How I transformed a pizza chain and sold it for $24 million

Surely some would be apprehensive.

Oh sure, you go through the five stages of grief. Some are going through the acceptance stage! It’s just how they get there. But it’s been smooth sailing so far, we’re positive and everyone has been fantastic.

Have you sold a business in the past? How does this differ to those experiences?

We’ve sold businesses in the past, but this is on a different playing field altogether. We’ve engaged the best lawyers and advisors to help guide us through the whole process, but the bigger thing is that RFG has been fantastic through the whole process. That obviously makes everything a lot easier.

The money is significantly more. There is a lot more diligence required, and the back and forth. You’re not paying that amount of money for no reason, you’re going to have to make sure you’ve ticked all the boxes.

We’ve got a good team. We’ve added a lot of corporate influence into the business; we’ve put in a management team and bigger executive team, more divisions, and so on. We’re in a better position to give more of that information.

How has that corporate influence helped you?

I think efficiency. We’re always a big business but about 12 months ago we realised if we wanted to take it to the next level we needed to put ourselves in a good position. We have to have our house in order, basically. So we went about putting more departments in the business, putting that management team in place, doing more budgeting and forecasting, and having our finger on the pulse, basically.

We were really inadvertently gearing up to sell the business, even though we didn’t know it.

And so what are the biggest changes you’ve made?

We’ve employed probably 12 people over the last 12 months, and they’ve been in the finance department to get a better idea of what’s going on. We’ve decreased expenses, but it’s been difficult over the past 12 months because no one has experienced the same growth rate. They’ve grown, but it’s contracted slightly, and so because of that we’ve put a manager on to assist with all the franchisees.

We’ve also heavily invested in IT, it’s probably our second biggest expenditure. Have to spend money to make money, right?

Sounds like you’re well set. So what’s the plan from here on out?

In the long term, there’s a definitive plan with regard to the two brands – Crust and Capers – and how they exist. But we’ve got plans in place to keep the brand strong and keep growing. Just taking it one day at a time.