GODFATHER'S GETS CORPORATE COMBO FOR HEADQUARTERS

Published Tuesday
October 31, 2006
BY DEBORAH SHANAHAN
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Godfather's Pizza Inc. opened for business Monday in its new Omaha headquarters, a building that for the first time brings executives and the chain's research-and-development kitchen under one roof.

Dave Soukup, director of special projects, slices pizza from oven in the new test kitchen at Godfather's.

"We believe this is a unique facility in the pizza business in this country," President and Chief Executive Ron Gartlan said during a recent tour of the just-completed building at 2808 N. 108th St.

The new headquarters, designed with room for 20 percent growth, positions the 33-year-old company for a future that company officials believe includes added emphasis on non-traditional operations such as "express" service in schools and colleges, airports and convenience stores.

Godfather's worked with PJ Morgan Real Estate and Terry Hogan of Bear Properties on the build-to-suit property that Godfather's is leasing with an option to buy.

The 24,000-square-foot building incorporates not only offices for 57 headquarters employees, but also the test kitchen, training facilities for franchisees, a taste-testing room with a separate entrance for the public and a production studio for photographing products and taping commercials.

"We're so proud of our product that we made sure our main emphasis is research and development," Gartlan said, "because if you can't do a good product and do it consistently, you're not in business."

For about 25 years, the company had its headquarters at 9140 Dodge St. Research and development was conducted at the back of a restaurant at 74th and Pacific Streets.

That sometimes created logistical problems when consultations with executives were needed, said Bruce Cannon, vice president of franchise development, real estate and construction.

And training new franchisees - which Gartlan called the key to the company's success - sometimes meant getting in the way of the people working at existing restaurants.

The new test kitchen was designed with the features of a restaurant kitchen but also of a home kitchen. It includes a "hot room" with ovens that exhaust to the outside to keep the pizza smell from the upstairs offices.

Kathy Johnson, a senior vice president, said Godfather's officials worked with Sheppard's Business Interiors to get the right combination of restaurant, laboratory and home. The R&D facility has residential-looking cabinets, counters and tile work, but also a row of heated displays that would be found at a non-traditional location such as a convenience store.

An island with seating has pendant lights that can be dimmed to simulate candlelight.

"So much of our industry is headed toward how a consumer reacts to the product in the home," Gartlan explained.

The kitchen also has a video monitor allowing cooks to be signaled when it's the right time to bring a piping-hot pizza to the production studio to be photographed. The photographs are used not only in restaurants and advertising but also in training DVDs and other materials.

Around the corner is a where consumers' reactions to different products are sampled. They will arrive through a separate entrance and be served through sliding panels without seeing how the product is prepared, since that could influence their reactions. Company officials can adjust lighting and sounds .

"One of the things we value is feedback from customers, and this is just one method for getting it," Gartlan said.

Such research has kept Godfather's in touch with changing consumer tastes, said Dave Soukup, senior director of development. Young consumers, for example, prefer their sauce to be spicier or have more "bite," and aren't afraid to try new combinations of ingredients.

Regardless of age or other demographics, Gartlan said, Godfather's Pizza consumers prefer lots of ingredients, which is why the company advertises that it sells "pizza pie piled high."

Godfather's Pizza has 45 corporate restaurants and about 1,200 employees in the field. The company has 137 franchisees who operate an additional 527 locations.

The privately owned company doesn't disclose annual sales figures but says it's ranked seventh nationally in number of locations among pizza chains.

The goal, Cannon said, isn't necessarily to be the largest pizza company but the most profitable.

Godfather's will continue to develop corporate-owned restaurants in existing corporate markets in order to maximize market share, Cannon said.

Growth on the franchise side, he said, will come through attracting new franchisees, assisting existing franchisees in their development and expanding non-traditional operations. The fastest-growing segment is convenience stores, Cannon said.

"Schools are a big part of our business, and 10 years ago they weren't," Gartlan said.

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