting at the edge of Stanford University, where Britt and St. Geme were attending.
“When [the business] crossed our desks in 2016, we sort of got a chuckle out of it,” Britt said.
“From that one-unit operation on the edge of the campus Chris and I knew from the early 1980s, had grown sort of unbeknownst to us organically,” St. Geme said of when they reviewed the business prior to buying it.
“There was a real presence and, yet, the upside … [was] so many opportunities to improve and grow and refine the brand.”
