Franchisee Voices: Justin and Jacob Patterson of Your Pie

Justin Patterson and his brother Jacob took over Your Pie CEO Bucky Cook’s Roswell, Ga., Your Pie store and planned a grand re-opening before Super Bowl weekend 2015. The store was actually Your Pie’s first non-corporate owned store in the brand’s history when it opened five years ago. Justin, 25, and Jacob, 27, are both graduates of the University of Georgia and plan to open five more Your Pies in the next five years.

Tell us a little bit about your background.

I (Justin) am the youngest of four boys; Jacob is my brother. We attended the University of Georgia and that’s where we became familiar with the Your Pie brand. We ate there when we were at school all the time. After graduation, I took a job in North Carolina and spent three-and-a-half years there and I decided I wanted to change it up. So we started looking at a number of different businesses and that’s when the franchise got started.

Jacob studied business management at UGA and I studied finance. We grew up about 20 minutes north of Roswell in Cumming, Ga. We’re pretty familiar with the area since we played so many sports in high school – including against Roswell High School.

My brother started a demolition business and began flipping houses, so he was working for himself for a few years. We decided to jump into this business venture together. I’m 25-years old and Jacob is 27.

We heard that Bucky Cook was interested in handing off his Roswell store to owners that could be more hands-on, and we were really interested in that.

Why did you choose to become a franchisee with Your Pie? How did you learn about the brand?

Well, neither one of us has significant experience in the restaurant industry. We wanted to look into a business opportunity that we were interested in from the start. Since we knew of Your Pie, we looked a little closer. We liked the concept and the taste was awesome, too. Everyone in the area likes it. At the same time, I am a bit of a craft beer nerd and fan. That was an element that attracted us, too. We looked at this franchise and we thought it was a relatively safe investment. There are 24 stores open now but they plan to double that size in a year. There’s a very positive growth trned coming so now’s a good time to get involved.

But it’s important to say that this is not a new store. It was the first non-corporate store that Your Pie opened. Drew French asked Bucky Cook if he was interested in opening his own store and he agreed and put it here. So, it’s been open for five years but it needed more hands-on ownership and that’s why we took over. Our plan is to do a grand re-opening the weekend of the Super Bowl. We want to update the pricing on the menu – make it cheaper via the one-price model – and we want to repaint the place, remodel the bathroom. Just freshen it up. We’ll start taking orders online, too.

What’s next for you and your business? Do you have any development/expansion plans with the brand?

The reason we purchased this store was because we want to open multiple We’re looking at other areas. We want to build it and eventually double our revenue. In 6-8 months, we’ll be planning for another tentatively set in the Kennesaw State area. We want 4-5 Your Pies open five years from now.