Franchise Focus

How a Toppers Pizza franchisee thrives on campus life, fun

Tish Howard operates the Toppers Pizza franchise on the campus of Texas Christian University. With college students as built-in clientele, the pizzeria has an ethos of fun.

Photo: Toppers Pizza

April 25, 2024 by Mandy Wolf Detwiler — Editor, Networld Media Group

Tashina "Tish" Howard didn't set out to be a Toppers Pizza franchisee — but she worked for one while putting herself through nursing school.

She had moved to the Green Bay, Wisconsin area to get her registered nursing degree and she and her friends ate at a local Toppers quite a bit. She realized she needed a job to help with tuition and the cost of living so she applied to work at the local Toppers in 2011 and started as a delivery driver.

"Toppers was just different," she said in a phone interview. "I just loved it. … I've always liked being a driver, so being a delivery driver just worked perfectly. Our core values at Toppers really just kind of matched what I'm about. And the fact that Toppers says 'Have fun!' as one of their core values that just really resonated with me."

Howard got her degree, but never gave up Toppers. Four years into nursing, however, she realized how much she loved the Toppers brand. So she took a step away from nursing and decided to work her way up in the Toppers management ladder. She went from a driver to a store manager and general manager and then served as an area supervisor. She then became an area training supervisor and later a senior area training supervisor.

Aaron Johnson, who owned several Toppers in her region, asked if she'd be interested in moving to Texas to start a franchise. Johnson told Howard about the Toppers location on the campus of Texas Christian University, and the timing was perfect. Co-owning a Toppers franchise with Johnson and his partner, C.J. Bast, seemed like the next step in Howard's Toppers journey.

Howard kept her job as an area supervisor in Wisconsin while at the same time running the Toppers TCU location, which she bought into last February. She flies back and forth every week.

TopperStix are popular on campus. Photo: Toppers Pizza

Core values

Part of what drew Howard to the Toppers brand is its core values. There are five: to have fun, to give customers what they want, bring it with passion, build something special and to live with integrity.

"Obviously to have fun," Howard said. "You don't get these minutes back. You don't get any of it back. Many people, they spend all these days and weeks and years and they're unhappy. … Me, I get to go to work today. I get to have fun, and I get to work with people who live with integrity (and) who want to do the right thing, who want to work together (and) who give a heck of a lot of care for customers.

"I always say if your company has the right core values — and they actually try to live them — that's a company you want to work for. That's a company you want to be part of."

Campus life

The TCU store caters to college students, as it's in the middle of campus and Toppers and pizza go hand in hand, Howard said, as many Toppers' locations are in college towns. TCU has a roster of 13,000-plus students, making business heavier when students are on campus. Still, even when students aren't there Howard said it's important to make sure the location can still survive on locals.

"It's up to us to talk to the hospitals in the area and all the other businesses and make sure that we're getting that marketing out there," Howard said. Yet she does not employ TCU students, so she doesn't lose staff over breaks and summers.

The Meat Topper pizza, with pepperoni, Canadian bacon, sausage and bacon is popular, as is a pepperoni pizza and the brand's famous TopperStix, which Howard says college kids can't get enough of.

Pizza and TopperStix make up 50% of sales, with wings and sides making up the rest of sales.

Capturing the student market is imperative, so how does Toppers Pizza at TCU compete with other pizzerias in the area?

Howard said there is a lot of competition, but Toppers is open until 3 a.m. every day (they're closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas). Toppers catches that after market when bars have closed and students are hungry.

The franchise also hires people who are a part of the brand's "fun" image, and the food — like rotating specialty pizzas such as a mac and cheese pizza — and loaded tater tots, are appealing to late-night crowds.

"They're all fun and kind of off the wall," Howard said. "They're not just your average pepperoni and sausage."

Howard likes seeing students who start as freshmen and then eventually come back to campus to visit, with an order from Toppers included.

Operations

When asked what her biggest challenge is, Howard said she's been in the business for so long and isn't someone who likes to sit in an office. Instead, she's in stores making pizza right next to her crew. "To be a good leader, you have to show what you want," she said.

As a franchisee, though, there's extra responsibility in the form of paperwork and calls with vendors and banks.

"I'm very operations focused, and then to add the other side to it — that's been a challenge," Howard said. "But I'm loving it."

Having fun is a core value for Toppers TCU, and when Howard came to TCU, she brought with her Slinkies, balloons and finger flingers. It's okay to play with a Slinky in your down time, she said, or to talk, but it's hard to impart how much fun the employees actually have while working.

"You've got these people who come from all walks of life. Toppers is so diverse," Howard said. "The baseline for everybody is that it doesn't matter where you come from. You're going to belong. These are your people."

Training is paramount to the brand's success. Howard believes if you're not hiring the right people and you're not training your staff properly, you're never going to be successful. And training is constant — it doesn't stop once someone is onboarded, including training for leaders and store employees alike.

With training, "you're giving them all the tools to be wildly successful," Howard said, adding she's got employees who have been with the brand for years and they're thriving.

"We're constantly training each other and working to get better and better."

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.

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