Papas Pizza Togo

Looking at purchasing an existing franchise called papa’s pizza togo. its a small franchise something like 70 stores, i have never heard of them but apparently the are from Georgia and have locations in North Carolina. Just wondering if anyone was familiar with the company and had any input on them.

Small market franchise concept, average pizza, with sandwiches.

Might do okay if there isn’t a decent pizza nearby. They just closed one in the next town over. I would keep looking, because their pizza isn’t great and you won’t be able to improve on it, as you’ll be following the franchise formula.

I like their marketing concept of targeting smaller markets (my strategy as well), away from the big boys, but they just don’t have the pizza to compete with a good independent.

it’s in a town with a pop. of about 7k . theres a dominos, 1 mom & pop, and 1 other but its more of a full scale Italian place. it’s also got a small buffet

Pizzachop having great pizza is not needed to make money…Operations with lower end pizza tend to be superior marketers and many do a good volume and make good money…A franchise operation will get way more bang for their marketing $$$s, therefore, that may drive some volume that their product does not…

“Operations with lower end pizza tend to be superior marketers and many do a good volume and make good money…”

Smaller markets have limited sales potential and likely won’t produce the volume required for the desired profits.

Marketing only goes so far if your product is average, ESPECIALLY in a small town. In my view, the average quality pizza shop in a small market is always vulnerable to a better quality product and operation where the owner has better margins to work with, not to mention a more loyal and enjoyable clientele.

Smaller markets are interesting.

I keep waiting for someone to move into my area with at least a fresh dough. Everybody in the hometown uses a frozen dough crust or a parbake. But there are nine mom and pops on top of a Domino’s and a Papa John’s. The population sits at about 8000 people. About 3 years ago, a Noble Romans moved in and then closed about 8 months later. Competition is fierce. Mr. Lillicr*p (really, that is his name) spent a ton of money on franchise fees, the required build-out of the store, plus he purchased all brand new equipment.

I’m not against purchasing brand new equipment all the way around, but to pay out all that cash in franchise fees and required build outs then have to follow someone else’s rules for your shop in a small town with mediocre pizza all the around to begin with, more mediocre pizza is not going to keep you in business.

If someone in my area wanted to fight the fight, they could indeed be incredibly successful at pizza, but it’d better be a really excellent product, cheap on top of that, and marketing dollars will need spent.

I’ve lived in other small towns before. Pizza shops were a lot fewer in number. But they were also independents and seemed to always be busy. In your situation, I’d advise not purchasing a franchise, but creating your own unique brand.

Perhaps this is why there isn’t good pizza there - “excellent product” and “cheap” are often mutually exclusive. If an area won’t support higher prices I don’t think it will support an excellent product.

This is true in general, but I live in a very weird place. Like I said, no one does the fresh dough. This alone would cut down on food cost. In fact, most everything comes from a local manufacturer of pizza products specifically designed for the high number of pizza shops in the area. They are extremely expensive. $2 for a 12 inch dough crust!

Interestingly, a high end Italian restaurant moved into the town next door to us–population 4000. They do pizzas on a very limited basis, and there is no delivery. Their crusts come from this same pizza manufacturer. And they advertise it as superior pizza. Unfortunately, once you taste this dough, it tastes on a consistent basis across the independent pizzerias in the are–not just like it has gone bad, but sour.

I’m not sure if anyone in the area even knows what good pizza tastes like, let alone excellent.

In any case, it is a very difficult local market to describe. Every market has its perks. My point really is before buying into a franchise, make sure the purks of the local market will support it.

I am very familiar with papas pizza as we have one in our town. they have a great theme going on inside but as others have said food is not that good. Best bet is to grab the location and ditch the franchise. Perhaps bring your own pizza recipes in. Good Luck

i agree with zeus 400…sounds like a good oportunity to grab a location for cheap and bring a new brand to the location. but i’ve never lived in a town of 7k people so not sure how their eating out habits are but doesn’t seem like much of an opportunity for customers.