Extreme Pizza vs Cottage Inn Pizza Franchise Comparison

Below is an in-depth analysis and side-by-side comparison of Extreme Pizza vs Cottage Inn Pizza including start-up costs and fees, business experience requirements, training & support and financing options.

Start-Up Costs and Fees

 
Extreme Pizza Franchise
Cottage Inn Pizza Franchise
Investment $209,200 - $462,500$200,000 - $350,000
Franchise Fee $30,000$15,000
Royalty Fee 5%5%
Advertising Fee 1%3%
Year Founded 19941948
Year Franchised 20001986
Term Of Agreement 15 years-
Term Of Agreement 15 years-
Renewal Fee --


Business Experience Requirements

 
Extreme Pizza Franchise
Cottage Inn Pizza Franchise
Experience
  • Industry experience
  • General business experience
  • A minimum net worth of $100,000 A minimum of $60,000 in liquid assets or financing or a combination thereof Five Star Customer Service for staff and customers alike Product Quality — using only approved ingredients and the amounts set forth by the Cottage Inn Standard Operating Procedures Professional Image — uniforms should be clean and pressed, and employees should be well-groomed at all times. The Right Personality As a member of the food service industry, our franchisees must have the right personality, too. We look for clean-cut professionals who will take pride in being a Cottage Inn franchisee. We also look for candidates who are strong leaders, can motivate a staff, and treat customers with the utmost care and respect. In the food service industry, it’s important that your store pass the white glove test every day. Safety is always a concern when it comes to proper food handling. To be a successful Cottage Inn franchisee you must also understand profit and loss statements. You need to input tools to measure your expenses on an on-going basis. We lay out what has been successful for Cottage Inn throughout our corporate stores and we want to make sure each franchisee who joins the Cottage Inn family follows the same equation to success.


    Financing Options

     
    Extreme Pizza Franchise
    Cottage Inn Pizza Franchise
      In-House/3rd PartyIn-House/3rd Party
    Franchise Fees No/Yes-/-
    Start-up Costs No/Yes-/-
    Equipment No/Yes-/-
    Inventory No/Yes-/-
    Receivables No/Yes-/-
    Payroll No/Yes-/-

    Training & Support

     
    Extreme Pizza Franchise
    Cottage Inn Pizza Franchise
    Training While our pizza may be extreme, you don’t have to be. The Extreme Team is dedicated to providing you everything you need for success. All Extreme Pizza franchisees are thoroughly trained in all facets of the business operations, marketing, finance, inventory control, food preparation, purchasing and scheduling. Our training, combined with our negotiated vendor pricing, allow our restaurants to maintain impressive overall cost controls. Our intensive and extensive 6-week training program we believe prepares you for everything that might come your way while owning a local fast-fresh, made-to-order pizza business. Prior to opening a new location, we require that all franchisees be thoroughly trained in all facets of running a pizza business. As part of the initial franchise fee, we provide hands-on training at our Extreme Pizza® corporate offices and restaurants in San Francisco and on location as well. While in San Francisco, new franchisees work with the corporate training team for up to 4 weeks where they learn food and product preparation, food and labor management, human resource management, customer relations, financial management, inventory and cost control and marketing. Additional on-site training in the new restaurant for 2 weeks solidifies the training in your actual local restaurant kitchen and community.

    Cottage Inn offers a world-class training program

    On-The-Job Training: 240 hours Classroom Training: 6 hours

    Support Of course it’s impossible to learn everything in six weeks that our team has learned in more than twenty years of a doing business. Which is why we provide you with a rock-solid support system to help you throughout your entire Extreme Pizza franchise experience. Once your store is up and running, an Extreme Pizza business coach, and the rest of the corporate team, will be available for ongoing support and training. As necessary, we will make visits to your location to provide one-on-one counsel. Additionally we will provide group training sessions open to all franchisees throughout the year, and will offer the opportunity to attend regional meetings and seminars that will enable you to meet and mingle with other franchisees in the Extreme Pizza system.

    On-going support to keep your store running successfully and smoothly. We want you to succeed, which is why we offer our support and advice gained from years of experience in the pizza industry. We’ve been in the business since 1948 and operate 40 locations in two states, so it’s safe to say we know how to run a business. Purchasing Co-ops Newsletter Meetings/Conventions Toll-Free Line Grand Opening Online Support Security/Safety Procedures Field Operations Site Selection Proprietary Software Franchisee Intranet Platform

    Marketing Co-op advertising, Ad slicks

    We collaborate with a digital marketing agency to help make Cottage Inn the top-ranked pizza company in relevant markets across Michigan, Ohio and Indiana. Cottage Inn employs an in-house creative team and offsite agency to produce a myriad of digital marketing vehicles, including e-blasts, mobile CRM, social media (Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, FourSquare, Instagram). We also leverage traditional print solutions such as bulk mail menus, EDDM (every day direct mail) cards, magnets, box toppers and door hangers. We also invest in branding the Cottage Inn name, making us more desirable across all relevant markets. Cottage Inn is the Preferred Pizza Provider at MIS (Michigan International Speedway) where we serve over 100,000 guests at NASCAR events and the Country Music Festival. Cottage Inn engages franchisees in strategic marketing meetings to receive their input on marketing campaigns and new product development. We also help franchisees market their specific stores via community fairs, business expos, entertainment venues and more. We are family first at Cottage Inn, having been owned by the same family for over 65 years! How we market each of our franchises: Dynamic corporate website with pages dedicated to each franchise location Convenient online ordering A loyalty program to attract and retain customers Mobile marketing to engage with the on-the-go world E-marketing to offer the best deals to our dedicated customers Traditional print marketing menus, direct mail, door hangers, box toppers, magnets and specialty pieces Social media to engage our most dedicated consumers. Branding by way of special event sponsorships

    Operations

    Number of employees needed to run franchised unit: 7

    Absentee ownership of franchise is allowed. (90% of current franchisees are owner/operators)

    Cottage Inn maintains control of its product and distribution by operating a 22,000 square foot commissary in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Fresh products are delivered weekly and our warehouse staff is always on call in case of emergency. Cottage Inn produces fresh dough daily. For locations more than 200 miles away from Ann Arbor, we encourage and assist franchisees with setting up their own dough production. This assures a fresh, high-quality product and will help you secure a customer for life.

    Absentee Ownership Allowed

    Number of Employees Required to Run: 15


    Expansion Plans

     
    Extreme Pizza Franchise
    Cottage Inn Pizza Franchise
    US Expansion -Yes
    Canada Expansion NoYes
    International Expansion No-

    Company Overviews

    About Extreme Pizza

     Extreme Pizza® began in 1994 in a small 20 seat location on Fillmore Street in downtown San Francisco. Since then we have added new menu items and have been awarded many accolades over the years including "Best Pizza in San Francisco”, the East Bay and in other Bay Area communities numerous times.

    Extreme - From the Start

    Todd Parent-Founder It’s only natural that CEO Todd Parent would be the founder of a fresh concept named... Extreme Pizza. Born within the New York Metropolitan Area, Todd grew up on pizza. An avowed fan of extreme sports such as mountain biking, windsurfing, sailing, kite sailing and downhill skiing, Todd used his love for fierce competition and his culinary roots to formulate a concept devoted to serving the perfect pizza.

    About Cottage Inn Pizza

    At Cottage Inn we believe that if you're going to craft a pizza, it should be to a certain degree of perfection and that you should never skimp on the quality of your ingredients. It's these two simple statements that drive our process for constructing truly gourmet pizzas.

    Veteran Incentives  10% off franchise fee