Q&A &pizza’s Andy Hooper, president and chief operating officer &pizza starts a new chapter, accelerates expansion Fast casual &pizza is turning the page on a new chapter in its growth. In July, it hired two, new executives and promoted Andy Hooper to president and chief operating officer. The Washington, D.C.-based chain also opened a new store on Wall Street in Manhattan, marking its 36th location. In this Q&A, Restaurant C-Suite dives into further detail with Hooper, who will position the pizza chain for growth, overseeing business operations. Restaurant C-Suite: This is an exciting time for &pizza and the company has expressed aggressive growth plans. What are three key ingredients that will help you double stores in the next couple of years? Andy Hooper: First, our Tribe—aka our employees. People are at the center of our recipe for growth. Our primary focus is on developing new shop leaders from a group of existing employees and Andy Hooper. developing them for future leadership opportunities along the path. Next up is format innovations: Our cube kiosks and mobile locations are chances to learn about new markets and establish our profiles there. Then there’s site selection. We have focused our real estate strategy on leveraging our people pipeline, operational infrastructure, and brand recognition here in the mid-Atlantic coast. Most of the immediate new shop development will be geographically concentrated near our existing shops in the greater D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York markets.
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&pizza shop at UPenn in Philadelphia. Photo by &pizza.
RCS: Can you shed more light on expansion plans (next couple of stores to open, which markets, what types of stores, etc.)? AH: We can’t give out exact details on the next few shops to open just yet, but we’ll definitely be expanding our fleet in the DMV area. We’re gonna keep playing around with new shop formats. We can open a 300-square-foot kiosk and generate as much revenue at peak meal periods as we can in a 2,000-square-foot shop. We can roll out a mobile location that’s basically just a shop on wheels—which helps us save money in terms of real estate. You should see more cubes and more trucks on the road in the future.
