CiCi's Pizza

CiCi's Pizza

Type	Private
Industry	Restaurants
Founded	Plano, Texas (1985)
Headquarters	Coppell, Texas, U.S.
Key people	Mike Shumsky (CEO)
Products	Pizza, salad, pasta
Website	www.CiCisPizza.com

CiCi's Pizza is an American buffet restaurant chain based in Coppell, Texas,^[1] specializing in pizza. There are approximately 600 franchised and corporately owned restaurants in 35 states. A family-oriented concept, CiCi’s is known for its popular pizza, pasta, salad and dessert buffet featuring up to 20 varieties of pizza, all offered for about $5 per adult buffet.”

History

Joe Croce and Mike Cole founded CiCi's in 1985 in Plano, Texas.^[2][3]

In 2001, with 380 restaurants at the time, the chain expanded its buffet offerings and began remodeling restaurants.^[3] Four years later, CiCi's had more than 500 locations, and was the fastest-growing pizzeria in the United States.^[4] In 2003 Croce retired from the business, and passed ownership of the company to Craig Moore, a general manager in Dallas. Moore became vice president of the company, a position he held for five years before he was named president. As president of the chain, Moore oversaw the company's operations and franchise growth, eventually announcing his retirement in 2009, after 17 years with the company.

Michael Shumsky took over after Moore retired in late 2009. (He had previously served as CEO of La Madeleine Restaurant, Inc.)

In addition to its current 600 restaurants, in 2010 CiCi's announced plans to add another 500 restaurants in the next 10 years. CiCi's has won numerous awards and has also been named one of the top 25 performing brands by The Wall Street Journal and a top 200 franchise concept by Franchise Today.

Recognition and awards

CiCi's macaroni and cheese pizza

Since 2004 CiCi's Pizza has held third place in the pizza category for Restaurants & Institutions "Consumers' Choice in Chains" contest, which is judged based on consumer reviews of the competing restaurant chains.^[5] In March 2009 Men's Health included CiCi's Pizza in its list of America's Healthiest and best Restaurants.^[6]. Most recently, In 2011, Zagat recognized CiCi’s among its list of most child-friendly fast-food chains and the same year, CiCi’s was named No. 1 in its category in Entrepreneur’s Franchise 500 list. In 2010, CiCi’s was named to Inc. Magazine’s top 5,000 list, and to Parents’ list of top family-friendly restaurants. Its commitment to value has been recognized by USA Today, Restaurants & Institutions and Nation’s Restaurant News, which ranked CiCi’s No. 1 in sales and unit growth among pizza chains for the past four years.

References

1. ^ "Contact Us." CiCi's Pizza. Retrieved on February 25, 2010.
2. ^ Voorhis, Dan (2002-07-06). "Fast Growing Dallas Pizza Chain to Open Store in Wichita, Kan.". The Wichita Eagle. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-122898028/fast-growing-dallas-pizza.html. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Quinn, Steve (2001-10-05). "Locally based pizza chain is pursuing growth Cici's launches a new look and expands its trademark buffet". Dallas News. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=DM&p_theme=dm&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0F0546AFAFA6B6FA&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
4. ^ Shlachter, Barry (2005-07-05). "CiCi's budget buffets propel company to fastest-growing pizza chain.". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-9430917_ITM. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
5. ^ Consumers' Choice in Chains Winners, 2004-2009
6. ^ CiCi's Pizza Scores Top Marks on Men's Health 'Eat This, Not That!' Report Card

External links

	Dallas-Fort Worth portal
	Companies portal
	Food portal

• Official website