Upstarts: Environmental Impact

Pizza Fusion's eco-friendly business practices set it on the path to expansion.

By Maya Norris, Managing Editor -- Chain Leader, 9/1/2007

Pizza Fusion’s organic pizzas feature toppings such as goat cheese and New York strip steak. Pizza Fusion prefers to locate units, which cost about $275,000 to $500,000 to open, in endcaps or freestanding buildings where the household income in the area is over $65,000. The focaccia sandwiches feature organic bread baked daily and all-natural deli meats free of nitrates, hormones and antibiotics.

Pizza Fusion’s eco-friendly slant goes far beyond recycling and a few organic pizza toppings. The two-unit company has an aggressively green business model that has proven to be both good for the environment and profitable, setting the stage for franchised expansion.

CEO Vaughan Lazar and COO Michael Gordon created Pizza Fusion in 2006 because it reflected their interest in organic fare. “We were both at the time into the environment. We both did quite a bit of charity work and things like that,” Lazar says. “So we wanted to do something that had a feel-good feel to it. And somehow the concept of doing a small restaurant came up, like a pizza place.”

However, Lazar, who owned a printing and design firm, and Gordon, who owned a real-estate and property-management company, had no restaurant experience. So they hired pizza consultant Dave Ostrander to help develop the concept, which debuted in July 2006 in Deerfield Beach, Fla.

Going Green

Pizza Fusion sells pizzas, focaccia sandwiches, wraps and salads, in which 98 percent of the ingredients are organic. While customers can customize their pizzas with toppings ranging from artichokes to wild-caught shrimp, the best-selling item is Bill’s Pizza, $25 for medium and $30 for large. It features organic New York strip; tomato sauce; mozzarella, aged Parmesan and Gorgonzola cheeses; red, yellow and green peppers; oregano; and red onions.

Pizza Fusion builds its stores according to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design guidelines of the U.S. Green Building Council. The modern decor features recycled and sustainable materials such as a wall of stone sourced from local quarries, tabletops made of reclaimed wood, and countertops made from recycled detergent bottles.

Organic Growth

Lazar says Pizza Fusion’s eco-friendly business practices helped it to generate $350,000 in sales in 2006; the 850-square-foot unit was open five months, offering takeout and delivery only. The company expects to ring up $2 million in 2007 because future units will be 2,000 to 2,500 square feet, feature a fast-casual service model and post more than $1 million in sales each, Lazar says.

Since opening the first unit, Pizza Fusion has sold that store to a franchisee to concentrate on franchised expansion. Franchising veteran Randy Romano joined the company as vice president of development and partner in March. Pizza Fusion has also hired three trainers who have worked at McDonald’s, Subway and Disney. The company is constructing a test kitchen and training facility at its headquarters in Fort Lauderdale.

Franchisees have opened one unit in Fort Lauderdale and will open three or four more in Weston, Palm Beach, Boca Raton and Pittsburgh by year-end. They will open 20 units in 2008 in Georgia, Nevada, New Jersey, Colorado and Florida. Pizza Fusion says it has received more than 500 franchising requests and expects another 200 to open by 2010.