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Sudbury pizza franchise firing up for more

The franchise has expanded quickly in the last three years and the owners see the business expanding even more across Northern Ontario, and beyond.
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Rob, Chelsea, Suzanne, and Brennen Chaput started the family-run franchise in 2014.

What started off as enthusiasm for pizza nights with his family has grown into a full-blown business for Rob Chaput.

Chaput, his wife Suzanne, and his children Chelsea and Brennen loved the flavour and experience of making wood-fired pizza at home.

“It's a great family thing to cook together. We always found we liked something different than what was available,” said Chaput.

The experienced entrepreneur decided to make the smokey, wood-fired pizza available to more people by importing ovens from China and selling them to Costco, although it took some convincing and hands-on work.

Chaput and his son Brennen went to the Ottawa Costco head office and made pizza for all of the buyers in their parking lot.

“They were very impressed with the ovens and even more impressed with the pizza we were serving them,” said Chaput. “On the way back I mentioned to my son he might want to consider this as a job in a couple years.”

In 2014, after two years of selling the ovens, Brennen started considering it.

With the help of his dad, the teenager opened a roadside tent called Fired Up Pizza in New Sudbury with the ovens his dad sold on Canada Day 2014. Chaput said they focused on an authentic Italian, thin crust pizza.

“It's as thin as you can get and still hold pizza,” said Chaput, although they've varied their approach a little to create “an Italian-Canadian fusion pizza.”

“In Italy, they're very light with toppings. We've gone more the opposite way and we're very generous with toppings,” said Chaput.

Their unique pizza was a hit.

“It only lasted a month with the demand, then we upgraded to a larger oven in a trailer instead of an event tent,” said Chaput.

By the end of 2016, what started with Chaput, Brennen and his friend has grown to well over 50 employees spread between six different Fired Up Pizza franchises in town.

The various franchise locations vary somewhat in their setup. 

After the first location opened, the next store was one in Sudbury's west end. Those two now operate as seasonal locations, only open for the summer months.

The next location is a restaurant in a restaurant. The pop-up like location in the Taphouse Northern Grill and Pub in the city's south end operates year-round, and taps into customers already heading to the pub.

Two permanent, sit-down locations opened up in the last year in neighborhoods further from the core – one in Azilda to the northwest, and one in Lively to the southwest. 

Their most recent permanent location opened deeper in the city's northeast end in November, and Brennen is doing all of the training at that location.

Despite their superficial, location differences, Chaput said as the franchise has grown, product standardization has been a top priority. This has included technology like automatic saucers to make for more consistent quantities, and a conveyor belt for their ovens to speed along the process.

And while they started making the dough themselves, they've since contracted the recipe out to their major food supplier so each location uses the same dough.

“Now that we've refined the system, we feel we're ready to expand. We've been working the bugs out to make sure we're as efficient as possible,” said Chaput.

There are Northern options, and Timmins and North Bay are on his radar, but Chaput is also looking at a location in Mexico, although the details still need to be worked out.

“We're just learning as we grow,” said Chaput. “We see where some of the challenges are, and we're continually trying to adjust and find the business model.”


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