
On a sunny Friday at lunch, a Los Angeles-area Blaze Pizza unit sat empty, except for a crew of first responders grabbing a quick lunch on the patio. The nearly empty parking lot offered plenty of space for the massive fire truck and ambulance they drove up in.
A few miles away, the drive-thru line at a Raising Cane’s extended down the block. In-store diners spilled out the front door.
The difference between the two fast-casual concepts illustrates a shift in consumer preferences post pandemic. In the 2010s, fast-casual pizza was the hot, hot category—especially in Southern California, where brands like Blaze were born as part of a “better pizza” boom. Now, consumers can’t get enough chicken, preferably fried and served with a dipping sauce, passed through a window to eat elsewhere.
It also illustrates a challenge for Blaze Pizza CEO Beto Guajardo, who took the helm of the almost entirely franchised chain in January.
Founded in 2011, Blaze was one of the first fast-casual pizza players to make a run for national domination, and for years it was in the front of a crowded pack of similar concepts, keeping pace with Bellevue, Wash.-based MOD Pizza in terms of unit count.
Until MOD Pizza pulled ahead.
MOD ended 2022 with 531 units, an average unit volume of $1.3 million, and $662 million in system sales, according to the Top 500 ranking by sister brand Technomic. Unlike Blaze, MOD Pizza is mostly company owned, with only 86 of those 531 units operated by franchisees.
With about 303 units, Blaze had system sales of $372.8 million in 2022, and an average unit volume of $1.2 million. Only about eight units are corporate owned, though it’ll be 12 by the end of the year as the company picks up a few franchised locations.
The two fast-casual pizza concepts remain leaders in the niche, but the category appears to be shrinking as other concepts drop out of the race or struggle to maintain growth.
PizzaRev, which Buffalo Wild Wings had invested in early on, had closed most of its units before the pandemic started and its website now lists four restaurants in California. Uncle Maddio’s filed for bankruptcy protection in 2019. Chipotle closed its Pizzeria Locale locations earlier this year.
Pie Five, the 27-unit fast-casual sister brand of buffet concept Pizza Inn under Rave Restaurant Group, has closed about two-thirds of its units over the past five years. The company recently announced that the Pizza Inn menu will be offered as a virtual brand out of Pie Five locations, starting next year.
1000 Degrees Pizza owner Amandeep Judge acquired the Arizona-based six-unit My Pie Pizza in March. Last year Oath Pizza explored a sale and was acquired by its CEO, which raised some legal challenges.
Guajardo will the first to admit the fast-casual pizza space has changed. And Blaze has some work to do, though that work has begun.
In an interview last month, Guajardo outlined his strategy. His goal is to not only regain momentum within fast-casual pizza by boosting profitability, but also to re-introduce the brand altogether to consumers who would rather eat restaurant food at home.
“Our goal is to be the world’s favorite pizza of choice,” said Guajardo. “We’re going to win that through flavor first and great value.”
The “Better Pizza” movement
Blaze was founded by Rick and Elise Wetzel, who opened the first two locations in Irvine and Pasadena, where the chain is now based. Rick Wetzel was a co-founder of Wetzel’s Pretzels, and the couple was already well-known in the franchising world. Joining them was dough master Brad Kent, who developed the menu.
At the time, Blaze and others in this new fast-casual niche were often dubbed “the Chipotle of pizza,” because they followed a build-your-own personal pizza model, with guests walking a line and choosing their toppings. Blaze’s then-thin-crust pizza came out of the gas-fired oven in minutes, hot and fresh.
It was a quality alternative to Domino’s, Pizza Hut and other legacy brands, and it made pizza a lunch option for a single diner, where other pizza chains appealed more to a dinner crowd.
Blaze Pizza thick crust and the Basil Pesto pizza. | Photos by Lisa Jennings
Blaze soon attracted big-name investors, including NBA star LeBron James, movie producer John Davis, and former California First Lady Maria Shriver. Franchising took off. In 2016, Blaze was the fastest-growing restaurant chain in America, according to Technomic.
The next year, private equity came calling and Blaze won a significant investment from Los Angeles-based private equity firm Brentwood Associates, which remains a majority owner, and officials were projecting $1 billion in sales by 2022.
And then 2020 changed everything.
First, the Wetzels sold their interest in Blaze and moved on to other things.
But more notably, the pandemic shuttered restaurants across the country and forced operators to figure out how to build a takeout and delivery business in a hurry.
For Blaze, that shift to off-premise dining posed an existential problem.
The whole point of fast-casual pizza was ordering in stores, walking the line, and enjoying a fully customized pizza. The thin crust didn’t travel well.
In a post-pandemic world, competition includes not only myriad pizza chains that are better equipped for delivery, but so are essentially all other concepts, from tacos to poke bowls.
In addition, because of the lunch focus, many Blaze units were positioned for office workers—many of whom now work from home—leaving those restaurants empty.
Now, Blaze must rethink everything to “meet customers where they want to be served,” said Guajardo. “And that might be at home.”
Preparing for relaunch
Before Guajardo joined Blaze, he was president of Focus Brands International, parent to brands like Schlotzsky’s, Carvel, Auntie Anne’s and Cinnabon. He started at Atlanta-based Focus Brands as president of Schlotzsky’s and later led the whole group’s international business.
