Pizza Executives Offer Financing Tips

Nation’s Restaurant News:

While access to capital remains difficult to obtain for restaurant operators looking to expand, especially in a heavily franchised segment like pizza, two executives offered creative ways to secure funding during a panel discussion at the Pizza Executive Summit this week in Chicago.

Mike Mrlik, chief executive of Austin, Texas-based Gatti’s Pizza, said financing for franchise growth has become harder to come by than ever. Not only did loans to restaurant businesses require more equity and last for shorter terms, Mrlik said, but the industry’s “big three” lenders — GE Capital, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo — cut way back on financing restaurants.

“The last two years were the toughest ever for franchise concepts,” Mrlik said.

Both Gatti’s and San Ramon, Calif.-based Straw Hat Pizza, whose president, Jonathan Fornaci, also was a speaker on the “Finance and Franchising 2010” panel, responded to a lack of traditional funding in aggressive, untraditional ways in the past few years.

Targeting landlords… carry on reading.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *