Pizza Inn (RAVE)

Pizza Inn, headquartered in the Dallas area, operates more than 310 restaurants domestically and internationally, with several new stores scheduled to open in the next year.

Our History:

Pizza Inn has offered consumers affordable, quality pizza since 1958, when the first Pizza Inn restaurant opened in Dallas, Texas. We awarded our first franchise in 1963 and opened our first buffet restaurant in 1969. We began franchising the Pizza Inn brand internationally in the late 1970s. In 1993, our stock began trading on the NASDAQ Stock Market, and presently trades on the NASDAQ SmallCap Market under the ticker symbol “PZZI”.

Pizza Inn, Inc. and its subsidiaries (collectively referred to as the “Company”, “Pizza Inn” or in the first person notations of “we”, “us” and “our”) operate and franchise pizza buffet, delivery/carry-out and express restaurants domestically and internationally under the trademark “Pizza Inn.” Through our Norco Restaurant Services Company (“Norco”) division, and through agreements with third party distributors, we provide or facilitate food, equipment and supply distribution to our domestic and international system of restaurants.

On September 20, 2006, the Pizza Inn system consisted of 369 restaurants, including three Company-owned restaurants, and 366 franchised restaurants. The domestic restaurants are comprised of 175 buffet restaurants, 48 delivery/carry-out restaurants and 70 express restaurants. The international franchised restaurants are comprised of 18 buffet restaurants, 48 delivery/carry-out restaurants and 10 express restaurants. Domestic restaurants are located predominantly in the southern half of the United States, with Texas, North Carolina, and Arkansas accounting for approximately 35%, 14%, and 8%, respectively, of the total number of domestic restaurants. 
 

Our Concepts:

We offer three concepts: buffet, delivery/carry-out and express. Each is designed to enhance the smooth flow of food ordering, preparation and service, and we believe that the overall configuration of each results in simplified operations, lower training and labor costs, increased efficiency and improved consistency and quality of our food products. Our restaurants may be configured to adapt to a variety of building shapes and sizes, offering the flexibility necessary for our concepts to be operated at any number of otherwise suitable locations.

Our focused menu is designed to present an appealing variety of high quality pizza and side items to our customers. Our basic buffet restaurant menu offers three main crusts (Original Thin Crust, New York Pan and Italian), with standard toppings and special combinations of toppings. Buffet restaurants also offer pasta, salad, sandwiches, appetizers, desserts and beverages, including beer and wine in some locations, in an informal, family-oriented atmosphere. We occasionally offer other items on a limited promotional basis. Delivery/carryout restaurants usually offer the three main crusts and some combination of side items. We believe that our focus on three main crust types creates a better brand identity among customers, improves operating efficiency and maintains food quality and consistency.

Our buffet and delivery/carry-out concepts feature crusts that are hand-made from dough made fresh in the restaurant each day. We do not use a centralized commissary for mass production of dough and our dough is never frozen (with the exception of certain dough products used in the express concept for pizza, discussed below). Pizza Inn pizzas are made from a proprietary all-in-one flour mixture, real mozzarella cheese and a proprietary mix of classic pizza spices. Domestically, all ingredients and toppings can be purchased from Norco, which makes deliveries to each domestic restaurant in our system at least once per week. Beginning in November 2006, two authorized third party distributors, each of which has delivery responsibilities for different geographical regions of our system, will provide certain of the warehousing and delivery services that were previously provided by Norco. In international markets, the menu mix of toppings and side items is occasionally adapted to local tastes.