Crust Pizza Co. CEO Carl Comeaux reflects on scaling a restaurant brand into a franchise system that works.
When it comes to doing business, Carl Comeaux knows a thing or two about what it takes to succeed.
“I've always (had) a leader mindset. I've learned I'm a serial entrepreneur,” says Comeaux, CEO of Crust Pizza Co., a restaurant concept specializing in traditional Chicago-style thin-crust pizza made with fresh, high-quality ingredients.
Self-employed since high school, Comeaux’s lifelong journey as an entrepreneur has followed a winding path that started at the age of 16 with a personal training business he operated around his school and athletic schedule. After college, Comeaux founded a cell phone repair business alongside Nicholas Fontenot, a friend turned business partner, in his hometown of Lake Charles, Louisiana, that quickly took off and became scalable.
It wasn’t until 2015, though, that the pair would get their first taste of franchising success after opening a juice and smoothie shop that exceeded their financial expectations and led to the sale of 50 units before turning their attention toward helping the co-founders of Crust Pizza Co. scale their brand a few years later.
Today, with 32 locations across the U.S. and seven more in the works, that business is showing signs of surpassing Comeaux’s previous business ventures. And while the path that took him from an ambitious high school entrepreneur to the grown-up CEO of a thriving franchise brand hasn’t always been easy, Comeaux has leaned into those challenges – and found a way to build a franchise system that works.
A slice above … and beyond
Despite his earlier success as the co-founder of two scalable brands, owning a restaurant hadn’t been on Comeaux’s radar until a chance encounter in 2016 changed his mind – and the course of his journey as an entrepreneur.
That year, after relocating to The Woodlands in Texas while developing the juice and smoothie business, Comeaux’s wife suggested getting pizza for dinner after spending the day unloading their moving truck and beginning to unpack their belongings in their new home. While searching for local options in the family’s new neighborhood, Crust Pizza Co. popped up.
“I go pick (the pizza) up. It was amazing. It was different. There was a pizza I've never had before,” Comeaux recalls.
Intrigued by the discovery, Comeaux took his family back to the restaurant the following week, hoping to learn more about the brand and whether there were any opportunities to buy a franchise.
“Another month goes by, and I ended up meeting Mark (Rasberry) and Clint (Price), the founders that in 2011 started this concept, and they became friends. They wanted to scale but they didn't know how,” Comeaux says, noting that the independent chain had three locations at the time.
Drawing from his past experiences growing the cell phone repair business and the fast-casual juice concept he’d scaled to 50 units alongside Fontenot, Comeaux offered to help the Crust Pizza Co. founders create a franchise operations manual and navigate the documents to start a franchise.
By 2018, Crust Pizza Co. had transitioned to a franchise model while, at the same time, Comeaux and Fontenot had decided to exit the juice franchise they’d founded to pursue new opportunities. As Comeaux prepared to return to Lake Charles with his family, he suggested opening a Crust Pizza Co. location there, where he could continue helping its founders develop the brand.
But when his offer was declined out of concern that the brand wouldn’t perform well with the area’s demographics, Comeaux and Fontenot refused to take “no” for an answer.
“We ended up creating a concept called Rush Pizza. We trademarked it. We spent $150 grand on research and development, on building that thing up and signing a lease for Rush Pizza. And two days before (signing the lease), I get a call from Clint,” Comeaux recalls with a laugh.
As it turned out, the Crust Pizza Co. founders had changed their minds. They wanted to expand the brand into Lake Charles – and they wanted Comeaux’s help.
Developing a recipe for growth
After building the Lake Charles location into the best-performing store in the Crust Pizza Co. chain and joining the company as equal partners, with Comeaux at the helm and Fontenot overseeing technology, the pair got to work readying the restaurant to grow and scale as a franchise.
“There's a lot of things that you have to build as a franchise. You can't just start scaling. I mean, you have to build a team, and you have to do things the right way,” Comeaux says.
Part of the process of franchising the restaurant included condensing the chain’s 60-plus-item menu down to 35 offerings that could be reproduced across multiple locations. It also meant updating the restaurant’s decor to appeal to a “hip” demographic while making adjustments to the space’s architectural design.
Drawing on lessons from past mistakes with earlier business endeavors, Comeaux says the Crust Pizza Co. team also focused on bootstrapping its way to success using profits from the high-performing Lake Charles store, rather than relying on risky debt to grow the brand.
“I told the Crust guys … we're going to stay out of the (private) jets and we're going to do things bootstrapped. We're not going to get private equity money. We're going to do things the right way. We're going to grow slow and steady. We’re going to build a foundation,” Comeaux says, stressing the importance of making sure the first few locations of any new franchise system are profitable before scaling further.
Baking success into the business model
Beyond building a strong foundation for the business while avoiding debt, Comeaux says metrics have also played a critical role in Crust Pizza Co.’s success.
“It’s all about data. It's all about optics, making sure you have optics in front of you daily, hourly, to make sure that you can make a better decision,” Comeaux says.
To better understand performance and areas for improvement, Comeaux encourages franchise owners to track labor, costs of goods, year-over-year daily sales, payroll, customer feedback and other KPIs – an initiative the company’s proprietary software, which is built in-house and tailored to the needs of franchisees and customers, is uniquely positioned to support.
While the company’s innovative tech-first approach has helped keep managers on the floor and out of their offices, Comeaux says another key ingredient for the brand’s growth has been developing an internal culture that’s focused on giving back to local communities while respecting colleagues and working together as a team.
“One thing we implemented just this year was creating a franchise advisory council. So that way, we could have a stronger connection, and the communication could be even clearer between us and the franchisees,” Comeaux says.
That strong internal culture wasn’t accidental. To foster a sense of unity within the organization, the brand’s recruiting team has been selective about the people it’s brought on board since franchising. In addition to working with The Internicola Law Firm to ensure they’re backed up by a seasoned franchise attorney who understands compliance and can navigate the franchise space’s unique legal challenges, Crust Pizza Co. has focused on hiring the right corporate team members to lead the company’s growth.
Comeaux says the brand’s franchisee recruiting process also hones in on owner-operators who share the brand’s values, love its products, take leadership seriously and are willing to put in the work necessary to succeed in the limited-service pizza space – a strategy that has helped Crust Pizza Co. grow from a small local pizza chain into a thriving, tech-forward franchise brand that’s positioned for future growth and innovation in the restaurant space.
“You have to have the right person in the right seat. So, to have a strong culture, you have to make sure that everyone you're hiring, if it's a franchisee or if it's a manager for a store, are they the right person? Do they have those values that you live by?” Comeaux says.
To learn about franchising opportunities with Crust Pizza Co., visit https://crustfranchise.com.
