Pizza Marketing Quarterly (PMQ):
New Orleans-based Naked Pizza, the all-natural pizza franchisor on a mission to change the nutritional profile of the fast food industry, has chosen Phoenix (AZ) as the site for its new corporate development hub – a plan which includes building and operating at least 12 corporate-owned store locations with six to open by the end of 2011. Phoenix will also be home to Naked Pizza’s franchisee training facility in the area.
The company’s decision to develop its corporate training center in Phoenix stems from its involvement in the post-recession, post-mass media entrepreneurial movement seeking to grow and create jobs while maintaining a distinct social mission. Naked Pizza’s co-founders see substantial opportunity to boost local economic development in Arizona’s hard-hit post-recession economy – the U.S. Census Bureau reports that 20% of Arizona residents now live in poverty, the second highest rate in America, with the state unemployment rate at 9.5%.