2007 Dynamic Dozen Honoree: Incredible Pizza Co.

Four Springfield banks refused to give Rick Barsness a loan to open the original Incredible Pizza Co. five years ago.

Restaurants are risky investments, and convincing lenders to fork over $5 million to finance a pizza parlor with goofy games wasn’t easy.

These days, banks are a little more willing to lend money to Incredible Pizza Co.

Last year, the Springfield-based chain turned about a 20 percent profit and generated more than $36 million in revenues.

Store No. 9 was scheduled to open March 9 in Pasadena, Texas, and Chief Financial Officer George Ward predicts that the company will have about 15 stores operating by year’s end, generating $60 million in revenues.

“That’s only 66 percent,” Ward said, chuckling about the company’s anticipated growth this year after growing at least 70 percent in each of the last three years.

Ten years from now, Incredible Pizza Co. should be a $500 million behemoth with more than 150 stores worldwide, Ward said.

“Now, everybody wants in,” said owner Barsness, who is still pretty loyal to Mick Nitsch, the banker who eventually financed Incredible Pizza Co.’s flagship store at 2850 S. Campbell Ave.

Nitsch, community bank president for The Bank of Missouri in Springfield and former community bank president for Regions Bank in Springfield, has since financed locations in Tulsa, Okla., and San Antonio.

“Rick’s an entrepreneur, and I think sometimes bankers have to think like entrepreneurs,” said Nitsch, expressing his pride in the burgeoning business he helped start. “It can be very difficult.”

Filling a niche

“The success that we have enjoyed has really been overwhelming to me – more humbling than anything else,” said co-founder and President Larry Abbe.

Incredible Pizza Co., which began franchising in 2004, has stores in Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas, but the rest of the country isn’t far behind.

And after selling 20 stores last year to Mexican franchisee Gonzalo Barrutieta Losada, the rest of the world isn’t far behind, either. Barsness and crew already are negotiating with potential franchisees in China, Venezuela and Canada.

“We’ll stay aggressive as long as we can,” Ward said.

So why has Incredible Pizza Co. been successful?

“We’re filling a niche” for affordable family entertainment, Abbe said.

Incredible Pizza Co. was designed as a cross between Chuck E. Cheese’s and Dave & Buster’s, similar businesses that cater to either kids or adults. Barsness, wife Cheryl and Abbe wanted their restaurant to appeal to all age groups.

Barsness also said the pizza buffet generates repeat business, with the average customer visiting every six weeks, he said.

“We’re always bringing in new games, and new attractions, and new rides and new stuff, but it’s really the food that drives the business,” Barsness said. “We are food people who are in the game business.”

Veteran pizza man

Barsness should know how to make good pizza. He started in the business in 1974 as a Mr. Gatti’s franchisee in Texas, owning as many as 12 restaurants at one time.

He sold his stores in 1999 to start his own chain, though he didn’t have the concept for Incredible Pizza Co. developed until around 2001.

In 2003, Barsness settled a lawsuit with Mr. Gatti’s Pizza, in which Mr. Gatti’s claimed Barsness used proprietary information gained as a franchisee to start Incredible Pizza.

For the $1 million settlement, Barsness is required to make annual payments of 1 percent of Incredible Pizza’s net sales through 2013, though that hasn’t slowed the company down a bit.

Barsness had never lived in Springfield, but he decided to base his company here because it’s centrally located and because it’s a good testing ground for new restaurants. Though Incredible Pizza Co. has operational offices and a corporately owned store in Tulsa, Okla., the company’s headquarters has always been in Springfield.

Barsness said Springfield has more restaurants per capita than most places in the United States, so if a concept flies here, it’s likely to fly anywhere.

“This concept really has legs,” Barsness said.[[In-content Ad]]