Blaze Pizza has more than 300 locations after seeing a slight drop off from its high of 314 stores in 2019.
Despite the many challenges of running restaurants in California these days, Reza Medali remains optimistic about his Southern California Blaze Pizza business.
So much so that the longtime restaurant franchisee is eager to more than double his count of Blazes after signing a 25-unit development agreement with the Atlanta-based pizza chain.
“California is not a very business-friendly state now and because of that we’re seeing a lot of restaurants, a lot of our competitors closing or even leaving California,” said Medali, the president of SoCal Blazers, already the largest Blaze Pizza franchisee in California with 21 locations. “It’s given us more space to grow our business with less competition out there and we’re hoping to be one of the few major players left in California.”
It’s been nearly nine months since California raised its minimum wage from $15.50 to $20 for quick-service restaurant workers.
The $20 minimum wage was established by a 2023 bill signed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The legislation, applying to fast-food brands with 60 or more locations, came after several rounds of negotiations among politicians, labor unions and industry representatives.
The year before, the California Legislature passed a law known as the FAST Act, which would have raised the minimum wage to $22 with a 3.5 percent increase per year. It was met with major pushback from the International Franchise Association, National Restaurant Association and other business groups. That pushback led to the rescinding of the FAST Act and the passage of the 2023 bill.
Medali’s new six-year development agreement with Blaze Pizza expands his territory from San Diego to Santa Barbara and includes some of the state’s most populous counties: Los Angeles, San Bernadino, Riverside, Orange and San Diego.
Reza Medali, left, and business partner Mehdi Khosh are the largest franchisees of Blaze Pizza in California with 21 locations.
Medali, a Blaze Pizza franchisee for more than a decade, plans to open the first of his new restaurants in downtown Los Angeles in early 2025. In a separate deal with Blaze, he acquired six stores in Southern California.
“I love Blaze. It’s in my blood. Blaze has been good to me and I am very optimistic about our future with the company with this new deal,” said Medali.
Medali got his start in the restaurant business at 18 years old in 1992, when he became Subway’s youngest franchisee. He said he once owned 14 Subways but held on to just one location, his original store in Monrovia, California, mainly because of its sentimental value.
“It’s where I got started in restaurants over 30 years ago and that location means a lot to me,” he said. “I’ve been with Subway for a long time and the company has changed a lot since I first started with them. But my one store is still doing OK, and that’s another reason why I don’t want to give it up.”
With Blaze Pizza, Medali is in another quick-service restaurant brand that has experienced growth struggles. Blaze, which specializes in made-to-order brick oven pizza, has more than 300 locations after seeing a slight drop off from its high of 314 stores in 2019. It moved up seven spots to No. 171 on the Franchise Times Top 400, despite posting a 7 percent decline in unit growth and a 1.2 percent decline in sales in 2023. The company ended 2023 with $368.4 billion in global sales.
Medali said his Blaze restaurants are performing above the systemwide average unit volume of $1.3 million, which he acknowledged was a big factor in expanding his portfolio. Another reason is the direction the company is heading after years of relative inaction.
In January 2023, the company appointed Beto Guajardo, who previously oversaw the international business at GoTo Foods, as CEO. One of his first initiatives to reposition Blaze was with a menu revamp, which brand leaders acknowledged was long overdue.
Related: Blaze Pizza’s Big Menu Revamp Is Just the Start
Medali—whose business partners at SoCal Blazers include Mehdi Khosh, the vice president and chief financial officer, and Ryan Khosh, who assists both Medali and Khosh—said he’s pleased with Blaze’s updates.
“I definitely feel very good about our new leadership in the company, from our CEO, the chief development officer and our marketing officer. I like their energy. I like the way they’re thinking. I like the way the company is going to go forward,” he said. “I’ll say it again, I love Blaze Pizza and I believe in the system and our food. Our customers keep coming back and that says everything to me.”