LAROSA’S INC.
What: Cincinnati-based pizzeria chain, founded in 1954, serves pizza, pasta, sandwiches and salads
Headquarters: Cincinnati
Phone: 513-347-1111
Chief Executive Officer: Michael LaRosa
Website: www.larosas.com
Restaurants: more than 60 company- and franchise-owned
Employees: Approximately 3,500 include workers at company and franchise restaurants, bakery, call center and administrative operations
Three generations of Cincinnati-area residents have been served LaRosa’s pizza, relishing the sweet sauce and other favorites.
Now the locally-based pizza chain, which happens to be celebrating in March its 60th year of business, wants to grow outside of the Cincinnati Tristate, with plans to expand to Columbus, Ohio, and the Knoxville, Tenn., areas, said Michael LaRosa, chief executive officer.
“We like to think we are the pizza company in this part of the country as far as our loyal following,” LaRosa said. “I think the future growth will be some of those larger metropolitan cities within a few 100 miles of Cincinnati.”
Currently, LaRosa’s Inc. has more than 60 stores in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio including a mix of company- and franchise-owned locations. Michael LaRosa’s father Buddy LaRosa founded with other partners the pizza business in Cincinnati’s Western Hills area in 1954.
Brother Mark LaRosa is president and chief culinary officer.
While Cincinnati natives have grown up on LaRosa’s, introducing a homegrown brand to an outside market has its challenges. The family-owned company learned that when it expanded north to Dayton in 2001, Michael LaRosa said.
It’s better to open smaller footprint restaurants rather than overbuild in places where it has less brand awareness away from home, LaRosa said.
“I think the most delicate thing to evaluate is that in our core market as we call it, and Cincinnati and northern Kentucky is our core market, the awareness of brand LaRosa’s is extremely high. People grew up with it,” he said. “That’s a special thing which equates to pretty strong sales on a per unit basis.”
“When we go to Tennessee and Columbus, we’re going to be careful that we don’t overbuild the stores,” he said.
However, LaRosa’s is hoping its dining rooms and family atmosphere, and an equally strong non-pizza menu including salads, pastas and sandwiches, win customers over in new markets.
“I think we’re one of the few pizza places that if you don’t feel like having pizza tonight, you want to have a dish of spaghetti or you want to have a good salad… I think the quality variety over all of our menu takes care of the veto vote,” LaRosa said.
Additionally serving as a competitive edge, Great American Ball Park, Paul Brown Stadium, Cincinnati Zoo, Kings Island and other venues sell LaRosa’s pizza exclusively. As attractions that draw visitors from out-of-state, LaRosa’s hopes these arrangements introduce potential customers to the brand.
“We really want to be a family pizza restaurant,” LaRosa’s said. “At our core, we enjoy serving families and friends pizza and Italian food in our restaurant. We also want to deliver and have carryout, but the dining room is sort of core to our business model.”
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