Your Pie and Toppers Pizza Take Advantage of Fast-Casual Pizza Boom

The fast-casual pizza market is growing, with Your Pie and Toppers Pizza* leading the charge.

Drew French founded Your Pie in Athens, Ga. in 2008. Since then, the franchise has opened 22 locations nationwide and is looking to continue its growth in 2015.

Meanwhile, Toppers Pizza is making a splash in the Second City. A new location recently opened up in Chicago’s Wrigleyville neighborhood, one of 10 Chicagoland locations the franchise is expected to open this year.

Although these are two separate franchises with different life stories, they do share one philosophy: Providing a customized consumer experience.

French sat down with Brenda Smith of Pizza Market Place to discuss Your Pie’s growth. He told her he believes that, “People want fresh, they want customized, they want to control their experience.”

This is why he began offering customers the opportunity to customize their pizzas, and business has been growing ever since.

Meanwhile, Wrigleyville Toppers Pizza General Manager Amber Stark recently told DNAinfo that guests can expect a fun environment in addition to unique pizzas.

"It's usually very popular with the college crowd, and you can tell [Wrigleyville] is a very fun environment," Stark said. "We're known for our specialty house pizzas, which are a lot of fun."

2015 is an exciting time for the fast-casual pizza segment, and Your Pie and Toppers Pizza are significantly contributing to its growth and development.

Click here to read the full story on Your Pie and here for the article on Toppers Pizza.