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Azzip Pizza stands out with unusual pies, focus on retention
Indiana-based Azzip Pizza has grown to 10 stores since its first opening in 2014. This hot fast-casual concept leans heavily on both its employees and its customers for success.
February 6, 2023 by Mandy Wolf Detwiler — Editor, Networld Media Group
Evansville, Indiana-based Azzip Pizza got its start in an unconventional way: co-CEO and founder Brad Niemeier was a hospitality and tourism student at Purdue University when he won a business entrepreneur contest for $20,000. His idea? A neighborhood pizza joint. Brad was already making pizzas out of his home and charging $5 for just the ingredients. Could he make a go at it full time?
If his 10 restaurants are proof, that would be a resounding yes.
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Azzip Pizza was founded by Brad Niemeier, who serves as co-CEO. Provided. |
Now in business with his brother, co-CEO Andy Niemeier, and Director of Food and Purchasing Blake Kollker, Brad favored the Chipotle method of making pizzas — building them in front of customers. The first Azzip Pizza opened in 2014.
"I like seeing it made right in front of me," Brad said in a Zoom interview. "It feels like I'm part of the process. At the time, I really didn't know of anybody doing that with pizza."
What started as a hobby has turned into a passion. "I love the way pizza crust is a blank canvas and it can go any which way you want to," Brad said. "Even in those early days we making some fun pizzas."
On the menu
The team focuses on what makes Azzip Pizza different from the bevy of other pizzerias already on the market.
Dough is made in-house every day, vegetables are cut on site, even the garlic butter and ranch dressing are homemade. Azzip Pizza has a small commissary in Evansville that serves the four stores in that market.
The Pizza of the Month program has proved to be popular with guests. Every month, the team devises a specialty pizza, like February's Mac Daddy: white cheddar mac and cheese, mozzarella, a three-cheese blend, bacon, toasted panko breadcrumbs and an optional sriracha drizzle. Seven to nine of the Pizzas of the Month are favorites returning for up to a fifth time. More than 50 pizzas have been created for the Pizza of the Month Club.
Customers pay $88 to receive each monthly pizza, a t-shirt, coupons and some swag. Azzip sold 600 Pizza of the Month memberships during December and January. It's a 150 value.
"Certain ones have a big following, and people love coming back for those," Brad said. "Our most popular one is the March Crabness, which is in March every year now. It's a crab Rangoon-style pizza."
Andy said Pizza of the Month pizzas account for 8-9% of sales, and the March Crabness accounts for 30% of sales in the month of March.
There's also a menu of Azzip Picks, like the Italian Stallion (Italian red, pesto crumbled meatballs, green pepper, red onion, mushrooms, banana peppers, mozzarella and a proprietary Zip Dust) and the Triple Double (garlic butter, house ranch, pepperoni, mozzarella, Italian red swirl of sauce and proprietary Zip Dust). The Westsider is the most popular of the Azzip Picks and has BBQ, mozzarella, pork, onion, Grippo chips and a reduction made from Ski citrus soda.
Aside from the thinner traditional crust, there's a Detroit-style crust, a truly thin crust, a cauliflower crust, gluten-free crust and a zero-carb chicken crust, giving customers plenty of choices.
"We have a unique rolling process that lends some layering to the dough, some flakiness to it," Brad said. "It gets crispy on the outside layers, but the inside layers have more of that flakiness."
Pizza is the majority of sales given that Azzip Pizza only offers pizzas, salads and breadsticks.
"We felt like we could be successful focusing on pizza and being really good at pizza and not stray too far from that," Andy said, adding that other menu items would increase the complexity of operations.
Operations
Proper processes and training help the brand maintain its continuity across the brand. "We call it the Azzip Way," Andy said. "We use that as a base for training new employees, evaluating stores by a regional visit perspective and within the stores, evaluating themselves against those standards and scoring themselves."
Customer feedback scores are also used.
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"The general managers play such a big role in maintaining that consistency at their stores," Brad added, "and adding the right culture to their teams. We try to get them together as often as we can. We do a quarterly GM meeting where they all come to Evansville and get together to learn some things. We get their feedback on what's working and what's not. It's really just trying to stay as connected as we possibly can."
Andy said the general manager is critical, as he or she touches every role in a restaurant and is critical to employee retention.
When it comes to retaining employees, Andy said there's no magic bullet, but what helped them was taking a look as retention as an important component before it got difficult during the pandemic. That includes making Azzip Pizza a great place to work. Azzip pays competitively at the higher end of the fast-casual space, guaranteeing at least $15 an hour — a high but competitive wage in Indiana.
"From there, (we make sure they have) a really good onboarding and training experience and just great people to work with," Andy added.
The brand operates an open kitchen, and customers can see the teamwork and camaraderie first hand.
Once a month, Brad said there's a home-office takeover, where the home office shows up unannounced at a store and sends everyone home with pay. The executives run the kitchen and dining room. "It's something that keeps us in tune with how a store operates, and we get to talk regularly with customers," Brad said.
Every new hire gets invited to meet the home office via video chat as well, giving management a chance to get to know them.
Outlook
Several of the stores were retrofitted to handle online ordering in 2022. The original store in Evansville was remodeled from 1,500 square feet to 3,800 square feet. A second store in Indianapolis is expected to open this summer, the first new store since the pandemic.
The brand's goal is to open two to three Azzip Pizzas a year. It is looking at major markets two to three hours from Evansville initially.
"We really like the secondary market expansion that we took early on," Andy said, "and really being able to stand out in some of those markets in Lafayette and Terre Haute and Bloomington, so I can definitely see us doing more of that."
About Mandy Wolf Detwiler
Mandy Wolf Detwiler is the managing editor at Networld Media Group and the site editor for PizzaMarketplace.com and QSRweb.com. She has more than 20 years’ experience covering food, people and places.
An award-winning print journalist, Mandy brings more than 20 years’ experience to Networld Media Group. She has spent nearly two decades covering the pizza industry, from independent pizzerias to multi-unit chains and every size business in between. Mandy has been featured on the Food Network and has won numerous awards for her coverage of the restaurant industry. She has an insatiable appetite for learning, and can tell you where to find the best slices in the country after spending 15 years traveling and eating pizza for a living.
