Mountain Mike’s CEO on thriving in an off year for pizza

Take-Away with Sam Oches

Nation's Restaurant News

Business, Entrepreneurship

2.5 • 15 Ratings

🗓️ 3 June 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Jim Metevier, CEO of Mountain Mike’s Pizza, a California-based brand with more than 300 locations in 10 states. Pizza as a category had a pretty rough year in 2024, with the major players mostly seeing flat or negative traffic over the prior year. Mountain Mike’s, meanwhile, enjoyed year-over-year sales growth of 5% and unit growth of 7%. So how did this pizza concept with big-box stores and a hybrid service model manage to thrive last year while so much of the category sputtered? Jim joined the podcast to share the secret to that success and what exactly the American customer is looking for with their pizza experience.

In this conversation, you’ll find out why:

Pizza is an experience and should be treated as such
We have a loneliness epidemic, and restaurants play a role in treating it
The best franchisees are those who are entrepreneurial
In these volatile times, your franchisees need to understand the long-term vision
How you activate the brand in your community is just as important as how you activate it within the four walls

Have feedback or ideas for Take-Away? Email Sam at [email protected].

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey there, welcome to Takeaway with Sam Ocas, a podcast from Nation's Restaurant News.
0:04.4	I'm Sam Ocas, editor-in-chief of NRN, and this is the show where I give you an all-access pass
0:09.1	to the restaurant industry's most influential decision-makers.
0:12.7	This week, I'm talking with Jim Mativier, the CEO of Mountain Mike's Pizza, a California-based brand
0:19.1	with more than 300 locations in 10 states. Pizza as a
0:23.5	category had a pretty rough year in 2024, with the major players mostly seen flat or negative
0:30.1	traffic over the prior year. Mountain Mike's, meanwhile, enjoyed year-over-year sales growth
0:35.3	of 5% and unit growth of 7% according to Technomic.
0:39.6	So how did this pizza concept with big box stores and a hybrid service model
0:43.7	managed to thrive last year while so much of the category sputtered? Jim joined the podcast
0:48.5	to share the secret to that success and what exactly the American customer is looking for
0:53.3	with their pizza experience.
0:55.2	In this interview, you will learn more about how restaurants play a role in treating a loneliness
0:59.8	epidemic, why the best franchisees are those who are entrepreneurial, and how you activate
1:05.1	the brand in the community is just as important as how you activate it within the four walls.
1:10.8	As always, be sure to like and subscribe to Takeaway on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to
1:15.7	podcasts.
1:16.6	Please also leave your feedback on those platforms as it is a great way to share the show
1:21.0	with new listeners.
1:22.2	You can also follow me online where I am most active, which is LinkedIn, or you can also
1:26.7	follow me on TikTok at
1:28.4	Takeaway Sam. That's at Takeaway Sam. Jumping now into my interview with Mountain Mike's CEO,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Nation's Restaurant News, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Nation's Restaurant News and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.