And for good reason. It is quite an honor to be named No. 1.
“We were really shocked that we made it to number one,” Marion’s Piazza CEO Roger Glass told Fisher. “For a little pizza place in Dayton, Ohio, and especially with the way the economy has been in Dayton, to achieve this honor is wonderful, and it’s a testament to our employees and to our customers.”
The magazine uses gross sales as its criteria, measuring all pizzerias with nine or fewer restaurants in the “independent” category. Marion’s, which added its ninth store in Mason in November 2012, had $19.35 million in annual sales, Pizza Today said on its website.
Marion’s “has stayed true to its roots of large dining rooms and a consistent menu,” the magazine’s editors said in its “Top 100” article. Marion’s smallest restaurant seats 275, and six of its nine restaurants seat more than 500.
As Fisher noted, the opening of the Mason restaurant was only the second expansion for the 47-year-old chain since 1991. In February 2012, Marion's opened its eighth restaurant in Troy.
Investment pays off
Accelerant, the entrepreneurial development arm of the Dayton Development Coalition, reported last week that it saw a significant return on its investment in Spintech LLC as that company exited Accelerant’s Dayton Region Signature Fund.
Spintech works with polymer technology. The company has successfully commercialized products from two divisions, Smart Tooling and Gemini Materials.
“This is the most profitable exit from the fund so far,” said Joel Ivers, vice president of entrepreneurial development at Accelerant, in a statement. He said that the payment back to the fund included an annual return in excess of 30 percent over three years. That money is split among the fund’s limited partners, most of whom are in the Dayton area.
“The Dayton Region Signature Fund was our first investor, allowing us to stand-up the company and attract additional investment,” Craig Jennings, president of Spintech,” said in a statement. “We are grateful for the strong support we received from the DRSF Team even prior to their actual investment and continuing right up to our exit.”
Ivers is currently opening up a new fund, called Accelerant Fund I, to create about 30 new start-up companies in the Dayton area over the next few years.
Got news for the Bizinsider? Email Jim Dillon at jdillon@coxohio.com.
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