1851 Profile with Heidi and Jim McGregor, Toppers Franchisees in Texas

Toppers Pizza*, a progressive delivery pizza brand based out of Whitewater, Wisconsin is an eclectic, quirky and edgy concept that interacts with fans on a personal level. Toppers delivers its customers mouth-watering pizza in a refreshing and unique way. With innovative food creations such as Topperstix (cheesy breadsticks) and Q’Za (pizza’s spicy quesadilla cousin) paired with an original and playful attitude, Toppers continues to rapidly expand and gain loyal fanatics nationwide. We would like to introduce you to Heidi and Jim McGregor, a Toppers Pizza franchisee duo spearheading growth of the brand in Texas. Heidi McGregor is a Traverse City, Michigan native with a degree in Engineering Bio-Mechanics from Michigan State.  Upon graduation, Heidi began working as an engineer for one of the world’s largest leading medical technology companies. She currently works in pre-hospital sales for them in Fort Worth, where she opened Texas’ first Toppers Pizza with her husband Jim. Jim McGregor is originally from Toronto, Canada.  Jim previously worked his way up through the automotive industry, starting out by washing cars and eventually became a service manager with BMW.  Jim currently owns Professional Ambulance, an ambulance dealership, and brought Toppers Pizza to Texas along with Heidi. How did you learn about the brand? We were looking at various franchising opportunities and we particularly wanted something completely different from the medical field, our current industry. We felt that going into a new field would allow us some safety when it came to diversifying our assets. We live near TCU and began doing research on what businesses would best fit the demographics of the area. We noticed there were no late-night food delivery options in the area and this seemed to be a service that would have great potential with students. We had previously found out about Toppers from a business journal, so we did our due diligence and knew it was the perfect fit for us. What was appealing to you about joining a franchise system? We wanted to join Toppers in particular because it is a smaller company and offers their franchisees incredible support. Having never been in the restaurant business before, we knew that we needed to work with a company that could offer great support but also has a proven method for success. Toppers Pizza really has gone above and beyond to help and we believe in their system. What makes your business different? The late-night delivery and unique items, for example Topperstix, are probably the strongest difference between us and the competition. Toppers brings great energy to the environment. There is so much excitement and it really resonates well with our target market around the university. What are your expansion or development plans? After our first location opens, we plan on opening a second location in the area within a year. We would like to have four to five locations in the future. Do you have any other interesting hobbies or passions? One of our greatest passions is traveling. Our favorite places to visit are San Jose Del Cabo in Mexico and Seaside, Florida, and we try to visit these locations every year. We also love to be outdoors and jump at any chance we can to go boating at our lake house.