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Putt Putt to the Pizza Hut [VIDEO]

Button 1: “Putt Putt to the Pizza Hut” was written, performed, and filmed by talent local to Wichita. The mini Mustang belonged to franchisee Dick Hassur.

A Fraternity of Franchisees

When family businesses expand, they usually rely on relatives and friends to run branch operations. A franchise is different. In this arrangement, a person or persons operates their own facility but they do so making sure that they maintain corporate standards. For a company like Pizza Hut, this allowed the business to expand without having the take on costly loans required to build and set up each new location. Low franchising fees and a spirit of camaraderie and togetherness fostered by the Carneys led to the development of a close-knit and loyal group of franchisees. At first, franchisees came from within the Carneys’ inner circle of friends and employees. Afterward, new waves of franchise holders from outside that initial group came in, bringing fresh energy and new ideas to the table. Franchisees bought into the Pizza Hut way of doing business as modeled by Dan and Frank Carney. Said franchisee Howard Wilkins:

“It was a fraternity, a process of trading and exchanging ways of getting better and more efficient—which was fed, encouraged, nourished all the time by the Carneys.”

The fraternity image was more than just a figure of speech. Many of the early franchisees were actually fraternity brothers. Dan and Frank Carney were members of Alpha Gamma Gamma fraternity at what was then the University of Wichita. In 1958, this local fraternity joined Beta Theta Pi.

Initially Pizza Hut didn’t require its franchisees to contribute advertising funds, although the company and the franchisees worked together to expand Pizza Hut’s brand awareness. Out of the need for a unified franchisee voice on advertising came the International Pizza Hut Franchise Holders Association (IPHFHA). The IPHFHA eventually expanded its scope, becoming a direct conduit between Pizza Hut and its franchisees. The Carney brothers made a habit of listening closely to their franchisees, gathering ideas, responding to criticisms, and sharing best practices.

When the Carneys handed control of Pizza Hut over to PepsiCo, the IPHFHA had to adjust. Where shared decision-making was the order of the day with the Carney brothers, PepsiCo implemented a more top-down structure. Franchisees and PepsiCo leaders initially butted heads on everything from advertising to support structures.

It took some time for PepsiCo and the IPHFHA to see eye-to-eye on business matters. However, after a time PepsiCo began leaning on the institutional knowledge of the franchisees, and the franchisees saw the benefits of standardized agreements, new product development, and standardized growth. As franchisee Al Lee remarked, “At times [the relationship between PepsiCo and the IPHFHA] got a little heated…But all in all, from my personal experience, it was a very, very good marriage.”

Images:

LEFT: An early Pizza Hut franchise.

RIGHT: Pizza Hut franchisee Ken Wagnon shares his thoughts during a 1975 documentary about the restaurant chain. Courtesy of the Carney Collection, Ablah Library Special Collections.

The First Franchisees

Throughout the early-to-mid 1960s Pizza Hut owned and operated a number of different locations across the Wichita metro area. Dick Hassur (pictured below), who was having tremendous success running Pizza Hut #3 on East Harry Street, was tapped to open the first Pizza Hut outside of Wichita. After looking at less-than-ideal locations in Junction City, Hassur and Dan Carney found a promising spot in Topeka. Hoping to capitalize on business from nearby Washburn University and Forbes Field Air Force Base, Hassur opened the first Pizza Hut franchise in the Seabrook neighborhood of southwest Topeka on October 29, 1959, nearly a year and a half after the opening of the original Pizza Hut in Wichita, some 125 miles away.

The Carneys set up a unique arrangement with their franchisees. Instead of limiting franchisees to opening one location at at time, Dan and Frank set up a territorial system, first with cities, then with geographical regions. While there might be many different McDonald’s franchisees in a city, only one Pizza Hut franchisee owned and operated all locations across that same metropolitan area. Dan Carney’s rationale for this decision was simple: “We didn’t want our franchises competing with each other. We didn’t want to worry about them having different price structures.”

Dick Hassur’s Topeka location was the first in a wave of Pizza Hut franchises opened in the early years.

Soon, Pizza Huts popped up in Kansas City, Lawrence, Emporia, and Pittsburg. These restaurants were the bellwethers for a surge in Pizza Huts that would soon open across Kansas, the United States, and eventually, the globe. The Carneys’ innovative franchising agreements paved the way for Pizza Hut to quickly become the largest pizza restaurant chain in the world.

