Domino’s Pizza has turned over a large slice of its remaining company-owned restaurants in metro Atlanta to franchisees, the company announced.
Four local operators on Monday completed the purchase of 30 company-owned locations, leaving Domino’s with eight owned restaurants locally. Metro Atlanta has 118 Domino’s, the company said.
The company said former Domino’s executive Mike Orcutt purchased 14 locations, giving him a total of 93 stores in Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina. Through Orcutt’s company, Cowabunga Pizza Inc., Domino's former vice president of operations remains the largest franchisee of the company's restaurants.
Domino’s also sold nine stores to franchisee Greg Fox, giving him a total of 38 stores; five stores to Todd Dyrda, giving him seven stores; and two stores to Tim Garrett, making him a franchisee for the first time. Garrett is a former supervisor at Orcutt's Cowabunga Pizza.
"There are terrific, proven operators in Atlanta, and this is an opportunity for them to grow,” said Scott Hinshaw, Domino's Pizza executive vice president of franchise operations and development. “Local, hands-on leadership is crucial to our success worldwide, and Atlanta is an important market for us.”
Domino's plans to sell its remaining eight local restaurants to franchisees at a later date and said it has closed two restaurants, in Hiram and Hampton.
In June, Atlanta-based NRD Holdings LLC, one of the country's biggest operators of franchised fast-food restaurants, purchased 23 Domino's Pizza restaurants in Florida. The purchase included 17 restaurants in Jacksonville and six in Orlando. With the deal, NRD is now among the top 25 Domino’s franchisees in the United States.
As of the 2nd quarter, Domino's has a network of 9,436 franchised and company-owned stores in the U.S. and more than 70 international markets.
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