Acknowledging that Blaze’s growth has “flatlined” since 2019, Guajardo outlined a formula built around several steps: First, find ways to become more efficient to save money and improve profitability. Then invest those dollars in the quality of food, service and hospitality. Customers will then notice the better experience and come more frequently, he said. As a result, sales will grow and investments can be made in marketing and advertising.
Blaze is two-thirds down that path, he said.
A smaller 1,700-square-foot unit opened recently in Winter Park, Fla. | Photo courtesy of Blaze Pizza
“We’ve identified ways to reduce expenses in our operations and we’ve reinvested those dollars in ways to measure speed of service, quality and guest experience,” he said. “And we’re taking that knowledge and putting that into new operating processes and new products.”
Kent, the "dough whisperer," left the company in March, and the culinary team is now led by Matthew Eland.
On the menu, for example, the chain is testing new products, like a new meatball entrée. The chain is also exploring handheld items, like foldover flatbreads, new desserts, seasonal toppings and more regional flavors specific to each market.
The brand is considering value offerings that might include combo meals, for example. Earlier this year, Blaze began monthly promotions, like a loaded pepperoni for $8.99 in June or a kids-eat-free-on-Tuesday deal in August.
The chain is looking at smaller stores and new formats. Blaze units are typically about 2,000 square feet but a recent location in Winter Park, Fla., opened with about 1,700 square feet with less in-store seating, for example. Delivery and pickup sales at that unit have exceeded expectations, Guajardo said.
The brand is also working on a delivery- and pickup-only format. And Guajardo sees non-traditional growth as an opportunity, particularly on college campuses.
Blaze outlets could go as small as 1,200 square feet and the company is looking at equipment that might not require venting.
Using ghost kitchens is also an option he is exploring as a lower-cost way to serve customers where they don’t have traditional stores.
In addition, Guajardo would like to see Blaze grow overseas.
The brand has only 20 international locations, in Canada and the Middle East, though an agreement has been signed to open in Bahrain.
In June, Guajardo brought in Kevin Moran as chief development officer and Johnny Tellez as chief operations officer. Both had worked previously with Guajardo at Focus Brands.
With that infrastructure in place, Guajardo said the chain is poised for what will essentially be a relaunch of the brand next year, he said.
“All aspects of production, packaging and handling have to be explored if we’re going to win in this space, and we are doing so,” said Guajardo.
Getting delivery right
Fundamental to Blaze’s evolution will be building off-premise sales. About 70% of the chain’s systemwide sales are in-store and about 30% is off-premise.
“I would expect in the next couple years that will be closer to 60/40, or even 50/50 in some locations,” he said.
Blaze did have the advantage of using back-of-the-house makelines in restaurants to assist with delivery and digital orders, even before the pandemic. But the brand was not set up for off-premise business in other ways.
The packaging wasn’t designed for delivery or taking home leftovers to reheat, for example. Restaurants don’t have heaters for pizzas to be stored while awaiting pickup or delivery. Those are things Blaze is working on.
For the “eat-at-home” consumers, Blaze offers a 14-inch pizza with a thicker crust that travels better in box and is designed for sharing, available only online or through the app, or third party.
Joe Stein, a Blaze franchisee with 13 units in Southern California, said he would love to see new products on the menu that are “breakout and craveable.”
But he also hopes to see more focus on digital sales.
“I think there are opportunities for us to improve out digital experience, pickup and delivery,” he said.
A big part of building profitability is also boosting throughput, and the company is exploring other changes that could both reduce labor and waste and increase speed, Guajardo said.
Stein, however, sees throughput as one of Blaze’s strengths. “I think our peak is 170 pizzas in one hour,” he said. “I don’t think MOD can do that.”
Walking the line
Jim Mizes, Blaze’s former CEO who retired in 2019, said Blaze—and MOD Pizza, for that matter—will likely be forced to reconsider the core idea of walking the makeline and building a pizza all for one price.
What both Blaze and MOD learned during the pandemic was that margins are better with digital sales.
It’s a lesson modeled by chains like Chipotle, for example, that have worked to better utilize back-of-the-house makelines that require fewer workers and move quicker without guests asking for more of this ingredient or that.
“You get better food utilization and better food costs,” said Mizes.
One idea could be charging a bit more when guests walk the line to build their pizzas in store, versus digital ordering, he said.
The premise of going down the line is still relevant, Mizes added, but the world has changed
“In 2013, it was a $7.95 pizza and a $9 per hour employee. Fast forward to 2023, and it’s a $20 per hour employee and an $11-$12 pizza. That’s not better,” said Mizes.
Blaze is a chain built with big dining rooms for a lunch crowd, but if sales are shifting to off-premise dinner, he said, then “those dining rooms become dying rooms and that’s a real challenge.”
Fundamentally, he added, “If the restaurant isn’t profitable because the world has changed, close it. The heartbeat of every franchise brand is profitable restaurants. End of statement.”
Guajardo, however, argues that Blaze wins when it comes to the in-store experience.
More than 70% of Blaze’s sales are build-your-own pizzas, he said, and he is not a fan of automation, or pizza robots, increasingly seen in the space.
“We are an artisanal pizza brand,” he said. “We believe it’s that personal touch of someone working with you to make your pizza that is difficult to be replicated by technology.”
But the chain is looking at other ways to eliminate “non-value-added activities” by workers to increase efficiencies in stores.
More will be revealed in the first quarter next year.
“If you love Blaze today, you’re going to really love Blaze tomorrow,” said Guajardo. “Think of it as reintroducing our customers and new customers to a new way to Blaze.”