Yet for all the sophistication of the franchising agreement, the real value for franchisees was in the trust they had in the Carney brothers. Everyone who did business with Pizza Hut knew that a handshake from Dan Carney was as good as any contract. Dan’s word was his bond, and Pizza Hut franchisees repaid the Carneys with respect and loyalty.

Image:

Dick Hassur was Pizza Hut’s first and one of its most successful franchisees. He famously claimed that some day there may be as many as forty or fifty Pizza Huts nationwide. Turns out, he was being modest. Courtesy of the Carney Collection, Ablah Library Special Collections.

Supply, Demand, Expand

In the beginning, Dan and Frank Carney supplied the original Pizza Hut with ingredients from their family market. When Pizza Hut franchises began to spring up across Kansas and the lower Midwest, Dan would drive a van from restaurant to restaurant, delivering everything from tomato sauce to toothpicks.

But the Hut’s supply chain demanded too much of the Carney brothers. Dan had to wash his clothes nightly to rid them of the smell of garlic; Frank developed an allergic reaction to the spices that irritated his skin. The more time the brothers spent on the road delivering mozzarella and napkins, the less time they had to spend growing their fledgling business.

As they had so many times before, the Carneys’ Wichita connections came through. The Carneys had purchased ingredients from the Farha family’s wholesale grocery business. Franchisee and former Carney fraternity brother Larry Payne partnered with Farris Farha, who belonged to Wichita’s growing Lebanese-American business community, to start a business to supply Pizza Huts with the ingredients and supplies they needed.

But Pizza Huts do not live on dough alone; they also require supplies for the front and back of the house, from tablecloths and candles to pizza ovens and steel pans.

Amil Ablah’s Ablah Hotel Supply had previously supplied Pizza Hut with the durable goods they required. In 1968, Ablah joined forces with Farha and Payne to create Franchise Services, Inc., which, according to Ablah, provided Pizza Hut the “efficient distribution system” it needed to supply its growing businesses across the US.

Image: A young Frank Carney sits in his father’s car outside the C&M Market. Later known as Carney’s Market, the family store was the first supplier to Pizza Hut. Courtesy of the Carney Collection, Ablah Library Special Collections.

Farris Farha [VIDEO]

Button 1: Farris Farha talks about his history as a Pizza Hut supplier and friend of the Carneys.

Button 2: Farris Farha remembers Pizza Hut’s corporate culture and reflects on Pizza Hut’s impact on the business community in Wichita.

Friends and Family

In the beginning the Carney brothers relied heavily on the contributions of friends and family to keep Pizza Hut moving forward. While Frank concentrated on day-to-day operations and quality control during those first months, Dan focused on strategy and where to open the next store. Business picked up once Wichita University came back into session, and by December of 1958 the Carney brothers opened a second location focused on carry-out just east of downtown Wichita on the corner of First and Cleveland streets. Pizza Hut #2 was run by Dick Beemer, a friend of Frank’s and former employee of Pizza Via, Wichita’s only other pizzeria.

Tapping Beemer to run the second restaurant established a pattern for Pizza Hut in the early days. Although not true, those close to the operation joked that you had to be Catholic or a fraternity brother to one of the Carneys in order to work at a Pizza Hut in Wichita. Indeed, many future Pizza Hut employees, managers, and franchisees knew the Carneys from either church or school.

The early Pizza Hut restaurants were often kept open on shoestring budgets and through herculean efforts on the part of the Pizza Hut employees.

Most Pizza Huts needed three employees: one rolled out, tossed, and trimmed the dough; another ladled on sauce and applied toppings; and the most experienced employee, called the “ovenman,” tended the pizza as it baked, cut the pie once it came out of the oven, and either prepared the pizza for carry-out or dine-in service.

It didn’t always works that way. Franchisee Larry Kriegh recalled days where he ran the entire restaurant by himself, taking food and drink orders, preparing and cooking the pizza, and serving the finished product to the customer once it came out of the oven. “I did it all,” Kriegh recalled. “Things were so tight that we didn’t have a lot of extra money to spend on labor. So, you just worked the hours to get it done.”

Images:

LEFT: Frank Carney, Bob Chisholm, and Dan Carney meet to review the books.

RIGHT: Dan, Frank, and Bob celebrate Pizza Hut’s 14 millionth pizza, 1966. Farris Farha recalled the shock of a particular supplier during those years, who exclaimed, “They’re all just a bunch of kids!” Courtesy of the Carney Collection, Ablah Library Special Collections.