Donatos knows the best way to run a pizza business, because we do it ourselves.
We have 55+ years of perfect pizzamaking behind us. And a very bright future ahead of us thanks to our Franchise Partners and associates who have embraced our business model, processes, and belief that every piece is important.
“I believe that good people making profits can do great things with money, so it’s important to be in the right business.”
Jane Grote Abell
Chairwoman of the board
Restaurants run right.
We know how to efficiently run pizza restaurants because we manage over 15 million transactions per year ourselves. We use our 54 company-owned restaurants as testing grounds for new processes and menu items before they are launched with our Franchise Partners. That way, you can be confident that new additions have been thoroughly vetted for efficiency and profitability. Here are just a few of the ways that you benefit:
- Our efficient kitchen allows you to prepare popular pizza items in advance to meet peak demand
- You will have predictive intelligence to calculate delivery times and number of drivers needed each day
- Our website and mobile app make it easy for guests to order and improve your average guest check
- Our restaurant design is flexible so you can enhance the guest experience and your profit potential by adding a patio, pick-up window and/or a selection of craft beer
- We stand out from the pack in the materials we use to build our new restaurants, the service we offer our guests and the hospitality we extend to all
“The Donatos team really knows pizza restaurants and how to run them efficiently. They share all their years of learnings with us to help our restaurants operate at the highest levels.”
Sean Byrne
Multi-Unit Franchise Partner
Consistently delicious.
You could say that we’re more than a little bit fanatical about providing a consistently delicious product every time: It’s embodied by our motto: Same Pizza, Anytime, Anywhere. For our Franchise Partners, that dedication has led us to develop systems that take the guesswork out of running your franchise.
We make the dough.
Our proprietary Famous Thin, thick, and hand tossed pizza crusts are made at the home office bakery and shipped to your location. This is to ensure a consistent product from location to location and from pizza to pizza.
We set the standards.
To reach peak pizza perfection, we developed a formula that explicitly spells out how much to use of each ingredient by weight and specific bake times. This allows our restaurants to focus on pizza production, reducing food costs, and delivering great customer service.
We innovate the menu.
Our Menu Innovation Team has extensive experience and constantly tests new menu options to ensure that our offerings are on-trend and keep customers coming back for more. Meet our team behind this innovation.
Cynthia Ottavio - Director of Menu Innovation
Cynthia studies competitive data and customer feedback to ensure we deliver on flavor and demand. She leads the charge on executing changes to existing menu ingredients and new product roll-outs. With a background as impressive as her palate, she’s worked for brands such as Thornton’s, Wendy’s, ConAgra Foods, and Hardee’s.
FAVORITE MENU ITEM: Hot Chicken Pizza
Chef Lenae Hott - Senior Coordinator of Menu Innovation
By watching trends, Lenae keeps us current on food trends and spearheads production technological advancements. Prior to joining the team, she built up impressive experience as a chef, sous chef, kitchen manager, catering and purchasing manager and overall restaurant Renaissance woman.
FAVORITE MENU ITEM: Hot Chicken Pizza
“It is a tremendous advantage to the Franchise Partner that Donatos supplies the restaurant with pizza crusts that are ready to go. It saves you time, there’s less labor costs and fewer inconsistencies.”
Mike Simon
Multi-Unit Franchise Partner
Pizza perfection.
There are eight key ingredients that make our pizzas stand out from the competition and ramp up the crave factor for our brand fans and newbies alike.
1 Thin crust pizza that’s party cut, so there’s more to go around!
2 We put 100 pieces of heritage pepperoni on every large thin crust pepperoni pizza.
3 Our pizzas are loaded Edge to Edge® with toppings so your pizza is consistent, and there’s no more fighting over the best piece.
4 No artificial flavors or colors in our pizzas, subs, or salads.
5 We use real aged smoked Provolone cheese because it’s more flavorful.
6 We take pride in our dough: it is baked to golden perfection and finished with a sprinkle of cornmeal for extra crispness.
7 The chicken in our pizzas, subs, and entrée salads is sliced natural white meat.
8 We slice our fresh Roma tomatoes, onions, and green peppers each day for our pizzas, subs, and salads.
5 Points of distribution. 5 Ways to boost your bottomline.
Together, this combination drives your bottom line better than other fast-casual pizza restaurants.
Delivery
Pick up
Drive-up Window
Eat-In
Catering
Ongoing training and support and a team behind you.
You’ll have the support of these industry experts:
Field Marketing Manager
- Annual plan development
- Local opportunity exploration
Local Store Marketing
- Website, social, and email communication of promotions
- Media and PR services
- Marketing dashboard insights and intelligence
Franchise Business Consultant
- Weekly profitability report
- Monthly P&L review
- Annual business plan and budget development
- Best practices report
- Three restaurant visits per year to provide feedback on operations and to train associates
You reap the rewards.
With double-digital sales growth since 2013 and a 2019 Average Unit Sales Volume of $1,140,443*, Donatos restaurants have a 35% higher Actual Average Unit Volume (AUV) than the average of the Top 5 Pizza Chain in the US**. Our sales, fueled by our tremendous average check, make Donatos a rewarding franchise opportunity.