--- title: "When Finding New Franchisees and New Locations, Your Pie Puts Passion and Community First" url: https://burnaze.com/article/94507b04-9a58-4037-955d-64b9434a08f3 source: "1851 Franchise" original_url: https://1851franchise.com/when-finding-new-franchisees-and-new-locations-your-pie-puts-passion-and-community-first-4872 category: "Restaurants" industry: "Restaurants" topics: ["Development & multi-unit"] published: 2016-06-07T19:14:25.000Z modified: 2026-11-01T04:15:16.353Z image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/b0a50d91590e606df9cd3ac91e19cf7d9934160607145425.jpeg --- # When Finding New Franchisees and New Locations, Your Pie Puts Passion and Community First **TL;DR:** Your Pie founder Drew French prioritizes passion and community in finding new franchisees and locations for the brand's expansion through franchising. The brand has over 30 locations in the Southeast and aims to grow while preserving its unique quality. *originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2016-06-07. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/when-finding-new-franchisees-and-new-locations-your-pie-puts-passion-and-community-first-4872).* ## Story When Drew French, the founder of Your Pie, made the decision to expand his brand by way of franchising, his goal was simple: find passionate people hungry to improve their communities by changing the way people experience pizza. In French’s mind, franchising was the right way to grow his emerging down-the-line pizza concept—it would allow him to really dive into markets and have a unique community feel at every single location. After all, he truly believed that the best brand ambassadors are the local folks—the ones who know the ins and outs of their hometown like the back of their hands. Now, with more than 30 locations throughout the Southeast, French has never wavered from that strong emphasis on local culture. It’s a method that has helped Your Pie grow the right way, while simultaneously preserving the characteristic quality of the brand that has long made it so unique. “Without question, we aspire to be a globally admired brand. But we’ve seen plenty of ways not to grow a pizza franchise, and we’re committed to best practices. That starts with finding the right franchisees and the right locations to build a strong base to grow on,” said Courtney Brown, the franchise development manager for Your Pie. “Rather than just going out and selling a territory to just anyone, we take the time to get to know the people. It’s so important to ensure that they’re the right fit for us, and we’re right for them.” Brown says that Your Pie’s success is contingent upon finding franchisees who are passionate about their community and concerned about what’s going outside of the four walls of their business. “The corporate office can’t connect with a community the same way a local franchisee can. We ultimately look for people who are excited to bring an experience like Your Pie to their community and to help it grow,” Brown added. Your Pie treats their site selection with the same kind of care, too. While the brand does rely on software and big data to pinpoint ideal locations (this includes identifying demographics, customer profiles and competitive retailers and restaurants), Bucky Cook, the CEO of Franchising at Your Pie, says that nothing beats the “boots on the ground” approach when hunting down the right home for the next restaurant. This includes a local franchisee, a local realtor and Cook driving around and exploring the area to get a deeper sense of how the brand will do there. In doing so, they’re able to better absorb the important local elements and avoid falling into a cookie-cutter design trap. Cook points to a Your Pie location at an old warehouse in Covington, Georgia as an example—the restaurant maintains the characteristics needed to help customers quickly identify that they’re in a Your Pie, but it also conveys certain individualities unique only to the neighborhood. And that, Cook says, helps to ultimately set Your Pie apart from its competitors. “There’s a fine line between maintaining brand standards and consistency while still being able to embody the community you’re in. When it comes to choosing our franchisees and new locations, we make sure to do our homework. And yes, that might make the entire process a little more labor intensive, but in the end, it helps to ensure that we’re growing with the right people—the people we can trust to carry the Your Pie message throughout the country,” Cook said. ## Entities - 1851 Franchise (publication) - Restaurants (sector) - franchise expansion (topic) - franchise development (topic) - Your Pie Pizza (company) - location selection (topic) - Drew French (person) - community focus (topic) --- Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/when-finding-new-franchisees-and-new-locations-your-pie-puts-passion-and-community-first-4872). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/94507b04-9a58-4037-955d-64b9434a08f3).