The Marriage of Pizza & Wings

The company I started in 1989 was the very first restaurant chain in the world to offer the combination of Pizza and Chicken Wings for home delivery. Originally christened Side by Side Pizza & Wings, the name was later changed to 3 for 1 Pizza & Wings.

In 1989, the Pizza home-delivery industry was deeply established in North America. To all appearances, that market was saturated with competitors. Pizza Hut, Dominos Pizza, Pizza Pizza, and Little Ceasar’s were just some of the major chains that had staked out huge shares of the delivery market. Newcomers, such as 2-4-1 Pizza, which targeted the value-conscious consumer, struggled to establish themselves. In fact, 2-4-1 has still today less than 90 outlets in only three Canadian provinces, after more than 20 years of operation.

Challenging the market dominance of the big players would require innovation -- innovation and bravado.

I was 23 years old, and not long out of high school. I had just the sort of youthful confidence in my ideas that success would require. With the purchase of five locations across the greater Toronto area, I became the youngest president of a pizza franchise chain in North American history. That industry was no trend-surfing "dot-com" type of business tailored for a young man. This was an industry with old established players. An industry that demanded hard work.

And I had just wagered everything on my ability to make a success of it.

Things got off to a rocky start.

Regulations existed governing the use and maintenance of pizza ovens and regulations existed governing the use and maintenance of deep-fat fryers. I assumed I would have no problem securing either permit. It was my bad luck that, right at the time I purchased my stores, the government changed the rules. A special permit would now be needed if I planned to combine the two pieces of equipment! I had no choice but to wait for my permits in business limbo: Unable to unload my prize locations and unable to pay for them for lack of cash flow.

When I was finally granted permission from the city to open my stores, my locations were gone. All but one had been lost, as my money had slowly run out. The money I had worked so hard to save.

Still, I had one location and the strength of my idea -- but that was all I had.

Without even the money to pay for an apartment, I spent my nights sleeping on the floor of the store: Even in winter, sleeping beneath the oven where it was always still a little warm. Every last cent I had was invested in the survival of that little store.

That little store did more than survive.It prospered.

But, it was only one location. I had a long way to go before I could reclaim my dream of a pizza franchise business. I hadn't given up. Not even for a heartbeat. From the profits, I was putting almost everything I could aside to buy up additional locations. I was always waiting for the right moment to make my move.

The Birth of 3 for 1 Pizza & Wings

I wasn't alone in my work. I had one friend and supporter in particular, Fabio Bagherzadeh, who stuck with me through it all. Together, we worked in that store shoulder to shoulder. Sometimes quite literally; for he also spent each night in the shop, asleep on the other side of the same pizza oven. Every morning, one of us would kick the other awake and we'd get started preparing dough for our first orders of the day.

Now Fabio had a habit of starting each day with the same standard quantity of dough. He did this regardless of the normal ebb and flow of demand throughout the week. This often meant preparing more dough later in the day but, on one occasion in particular, we ended up with too much. Mid-day I realized that there was no way we could possibly use it all.

It was 1991. It was June. It was a Tuesday.

About 5 PM that afternoon, the phone rang with one of our regular double pizza orders and I carefully jotted down the customer's requirements. It so happened that, in addition to our normal two-for-one pizza policy, our store ran a weekly, unadvertised promotion whereby a single item, selected from overstock, was given away to regular customers for free. Some weeks it was free drinks. Other weeks, free wings. Our regulars had come to expect an occasional free item thrown into their orders.

As I was about to hang up on this particular customer, she added, “And what am I getting for free tonight?”

Thinking of our extra dough, and not wanting it to go to waste, I quickly replied, “Oh today you get a free Pizza!”

Without missing a beat, the customer joked, “So today I'm getting three for one!”

It was like electricity had shot through me. All the hairs on my neck stood on end. For an instant, I stood stunned. Then I realized that, somehow, I'd hung up the telephone. Immediately calling back my customer, I informed her that today, her entire order was free.

That was it! That was the new business. That was the new name. That was the new angle. Three-for-one pizza and wings. How had I not thought of it myself?

Shortly thereafter, I made my move.

I closed the store for renovations and purchased a second store across town. And I did something else too, something that once again demonstrated my faith in the future of the company; I opened a call center to field customer orders to each store from a single telephone number.