Places to look for pizza delcos for sale

Hello all,

I have read through almost all of the FAQs and went through the first thirty pages of this forum to get some background info. I want to explore the idea of buying an under performing delco with a goal of turning the business around. I’m located in the far western suburbs of Chicago.

My thought is to look at places in the $20,000 to $75,000 range.

Please offer any suggestions as to sources for listings. BizBuySell doesn’t have much and most Craigslist listings offer almost zero info although I will respond to any that sound reasonable.

Any thoughts?

  1. These deals are for cash. I am assuming you are ready to go with your $$ and not needing financing because banks will not lend on this kind of thing and the sellers are in no position to do so.

  2. Your best bet will be a franchise rather than an indy for this kind of deal. Be prepared to go through whatever training the organzation requires.

  3. Get in touch with franichise services for Doninos, PJ’s etc and find out what you have to do. They love to have solvent new franchisees take over underperforming stores.

20K will be a dump. The equipement in a decent place will go for more than that. I mostly see these deals go for 40-70K for a place with a decent build out and equipment but ZERO profit.

Good luck. This can be a great way to go if you have the chops to turn a place around. (and some additional $$ to weather the storm until you do)

Your assumption is correct. I have cash that is more than adequate to do a deal of this kind including any conceivable contingencies. In addition I don’t ever need any income from the pizzeria for living expenses.

I’m not really interested in a franchise. Having been in business for myself almost my entire career the corporate culture doesn’t appeal to me. I’ve been retired for many years and am looking for something interesting to do. My father owned a restaurant and I ran it for a time. That experience is old now but it is still the same business.

I hear you and am an indy store for the same reasons. However, most little indy shops were put together on a shoestring and not worth buying being handicapped by crummy locations, old and inadequate equipment. The franchises will be built out to the standards of the franchisor. My own store was a PJs that failed so I went this route too (14 years ago).

If I had it to do over again, I would be willing to look at franchise operations, but only for well run, national outfits. The local Dominos here sold for 40K a couple of years ago. A pretty darn good deal.

Another idea is to get on the radar of the local commercial brokers. Sometimes you can step into a buildout and equipment of a failed location for free where the LL has taken the premises.

I would be open to buying a failed national franchise store. That would require a different approach since I do not have pizza experience.
Contacting some commercial real estate brokers would be another good idea.

When I look at stores for sale there seem to be several local franchise stores that are not making it. Those could have potential as well. Drop the franchise and just buy the assets.

Thank you for your help.

“I do not have pizza experience.”

Another good reason to go the franchise route rather than on your own. Either get some experience through working somewhere, hire experience through hiring a manager or buy experience through joining a franchise organization.

All education is expensive!

Good luck with your search.