Ranks #9 On Franchise 500 List
January should be declared National Pizza Month in Hocking County as two more pizza shops opened this week, making a total of seven different pizza choices for local residents. Pizza Hut is one of the two latest shops to recently open in Logan. The second one is Utopia on Main Street in Downtown Logan (more on that to come later).
Pizza Hut of Logan is a franchise of America's Pizza Company, LLC, which was founded in 1998 with the acquisition of 23 Pizza Hut restaurants. It has since grown to 127 locations in Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas.
Since opening day, customers have swarmed Pizza Hut and there's been a steady stream of people leading out the door onto the sidewalk waiting to pick up their food.
"This is a great community with great things going on," said director of operations Kevin Snyder. "When we came down and looked at the area, we fell in love with it. It's a perfect match for Pizza Hut.
"Everyone we meet is friendly, and look at our staff � they're always smiling and happy," he said. "We couldn't ask for a better crew than we have. They have a great attitude, are friendly. They are just phenomenal."
While some customers prefer to dine in, Pizza Hut of Logan is carry-out only, but it still offers all the great foods other Pizza Hut restaurants offer, such as pizza, wings, pastas, bread sticks, garlic bread, fried cheese sticks, pizzas for one, desserts and soda.
When I visited the shop Wednesday, Snyder was gracious and offered pizza and hot cinnamon apple pies. I had never eaten the apple pies, but they are now on my most-wanted list of desserts.
Brad Arthur is the local manager and is hoping to add delivery service in the future.
"It's been perfect since opening � a steady stream of customers and so far it's been great," he said.
Arthur plans on joining the Logan-Hocking Chamber of Commerce and will coordinate the grand opening at a later time.
So far 29 people have been hired, with another 15 positions available. "I love it here," said Tiffany Chandler of Logan, who is one of the cashiers for the new Logan business. "It's been busy, but everyone is nice and it's a great place to work."
Although there are only two ovens, the employees appeared to keep up with online, call-in and walk-in orders. It didn't seem as though there was a backlog or dissatisfied customers complaining in the lobby, which is equipped with a monitor to give the customers an idea of when their order will be ready. There's also a television available for the little ones to watch cartoons while their parents wait for their takeout order.
While there are future plans of delivery service, there also may be plans for expansion, depending on how business continues to grow. "We've had several questions on why we didn't build a full service dine-in like in Lancaster, but we weren't sure how receptive this would be, plus we were limited on space here," Snyder said.
"We really like this area because we are close to everything," he said. "We have the caves and hiking trails close by, plus the lake, and Downtown Logan. This is the perfect location for us at the moment."
Altogether there are seven pizza shops in Logan: Pizza Hut, Utopia, Little Caesar's, Christy's, Domino's, Bob's and Pizza Crossing.
Pizza Hut of Logan is located at 12900 State Route 664 South in the shopping center. Call 740-380-0030 to place an order.
Franchise Ranking History
Franchise 500�: #9 (2014), #10 (2013), #9 (2012), #13 (2011), #15 (2010), #7 (2009),
Fastest-Growing: #66 (2013), #13 (2012), #6 (2011), #11 (2010), #65 (2009),
America's Top Global: #8 (2013), #8 (2012), #11 (2011), #12 (2010), #7 (2009)