July 9, 2025 • 39 mins
Kevin currently serves as the Donatos President & CEO and leads the growth of the Donatos Brand through Franchising, Operations, Marketing, People Services, and Technology. Kevin has compiled a distinguished and impressive career in the restaurant industry, one that spans over three decades. Through his professional efforts, King’s work has resulted in the creation of over 1,500 restaurants in six countries. He has served as an executive in various development and operational roles with some of the biggest-named brands in the space, including Smoothie King, Papa Murphy’s, Donatos and Dominos.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Columbus in Central Ohio have a rich history of companies
being headquartered here, everything from technology, manufacturing, retail, insurance, and more.
But what about the leaders behind these companies? What makes
them tick? How do they get their start? This is
where you get to meet the captain of the ship.
Welcome to CEOs You Should Know and iHeartMedia Columbus Podcast.
Welcome back to our latest episode of CEOs You Should Know.
(00:23):
This is an iHeartMedia Columbus podcast. I'm your host, Boxer,
along with this week's guest. First of all, I'm just
gonna it's not a warning. I'm just gonna let you
know right now. You're gonna love this guy's personality. He
won me over even in pre production of doing this.
But Kevin King is the latest CEO and president of
(00:44):
Dinado's Pizza. Of course, if you live in Columbus. Donado's
has been the King of Pizza, the staple of pizza
since nineteen sixty three, and Kevin took it over last
year in twenty twenty four. He is this week's special
guest on CEOs You Should Know. Kevin.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Welcome, Thanks, Boxer, thrilled to be here, appreciate a lot
of fun.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
It absolutely is. Because I have so much to ask
you in the world the pizza and the world the business.
I want to talk about this brand new automated vending
machine that just made its debut at Poor John Glenn Airport.
But first let's get a little bit more about you.
When someone comes to Columbus, or someone that doesn't know Donados,
(01:28):
how do you describe it to them?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
To me, Denados is that neighborhood pizza place with great
tasting food, consistent and abundance. When Jim Grody started Denados,
it was always about high quality and quality and consistency
go hand in hand. So we wanted to make sure
that every Donado's pizza tastes exactly the same. And he's
set out on a mission to make it happen. So
(01:51):
if you want a Donado's pepperoni pizza, whether you get
it at the Columbus Airport or you get it from
your neighborhood, Denados all over Columbus is going to be
exactly this, and it's going to have our large has
one hundred pieces of pepperoni on Where can you get
that anywhere else? So that's how I describe anatus. I
think that's what makes it unique and special.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
By the way, full disclosure, Because you're in front of me,
I might as well tell you this. The restaurant at
the airport, I forget the terminal, whichever one has Southwest Airlines,
it's probably the terminal, Okay, So that one works. That
restaurant works because every time, like we live here, so
we get Tonados all the time. Yet we're leaving for
(02:32):
Florida or somewhere else the West coast and we get
Tonado's pizza before we leave. So I just want you
to know that restaurant clearly works.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Well, that's great.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
You know, if you're gonna get on a four hour
flight to California, what better due and bring a pizza?
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Travels great.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
We have a great franchise e, Robert Lee, who runs
the airport locations for us. He's a fantastic guy, super
involved in the community.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
And he does a great job.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
So love hearing that you love it, and it's fantastic
that we have that great experience. And Southwest brings a
lot of people through Columbus on connecting flights.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Yeah, and Denatus is a part of it. They love
it there.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
We're also in the c Concourse Delta and I tend
to travel out of c more than a but you know,
bringing a pizza on a plane is great and.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Did not smell so good too. Kevin King is this
week's guest on CEOs. You should know an iHeartMedia, Columbus
podcast CEO and president of Dinato's Pizza h Kevin, There's
so much I want to get to with you. You've
had quite the adventure in the restaurant industry. Why don't
we start with where where you were born? Raised, where
you grew up?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Well, I was born in Texas, but I grew up here.
I grew up writing Columbus, moved here as a young kid,
went to school here, I went to Saint Charles and Columbus,
I went to Miami University. So I spent you know,
all my formative years in Columbus.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
You know, been a lifelong Buckeye fan.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Even though I left Columbus for over twenty some years
growing up or after growing up here and coming back,
I took that Buckeye pride with me. It's been a
part of me. And you know, even in some tough places.
I was in Oregon, Duck Country and Portland, Oregon for
eleven years. Wow, and deep in LSU country and New
(04:22):
Orleans too few. But you can't take the Buckeye out
of me. And I'm thrilled to be back in Columbus
and being a part of it. So I did grow
up here, and it's a great place to grow up.
It's a great city. But you know what, it changed
a lot while we were gone. I can't believe how
much Columbus kind of grew up. And leaving and coming
back and seeing how it had changed was really awesome.
(04:44):
And you know what a great city we have.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Yeah. I arrived back in ninety nine and left for
five years to work for a sister cluster in Washington, DC.
