When no cash is on hand, pizza will do

By Leon Stafford

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

When Tony DeMartino and Michael Gavenchak bit into a slice of pizza made by the family of New York pizzamaker Vito DiBartolo, they knew they had found a little of the Big Apple in north Georgia.

The pair, chief executive officer and president, respectively, of Atlanta-based advertising company The Titan Agency, were so enthralled that they pitched an idea: Titan would be the agency of record for the family's chain, PizzaVito.

The only problem: the small chain couldn't afford Titan's fee.

So instead of payment, Titan has become a franchisee of the Gainesville, Fla.-based pizza restaurant.

"In lieu of a fee, I said ‘We'll take Georgia,'" said DeMartino, who is a native New Yorker as is Gavenchak. "We believed in the concept so we are pretty much betting on ourselves."

Titan opened the first PizzaVito in Roswell recently, and hopes to open about 20 of the restaurants in metro Atlanta. The agency hopes to grow the business to be a contender in the $35 billion pizza industry, which is dominated by Pizza Hut, Domino's and Papa John's.

"We really think there is opportunity for a fourth player," he said.

The stores will be small -- about 1,200 square feet at a build out cost of about $250,000 -- and operate like a Subway franchise more than a sit-down restaurant.

And Gavenchak said PizzaVito is not another pizzeria claiming New York credentials, but using products from wherever cost is cheapest. The dough is shipped from New York. So is the water. And the tomatoes and tomato sauce are imported from New Jersey.

In addition, they are using a Cuppone pizza press from Italy that can flatten dough in one second, enabling them to make 400 to 500 pizzas a day.

"Pizza has become so commoditized," DeMartino said in explaining why the company is going to such lengths for the product. "There's nothing special about it."

But what does an advertising agency -- whose job is to lure customers to eateries through a clever turn of phrase and colorful pictures -- know about making products.

Not a whole lot, Gavenchak said. That's why Titan has hired a general manager to oversee the operation.

"We're hands-off the business," Gavenchak said. "Neither one of us has been behind the counter other than to tour it."

The company has had experience as an advertiser for franchisees, including Arby's and Chick-fil-A.

Mark Newton, program director of the hotel, restaurant and tourism management program at Gwinnett Tech, called the move clever. He said what better way to know the product that you are marketing than to see it from conception to completion.

In addition, he said it shows that Titan is thinking creatively in tough times.

"You can't do in 2009 what you were doing in 2006," he said.