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Peter Riggs saved Pita Pit once. But can he do it twice?
Two decades ago, Riggs was a student at the University of Idaho and loved his local Pita Pit. After graduating, he and some friends bought a few franchises in California, and then asked for a development agreement for the whole state. Instead, the Canada-based company asked them to take over all U.S. operations. "They were ready to move on," Riggs says. So he and some partners bought the business, grew it to 250 locations, and sold off their stake in 2018. But during the pandemic, the U.S. brand shrunk to 65 locations. So this last March, Riggs (who'd become an Idaho state senator) returned as U.S. CEO.
To save Pita Pit again, he knew he'd have to work with his remaining franchisees — but they were distrustful. "There hadn't been a lot of support from corporate in the years we were gone," he says. "The only way I could convince these franchisees that everything was going to be OK is if I said it to their faces." So he bought a camper van and hit the road. Fifty thousand miles later, he has some lessons to share.
Were those hard conversations with Pita Pit's remaining franchisees?
It was me just listening for the most part. Some of them wanted to vent, even though I wasn't there when this stuff happened and I wasn't responsible for the global pandemic. They needed a release valve, so I could be that. So I sat there and let them take it out on me.
What did you learn from them?
We're on a lot of college campuses. One big problem was that Pita Pit started out 25 years ago selling a $5 or $6 sandwich. Now it needs to be a $10 sandwich, but that's pricey for college kids. They wanted something smaller, and we had nothing. So we had to introduce more sides and hearty snacks, like our Greek Grilled Cheese, to get those customers back. It's half a pita grilled with limited ingredients for $6, depending on location.
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Did the franchisees accept your ideas for the future?
We have a design we're prototyping for a drive-thru-only unit, and we want to make our stores look better. Some franchisees disagreed — they wanted things to go back to the late '90s and 2000s. I said I couldn't do that, and we were helpful with people who wanted to get out, finding new owners for their locations.
You also visited distributors. Why?
You have to be very careful with pita bread or it breaks and becomes unusable. Sometimes what we tell our food-distribution network doesn't get through at the warehouse level. So I went to the warehouses and talked to the guys.
That sounds unusual.
They said no CEOs ever go there and ask for their feedback. They're dealing with problems too, including labor shortages. It made them feel valued. It's important because if something goes wrong, there's somebody at the local level I can call.
How long did those warehouse visits take?
An hour, max. If you think about how rarely somebody is acknowledged for doing their job — we're all people. Treat people with respect, and it makes everything easier.
These sound like conversations full of life lessons.
Well, my marketing team asked me to document this trip, so I turned the inside of my van into a podcast studio. We launched the podcast Vantastic Voyage. I interviewed restaurant executives, marketing executives — I wanted to get a feel for broader topics of discussion across the industry. Just see where the conversations went. We think there's a really cool opportunity to redefine the way we've been doing the fast-food business.
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