Cicis is again in growth mode as the pizza buffet chain incorporates tech upgrades and focuses on product quality.
For more than 30 years, Jeff Hetsel has been a fixture at Cicis. Going from general manager to president of the brand, he’s been a part of the pizza buffet chain’s struggles and its more recent resurgence.
Back in the ‘90s, Hetsel was just starting his career. Initially wanting to get into the fine dining segment with a five-star restaurant, his path changed when he met Joe Croce, founder of Cicis.
“He was unbelievably enthusiastic about what he was doing,” said Hetsel. “He talked about all the possibilities and dreams he had for the brand, and I was hooked.”
When Cicis peaked in 2009 with 600 locations and during its decline in the years that followed, the culture is what made Hetsel stay instead of moving on to another company.
By the time Croce sold the brand in 2003, Hetsel had worked his way up to vice president. During the sale process, he also opened his own franchise locations. Even when Cicis was passed around to private equity firms and closing locations, he chose to stay.
“It was hard to watch, honestly,” said Hetsel. “From a franchise perspective, you feel every decision they made. You saw the decline in the model, decline in the quality and those kinds of things.”
Hetsel recognized the legacy the now nearly 40-year-old brand had established, though, and through that saw its potential. As a member of Cicis’ franchise advisory council, Hetsel offered to come back to corporate as chief development officer in 2019 with the hope of returning the brand to its former glory.
It was the COVID-19 pandemic, oddly enough, that helped the brand begin to bounce back. “It’s hard to say COVID was a blessing because it did so much damage to so many people, but for Cicis it was a blessing because it gave us a chance to completely reset,” Hetsel said.
That hard reset for the brand allowed corporate to rewind back to the foundation of Croce’s involvement. This included restoring the food quality as well as the culture on which Cicis was originally founded. A “jump the counter mentality” to exceed customer expectations became paramount for Cicis corporate and franchisees.
Jeff Hetsel
“It truly was frustrating at times,” Hetsel said of the experience. “But I truly had the opportunity to come back and work with an awesome team of people, not only of franchisees but in the corporate office here.”
Resetting also meant the opportunity to adapt. Cicis didn’t have third-party delivery or even a unified point-of-sale system at the start of the shutdowns, so it was time to modernize. As restaurants opened back up, staff served customers at the buffet instead of allowing customers to help themselves, in order to meet safety guidelines.
“We had twice a day basically a master class,” said Hetsel. “We all took the attitude right up front of never waste a crisis.”
Amid the pandemic, another hurdle awaited. In December 2020, D&G Investors, a new partnership between Sunil Dharod’s family firm SSCP Management and Anand Gala’s Gala Capital Partners, bought $83 million of Cicis debt and converted it to equity. Cicis in January 2021 filed for bankruptcy, and 34 days later D&G closed on its purchase of the brand. Other restructuring included closing corporate stores and wiping out lease agreements.
Hetsel said in the years since, the new ownership “basically put rocket fuel” behind what support staff were already doing for Cicis. The brand, which is back above the 300-unit mark, is leaning into its game rooms and is reinvigorating its franchise sales efforts.
The experience as a whole taught Hetsel important lessons on maintaining an established brand. Avoid cutting corners is the first and still the most-used lesson for the company. Relevancy is also important. Hetsel and several others at the support center have been around for more than 30 years, but they aren’t afraid of the next generation’s ideas, either.
Learning how to optimize social media platforms while maintaining brand image is a careful balance that he’s proud of his marketing team for accomplishing. Hetsel would be the first to tell you it was never easy, especially as a franchisee himself. Seeing sales growth shows the work is paying off.
“It’s one of those things that we never want to go through it again,” said Hetsel, “but I’m glad we did. Everybody is much closer and we have a much tighter organization.”