A brand based in the Golden State has its sights set on expansion in the Sunshine State.
Mountain Mike’s Pizza, which has 250 of its nearly 300 locations in California where it’s headquartered, is making an effort to grow beyond its West Coast origins. The latest move to do so is in the form of a 10-unit agreement with an entrepreneurial duo in Florida.
The deal was inked by Sean Morrison, CEO of BizBox Restaurant Group, and Ned Algeo, founder of Multipli Capital. Their plan is to develop the restaurants across Orlando, Sarasota and Tampa, with the first opening in late 2025.
The deal marks the second venture into franchising for BizBox, with Morrison previously partnering with the juice concept 3Natives. Morrison entered the franchising space after a 12-year entrepreneurial career of launching and scaling professional service companies.
Mountain Mike’s Pizza franchisee Sean Morrison
“I was specifically doing executive recruiting for large corporate restaurants and was able to develop a really strong network in the industry,” Morrison said. “I didn’t have ambitions to get into the restaurant space myself, but about three years ago I started looking to find other ventures and moved on from those companies, and the multi-unit space was intriguing.”
Throughout his career, Morrison said he’s had a mission to develop as many opportunities for people as possible. Because multi-unit franchising creates an opportunity to do that through restaurants, he became interested and started laying the groundwork for BizBox about three years ago.
In the process, Algeo, who Morrison had placed at another restaurant company, reached out and wanted to partner. When the two began looking at how to diversify their portfolio, Morrison said they noticed a lack of great pizza options and decided to reach out to Mountain Mike’s, as it’s something they grew up with in California.
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In addition to the quality of the product, Morrison said he also wanted to move forward with a Mountain Mike’s partnership because of the brand’s economics and its leadership. According to the brand’s franchise disclosure document, the company reported average gross sales of $1.1 million in 2023.
“They’re in the stronger realm of this type of business concept,” Morrison said. “I’ve also done a lot of recruiting for corporate restaurants, the big names out there. So, I know what a really strong team looks like. And when I met the Mountain Mike’s team, it was clear they had strong players who are 100 percent dedicated to franchise support. It was a huge draw.”
The recent agreement for Florida follows an effort to grow in another state with a large population: Texas. The brand signed agreements in Texas to develop more than 30 locations and brand leadership said there’s space for more.
In total, the brand has 292 locations and is expected to reach 300 by the end of the year across several states. The company ramped up its franchising growth after originally launching its system in 1981, with Texas and Florida being taking priority, as each have the potential to hold hundreds of locations.
“We see Texas as the next California for us and Florida as the one after that,” said Jim Metevier, Mountain Mike’s CEO. “There’s big opportunity there. They’re states that are very pro-business with a solid cost of living and good population growth.”
Mountain Mike’s CEO Jim Metevier
Metevier said just as important as the markets is the franchisees they partner with, and the CEO has confidence in the two in Florida.
“They’re from California and they’re both restaurant guys,” Metevier said. “They both bring complimentary skills to the table which is really important to us. They have passion as well as a knowledge of the brand and the market. All of that put together is the perfect recipe.”
BizBox plans to open the 10 locations over the next five years and expects to have additional Mountain Mike’s development agreements signed by then.
“We know the market extremely well,” Morrison said. “We felt like in order to be set up for guaranteed success, we wanted to start in strong markets that we had good experience in. Then, we will look how quickly we can move beyond that.”
Similarly, the brand is looking to develop in markets beyond Florida.
“We jumped the Mississippi when we made deals in Wisconsin, and now we’re going further east,” Metevier said. “We have some interest in other markets now like Tennessee, Virginia and the Carolinas. But on top of having a west-to-east strategy, once people are exposed to the brand and understand what we’re about, you get a lot of organic growth. A restaurant opens, someone tries it, says ‘I have to own one of these,’ and it snowballs from there.”