Iraq Vet Franchisee Featured on Lou Dobbs

Lou Dobbs, a hard-hitting news program, regularly runs stories on military heroes. This evening’s program (Sunday, November 25) featured Iraq veteran Robbie Doughty and the unusual way he got involved with his own Little Caesars Pizza franchise, located in Paducah, Kentucky.

By way of background, Little Caesars was founded in 1959 by Michael and Marian Ilitch, who are still active in the business. Michael is a former Marine who also owns the Detroit Tigers and the Red Wings. A talented baseball player in his younger days, he was assigned to the Marine baseball team in Hawaii during the Korean War.

The Lou Dobbs video isn’t available at this time, but here is the transcript, which I typed up directly from the program:

CNN: Help for Heroes

Christine Romans (newscaster): One American business is saying “Thanks!” to our military veterans in its own way. Kitty Pilgrim talked with one of those veterans and the president of the company that helped him.

Kitty Pilgrim (news anchor): Just over a year ago, take-out pizza chain Little Caesars began offering veterans the opportunity to purchase a franchise at a significant discount. Now the program was inspired by the story of Army Staff Sergeant Robbie Doughty, who was seriously wounded in Iraq. Now Doughty received a franchise from Little Caesars, and he joins me now and along with Little Caesars president, David Scrivano.

And thank you for being here, gentlemen. Robbie, tell me, how did you come to be involved? How did you learn about the franchise offer, and how did you come to be involved?

Robbie: Well, it was a little strange. I’d just gotten back to Paducah (Kentucky). I’d been home for about a month or two from my recovery at Walter Reed. And I got a weird message from my parents, they said somebody from Little Caesars had called. Now I’d grown up with Little Caesars Pizza as a kid, but I never knew anybody at Little Caesars, so it was kind of strange. So I called him back, and I spoke to a representative and they said the founder, Mike Ilitch, wanted to talk to me. And so they arranged a time for us to talk, and Mr. Ilitch said he’d read a newspaper article about me while I was recovering at Walter Reed, and he wanted to do something for me, and so he offered me this Little Caesars Pizza franchise.

Kitty Pilgrim: And so you’ve been running it a year now or so.

Robbie: Right, we opened January 23rd, of 2007, and it’s been great.

Kitty Pilgrim: Wonderful. (Turning to David Scrivano, president, Little Caesars) David, tell me a little bit about why this initiative started. It’s so very important to the veterans.

David: Robbie was really the inspiration behind our veterans program. After Robbie took his store, Mr. Ilitch and I talked, and he wanted us to do something more, to thank the veterans and give back to ‘em, so we created the Little Caesars veterans program, where we offer significant discounts for veterans who join to become a franchisee, a franchise owner of their own.

Kitty Pilgrim: How many takers have you had so far?

David: Well, so far, nearly two dozen have joined already, and signed, and we’ve had over 1300 inquiries, so we’re very excited, the response to the program has been overwhelming.

Kitty Pilgrim: And if there are too many clustered in one area, is there a limit, or . . .

David: Well, Little Caesars is growing across the country, and we’re really a strong brand and a well-known chain, and we have areas and opportunities throughout the country.

Kitty: Robbie, take me through a typical day in running your business now?

Robbie: Uh, typical day, our day is centered around our lunch and dinner rush. We normally come in about 8:30 or 9 o’clock in the morning, get the store ready and it’s all downhill from there. We’re a really fast-paced business with the hot ready pizza concept, so our goal is to give somebody a pizza in 30 seconds or less (a pepperoni or cheese pizza). So it’s really fast-paced fun environment to work in. I like to go out and work at some of the different pizza stations myself. I try to let my managers manage, I don’t go out and micromanage, but we have fun there.

And I have a partner, served in Iraq with me, Lloyd Allard. So we work with each other, and I have my brother and brother-in-law work with me, so it’s a family affair, and so I get to work with my family and friends, so it’s a good time.

Kitty: Great. You were injured in Iraq, you mentioned that you went through rehabilitation. It’s a physical business, running a restaurant.

Robbie: Absolutely.

Kitty: How are you dealing with that?

Robbie: I know what my own limitations are, and we’re fortunate enough to have a small office in the store, so I can go out and work for a while, and then if I need to go sit down, then I can go sit down for a few minutes.

You know, I’m missing both my legs, one above the knee, and some people might look at that as an obstacle, but in the military we’re used to obstacles and we’re used to overcoming them and it’s very doable for someone with a traumatic injury like that. Take a career, like Little Caesars Pizza and run with it, and have fun with it, and you’ll have it for life.

Kitty: David, you’re offering this to a lot of veterans, how do you determine whether they’re capable of running a store like this?

David: Well, veterans that are interested would go to our website at littlecaesars.com, and they’re connected to the Center for Veterans Enterprises. And the CVE helps screen candidates, to make sure that it’s a win-win for both the candidate and Little Caesars. And after they’re done going through their screening, they’ll come in to Little Caesars for an interview, to make sure there’s a fit.

Kitty: Do you think, Robbie talks about working with other family members, are you likely to team up some veterans with a partner?

David: Oh, absolutely, we recommend veterans teaming up with other veterans, just as Robbie did. Robbie and Lloyd are a great partnership, they’ve got their spouses involved, Lloyd’s got his kids involved in the business, and it’s just a great family environment.

Kitty: And do you give them some business training, as opening a franchise is a serious business, isn’t it?

David: Oh, absolutely, very serious, we want serious people, we want to get in. We offer six weeks training before they get in the business, and then we have ongoing support, with real estate, and finding sites, architecture and training ongoing beyond that.

Kitty: Robbie, you’re about to open another one, did you tell me?

Robbie: Right, we’re opening our second store in Clarksville, Tennessee, here in just a few weeks. And I just want to kind of echo what Dave said from a veteran’s perspective, especially one that is looking at the veterans program. Little Caesars support has been phenomenal. Their training process was excellent. I mean, Lloyd and I really felt fully prepared to open that store and the support doesn’t stop there. I mean I can call up Little Caesars today and if I needed help with something, they’d be glad to help me out

Kitty Pilgrim: We wish you every success. Thanks very much. Robbie Doughty and David Scrivano.

Update: The Lou Dobbs interview has just become available on-line, you can see it here.