Incredible Pizza heads down south

Founder Rick Barsness said the company, which now has its headquarters in Tulsa, Okla., has a new franchisee for all of Mexico.

Gonzalo Barrutieta Losada, whose family owns Grupo Gigante, comprising 119 RadioShack stores, 110 Office Depot Stores and more than 200 grocery stores and cafeterias, spent a month in negotiations with Barsness to reach a 20-store franchise deal with Incredible Pizza.

“He has already done his homework,” Barsness said.

Barrutieta will pay the same franchise fees as his American counterparts – $50,000 per store and 5.5 percent of sales thereafter. His first stores, slated for Monterrey and Mexico City, are to open next year.

Domestically, Incredible Pizza has locations in Springfield, Tulsa and Warr Acres, Okla., and Conroe, Sugar Land and Champions, Texas. The Springfield location is at 2850 S. Campbell Ave.

By early 2007, stores will open in St. Louis, Memphis, Tenn., and San Antonio, Pasadena, Euless and Victoria, Texas.

See SBJ’s July 10 issue for more on Incredible Pizza’s Mexico franchisee.