In this episode of the Pizza Marketplace podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace, chats with Ilya Kholodnov, head of international marketing and sales for Dodo Pizza, and David Sweeney, champion of international franchising for Dodo Pizza, The brand was founded in Russia but is headquartered in Kazakhstan.

Dodo Pizza has 1,500 stores and revenue of nearly $2 billion. It's sister company, Drink It, a coffee concept, has 150 stores in five countries.

Sweeney attributes the brand's strong sales to its customer service. "I think the key thing is to have a really good customer experience to allow the technology or the technology should enable us to have a really good customer experience because we really look after the customer, make it easy to transact business, make sure the order is easy to place, that there is good variety, but not so much that confuses everybody. Make sure that when the order arrives into our stores, that order is processed in a way that is accurate and then it's timely and priced at roughly the right level for it to be at for the consumer to accept it as a really good value product and for it to arrive on time, hot and the order to be accurate. So the systems enable all of that to happen."

Why did a pizza brand move into coffee?

"Coffee was actually quite a logical step," Kholodnov said. "So maybe during conversation, you'll find out that our business is based on tech platform. And so it was very logical when we built a strong platform to scale franchise businesses, it was logical to add something more to that. So coffee seemed like a logical step to us."

To learn more about Dodo Pizza's international operations, growth and foray into the coffee business, listen to the podcast in its entirety.

In this episode of the Pizza Marketplace podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace, chats with Sonia Barajas-Najera, vice president of franchise administration for Shakey's Pizza. Shakey's began franchising in the 1950s shortly after it was founded.

After a number of ownership changes, the brand currently has 43 units. There's a new flagship in Culver City that took two years to design and create, Barajas-Najera said, and has been well received by consumers who enjoy the restaurant's retro vibes, warm colors and 1980s memorabilia. Shakey's also did a rebrand, but at the core of the company is its food, which remains the same. Shakey's is known for its thin-crust pizza, as well as its pan pizza and proprietary items like its chicken and its iconic Mojo potatoes.

With an 80s throwback style at its core, how does Shakeys keep the brand feeling cool for Gen Z while still being a home base for the Gen Xers who grew up there?

"There's the Gen X, there's Gen Z. Everyone is in there," Barajas-Najera explained. "We've created a place that has allowed people to come in and just be themselves and disconnect from everything that we're always doing, rushing. We're coining it as slow, casual, because we're not fast, we're not casual. We're just a slow casual. Come in, have a good time, be entertained."

When looking for franchisees, Barajas-Najera said they seek people who are passionate about the Shakey's Pizza brand. The Shakey's team gives its franchisees lots of support before, during and after opening.

Barajas-Najera suggests potential franchisees do their due diligence and really research a brand before signing on the dotted line. Shakey's is a brand with 70 years of experience behind it, but it's going through an exciting chapter.

"We feel like we're restarting," Barajas-Najera said. "We're just relaunching."

To learn more about Shakey's and Barajas-Najera's role in its expansion plans, listen to the podcast in its entirety.

In this episode of the Restaurant Operator Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace, chats with Jamie Cecil, vice president of franchise development for Mellow Mushroom.

Mellow Mushroom started in 1974 and has grown to 160 units. The brand is known for its cool vibes. Each store is unique.

"I like to call them kind of unicorns. There's not one store that looks alike, which is kind of fun, but it makes it a challenge as well. But every store has phenomenal pizza and great service. That's the goal," Cecil said.

Cecil brings more than 30 years of restaurant industry experience to the table.

"There's not a day that's like any other, I like that," he said. "So one call, I'm talking to a person that wants to do five stores. Next, I'm talking to a city about getting some variances. Next, I'm talking to a construction guy about some issues on a construction site. So it really has taken everything I've done throughout my career and kind of packaged it in one role. And I enjoy it. It's a fun, fun role to be a part of."

Finding the perfect piece of real estate is the greatest challenge for the brand. That's changed over the years, and a standalone building in the right location sets the tone for a town.

"Today's franchisee is more sophisticated than they were in the past. They're a lot more educated and they they've done a lot of footwork or groundwork on their own before they reach out to you," Cecil said. "So they kind of already have an idea of what they want to do. Whereas back then, they would just reach out and, let's do this. And that cycle was pretty quick. Now they want to visit with franchisees. They want to talk to franchisees. Obviously, Discovery Day is critical in our world, too. And they want to meet the executive team. They want to meet with the CEO and ask them questions about where they see this potential business going in the next five to10 years."

To learn more about Mellow Mushroom's franchising and how the brand plans to grow in a tight market, listen to the podcast in its entirety.