Pizza Franchise Has Strength In Family

There's a lot that's famous about Famous Famiglia. The Kolaj family, which founded the Manhattan-born pizza franchise in 1986, added "famous" to the company name after a respectable number of celebrities would stop by for a slice. Photos of visiting luminaries such as Nicholas Cage, Barbra Streisand and Ashley Judd adorn many of its restaurants.

More recently, Famous Famiglia was tapped to join the Business Hall of Fame. The Business Council of Westchester, which sponsors the award, announced last month that it had selected the company for the Family Business category. The awards ceremony is April 18.

It's a classic American success story.

As President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Kolaj tells it, the family left its native Albania in eastern Europe in 1969 for Italy, where his father died.

A year later, their mother led her brood of five children, the youngest just a few months old, to the United States.

They settled in an apartment in the South Bronx. No one spoke English. There were plenty of entry-level jobs for which language skills weren't essential: cooks, cleaners, delivery service. Paul Kolaj was 5 when they moved; four years later, he was bagging groceries.

By 1986, the scrambling was paying off. Kolaj and his three brothers had amassed enough cash to open their first business, a pizzeria at 96th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. There was 325 square feet of space, and room for four diners to sit. They called the pizzeria Famiglia, Italian for "family." Things picked up.

Today, the company has about 60 locations around the world, half are owned and half are franchised, with average annual sales of more than $1 million per unit, Kolaj said.

There are 16 locations in the five boroughs of the city, including outlets at La Guardia and John F. Kennedy International airports. It is the official pizza of Yankee Stadium and Madison Square Garden.

Famous Famiglia's association with all things New York has been a selling point as it continues to roll out its franchises around the world.

It has locations in 19 airports, including Hong Kong International Airport. It struck a franchise deal last year to open 20 stores in five years in Mexico; the first opened in January in Cancun. There are Famous Famiglia pizzerias at U.S. Navy bases at Pearl Harbor and Pensacola, Fla. There's one in downtown Shanghai.

Helping to fuel the global rollout is the family's decision to sell a 50-percent stake to DeBartolo Holdings, a diversified real estate business based in Tampa, Fla. Kolaj said his family, which holds management control of the company, expects to have 200 units operating in five years.

Locally, the company sells pizza on Mamaroneck Avenue in White Plains and nearby at the food court at The Westchester mall. The family moved its headquarters from Manhattan to an office on Main Street in White Plains in 2003 to reduce the commute of its members, who now enjoy life in the suburbs.

John Kolaj, 39, is chief operating officer and lives in Armonk with the family's matriarch, Rosa Kolaj.

Giorgio Kolaj, 37, executive vice president-corporate business development, lives in Bedford.

Tony Kolaj, 45, director of quality control, lives in White Plains. Paul Kolaj, 42, lives in Brookfield, Conn.

"We really focus on one thing and do it well," Paul Kolaj said. "This has become our vehicle to our American dream."

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