Healthful pizza maker Naked Pizza will add 20 to 40 new locations this year after signing a licensing agreement that will expand the company into Florida, a spokesman for the New Orleans firm said Tuesday.
The deal sets the stage for the 498-square-foot Claiborne Avenue shop, which already has attracted investment from billionaire Mark Cuban, to make its entrance into an out-of-state market.
“The goal was to franchise from the very beginning,” said Robbie Vitrano, a spokesman for the company. “We’ve spent three and a half years of perfecting a business model that could be replicated.”
Under the so-called area development deal, Florida NKP LLC, received the right to open 50 Naked Pizza locations throughout Florida. Florida NKP is comprised of a group of investors who have operated fast food and casual dining businesses in the Florida area, Vitrano said. No other information about the firm was given.
Photo: Kathy Anderson / The Times-Picayune.