Franchise Management: Little Caesars' Welcome Home
Little Caesars pizza chain offers franchise discounts and special help for veterans.
By Lisa Bertagnoli, Contributing Editor -- Chain Leader, 7/1/2007 12:00:00 AM
 Iraq war veteran Robbie Doughty inspired Little Caesars founder Michael Ilitch to launch a franchise program for veterans. Ilitch gave Doughty a Little Caesars restaurant in Paducah, Ky., which opened Feb. 1.  A franchisee training session included (from l.) Little Caesars founder Michael Ilitch, Navy veteran Patricia Evans and Army veteran Vince Tripoli. |
In August, Patricia Evans will open a Little Caesars restaurant in Valdosta, Ga. Hers will look like any other Little Caesars restaurant, except for a wall plaque trumpeting Evans’ four years of service in the U.S. Navy.
"I’m pretty proud of that," says Evans. Little Caesars is proud, too, not just of Evans, but of all U.S. military veterans. So proud that the Detroit-based chain has launched the U.S. Military Veterans Training Program, which offers special services and discounts to veterans who want to become Little Caesars franchisees.
Qualified veterans receive up to $10,000 in credits on franchise fees, equipment and supplies. Service-disabled veterans are eligible for up to $68,000 in credits.
Evans, who was not injured during her Navy tour, received a $5,000 credit on her franchise fee and a $5,000 credit on equipment from Little Caesars’ equipment distributor. She, however, chose to manage her own financing. "I have my own goals and my own money," says Evans, who bought, operated and then sold a chicken farm after her military service but before signing on as a Little Caesars franchisee.
Evans, with her mix of business and military experience, says that operating a Little Caesars store is the perfect career move. "There’s no need for us to go in and reinvent the wheel," says Evans, whose two grown sons will help her run the restaurant. "Little Caesars has been around since 1959…they know what they’re doing. It’s a system that works, top to bottom."
A Win-Win Program
The program is "a great fit and a great win-win for Little Caesars and veterans," says David Scrivano, president of Little Caesars. "The military background is a good fit for team building, problem solving, leadership skills, and maybe most importantly, familiarity with systems, processes and structure," he says.
It’s also generous, compared with other franchisors’ veterans programs, says Kelsey Mortimer II, corporate liaison for the Center for Veteran Enterprises, a Washington, D.C.-based agency that assists franchisors in facilitating programs for veterans. "The amount is very substantial," Mortimer says. "Most give you a 5 percent discount."
The chain’s generosity has made its program popular among the approximately 300 programs offered by other franchisors: Since its inception, about 1,100 veterans have applied to be Little Caesars franchisees. "That’s pretty high," Mortimer says, attributing its popularity to the benefits, plus the fact that Little Caesars is "a brand name that everybody knows."
A Government Middleman
Little Caesars founder Michael Ilitch was inspired to create a franchise program for veterans in 2004, when he read a newspaper story about a soldier who lost his legs while fighting in Iraq. Ilitch contacted that soldier, Robbie Doughty, and offered him a franchised restaurant, which Doughty opened Feb. 1 in Paducah, Ky.
Ilitch then told Scrivano to devise a wider-reaching franchise program for veterans. "He said to me, ‘David, we need to do more.…We need to be an example for those in the business community,’" Scrivano recalls. He adds that Ilitch also remembered his own discharge from the military, when "he was at a crossroads," Scrivano says. "He never forgot that feeling."
Little Caesars contacted several military organizations, among them the Center for Veteran Enterprises, to help publicize the program, which officially launched on Veterans Day of 2006. The Center for Veteran Enterprises screens applications from interested veterans and sends approved applications to Little Caesars.
Qualifications include an honorable discharge, plus $50,000 in liquid assets, $150,000 net worth and the ability to maintain a 51 percent ownership in the business. Veterans must also run the business on their own, but allowances are made for service-disabled veterans who cannot physically do all that’s needed to run a pizza restaurant.
The center also makes sure that a pizza franchise is a wise career choice for veterans, says Mortimer, who attended a Little Caesars training session to get a first-hand feel for the business.
A Smooth Launch
So far, nine of the thousand-plus applicants have been approved and are going through the training program. Another 20 applications are pending, according to Scrivano. "The level of interest is beyond what we had anticipated," he says.
Once accepted, the veterans attend an intensive three-day training program "to make sure the program gets off on the right foot and that they’re acclimated to Little Caesars’ culture," Scrivano says. They also attend a six-week training program, as do all Little Caesars franchisees.
Existing franchises, Scrivano says, are reacting well to the program. "They love it," he says. "Every franchisee, to a person, is appreciative that we’re extending these benefits." The company has extended the benefits of the program to veterans who opened franchises before the program was launched.
The program will last through 2008, at which point the chain will review it and make improvements where necessary.
The launch went smoothly, Scrivano says, despite the fairly large number of parties involved, including several military-support organizations and various Little Caesars’ suppliers. "It was quite an effort to bring it all together," he says, explaining that it took about a year to launch the program.
Evans agrees that the process went smoothly, praising Little Caesars’ knowledgeable and helpful staff. "It’s like it was meant to be," she says of the program.
