Operations
Mad Mushroom finds success beyond college campuses
Mad Mushroom is a fixture on college campuses in Kentucky and Indiana. Now entering the franchise phase, the five-unit company has expanded outside university to include residential areas to target families and small groups.
September 20, 2021 by Mandy Wolf Detwiler — Editor, Networld Media Group
Dave Sommers got his start in the pizza business the way many restaurateurs recommend — he started working in two of the largest chains in his formative years, which laid the groundwork for his company, Mad Mushroom.
With five locations and two in the planning stage, Mad Mushroom has become a university fixture in Kentucky and Indiana with stores on the campuses of Purdue University, the University of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University and two residential locations.
Now it's building in systems in anticipation of franchising. Pizza Marketplace talked with Sommers, a co-owner, about Mad Mushroom's anticipated growth and how the company is migrating from colleges to residential areas.
"I remember saying 'I'm not going to be in pizza for the rest of my life,'" Sommers said, explaining he enrolled at Purdue to study, well, restaurant management. In 1994, he found himself driving for Mad Mushroom long before he co-owned it and eventually ran the University of Kentucky store.
By 2001, Sommers had bought out the original owners, Jim and Jack Caramello, and taken over the original three campus locations. He now owns the company with partners Steve Hart and Kinsey Henderson.
Opening residential locations provides business in the summer when campus business lags, Sommers said, and it also draws in family business.
"The concept started as value pizza and cheese sticks on college campuses. We were selling large cheese pizzas on Mondays and Tuesdays for $3.99. Just knock it out as high volume as you can, late nights selling to the after-bar crowd.
"Over the last 15 years, the only changes we've made to the product were higher quality (products). We would not take a step back. We changed cheeses, we changed dough recipes, we changed some of the meats — everything for the better."
A premium line of pizzas was added so now the core target audience isn't strictly college students. Young, middle-income families are big customers too. The company opened its first stand-alone store outside the collegiate world in Lafayette "close enough that people already knew our name but an area we weren't serving, and we took over a pizzeria that was failing," Sommers said. He brought in Mad Mushroom's ovens and equipment, however, to ensure consistency.
"It was really just the location that we wanted," Sommers said, and the company purchased that building last March.
Dine-in is a component at their restaurants despite being located on college campuses, and lunch is a big daypart for the counter-service concept. The Purdue location has 120 seats, while the EKU campus is the smallest with just 20. They're not trying to bring in big families, Sommers said, but "our idea for our dine-in was for our lunch crowd to be able to eat there, and on weekends we want to have enough space for a soccer team or little league team to come in and have a pizza party."
Sommers says the company's service and value sets it apart from its competitors. "The No. 1 thing is obviously quality has to be there to get them in the door," he said, "but then once we get them, we overwhelm them with our customer service and surprise them with the price they're getting it for. They're getting great pizza and great service at a better price."
Maintaining continuity across the brand has been a challenge as Mad Mushroom has grown, but keeping locations within driving distance from one another helps. They also promote from within.
"All of our assistant managers were at one time pizza makers, (and) at one point all of our general managers were assistant managers," Sommers said.
They're also taking down the necessary steps to put all their processes in writing, a critical component to growth. Having charts in place makes it easier for staff members to create the same pizza repeatedly, and that creates brand loyalty. Using conveyor ovens for expedition also helps with the high volume.
Putting processes in place will eventually help with franchising, a move Mad Mushroom looks to make in the future.
"We are dotting Is and crossing Ts for our franchise document," Sommers said. A master operations manual is in the works, and if the right franchisee came along they'd be ready to roll. By the time the next location opens, all of the processes will be in place.
Sommers credits his staff for Mad Mushroom's success in the industry. With just a location or two, an owner and his partner are able to put all their time into them but with multiple units, owners can't be in every place at once. That's where he relies on his employees. "You have to hire the right people and put them in the right spot and let them succeed," Sommers said. "It's building the right team with you and allowing them to prosper and also make mistakes so that they can learn from them."
Sommers recommends anyone looking to enter the pizza industry stay in their current field and work the many jobs in a pizzeria before diving in head first. Reading forums and magazines and attending food shows also helps lay the foundation for success in the industry.
"Getting involved certainly helps," he says. "Talk to as many people as you can to learn what you're getting in to because when you first buy your first one, you're not buying a business. You're buying a job and until you realize that it's going to be very difficult. But if you go in knowing that you're going to go in buying a job you love, you don't work a day if you love your job."
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.