And I came back and I looked at my wife
and I said, Wow, this isn't Cowtown anymore.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
No, it is really different and really great. And you know,
there's these these couple key areas that were so much
a part of this changing city. I mean, I think
Bridge Park is one, East End certainly is another. But
even the Short North and the Cap. I remember when
they were first talking about this thing called the Cap. Yeah,
and what a great job that did bringing together like
(05:22):
downtown in the Short North and that's a great part
of town. Yeah, I mean it's all over, it's so much,
it's grown up.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
It's great.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
I mean, Kevin, look what they're doing with the North
Market and that building that's that's gonna be a skyscrape
or a tower.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yeah, I can't believe that myself. I just learned it's hotel,
condo's office. It's all three and you know that's going
to be great for that neighborhood. And uh, you know,
just looking at what the arena district became, because originally.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
It was yeah, it.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Was just the Blue Jackets arena, and now you have
the Clippers are there and the crew h and it's
all connected to both downtown in the Short North.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
I think it's awesome.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Yeah, it's it's wild to see what has happened the
transformation of our great city. Kevin, So you graduate, let's
let's start from here. You graduate from Miami. Had you
already been in the restaurant business before you.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Graduated or it's it's really kind of weird.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
The only I've only been outside the restaurant business for
two years and I worked for Chase. So I started
as a young kid working in a neighborhood pizza place.
It was called Tony's Villa. It was in Westerville and
then in Dublin, and I worked there throughout college. Whenever
I came home from break or needed some money for
the weekend, I would work And so that was great.
(06:42):
And then what do I do when I graduate from Miami?
I got to work for Domino's Pizza. So I've really
been in the pizza restaurant business my whole life. I
never would have guessed that in a million years. But
it's a great career and a great place to learn
work values, social values, and to have a great career
(07:03):
to grow and develop and do lots of different things
in lots of different places.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Kevin, I'm guessing you did everything but the very first
job that you had at Tony's because it was pizza.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
So I was a dishwasher. Okay, I was fourteen years old.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
So you know, it's a beautiful thing about Ohio, and
it's a beautiful thing about Donado's as we still hire
kids at fourteen and fifteen. And I was fourteen years old,
and what was I qualified to do?
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Wash dishes?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
And so I probably did that for my first year there,
and then I grew into doing other things, cook and
ultimately managed. You know, as a young kid, I was
a manager there and I learned a ton about it,
and that is I mentioned it before, but that's one
of the great things about Donado's has always hired fourteen
(07:51):
and fifteen year olds, and what we love about it
is teaching people lifelong skills and values about work ethics,
morals and values. And you know, when we hire kids
at that age, they tend to stay with us for
a really long period of time. And so, you know,
it happened to me as a young kid working for
(08:11):
another neighborhood pizza place, but it's a part of who
Donatos is too, and it's a fantastic thing.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Domino Is. Was that just because you had the dubious
honor of being at Dinados twice, having two stints at
Denado's this is your second obviously was Dominoes just before Donado's?
Or how did that work?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
It was so after I graduated from college, Denado's or
Dominoes was on rapid growth.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
This was in the eighties.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Delivery, you know, fast delivery was still kind of a
new thing, and Dominoes was thirty minutes or free back.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
I was going to say, was that that promotion.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
It was definitely back then. It was a rapid growth
period and I worked for them for close to five years.
It was a great time. I was young, but I
got to do so much, and I was and single,
so therefore I got to take on some challenging things
and challenging places. But some of that challenge took me
(09:08):
to Australia for a year wow, and into Canada. You know,
I was twenty five years old living in Australia as
a Domino's pizza person, so learned a ton there, learned
a lot about the pizza business beyond.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
What a restaurant was. That was my first exposure to franchising,
what is that like?
Speaker 2 (09:28):
What is that? What does how does that business model work?
But also to international and growing and introducing people to
something completely new and different. So it was a great experience,
but that was right before.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Me Naos Kevin, I'm I'm guessing Australia was a big
international market. Are there other countries that might surprise us
that are huge lovers of American pizza?
Speaker 2 (09:53):
That you know, American pizza which you know everybody thinks
it's Italian pizzabout American pizza is a huge thing.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
All around the world world.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Okay, Australia then it was still relatively new. Pizza Hut
and Dominoes were pretty much it back then. I think
Japan has always been a place where pizza's big. Oh okay,
but the beautiful thing is now today American pizza is ubiquitous.
It's everywhere around the world, and it is super popular.
And you know, I read things about American pizza in
(10:23):
Italy which seems so strange and weird, but it is today.
Maybe not the most famous or most popular pizza, but
you know, American pizzas in Italy today.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
It would appear to me that maybe Italy would be
very competitive or I don't.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Think it's high on our list for growth, but you know,
have a time and a place, maybe it will happen.
But I wouldn't say that's where I would jump off
the and say, hey, let's go to Italy and serve
pizza there.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
But you know that can invest a lot in that.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
I think that was.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
True for like Starbucks, right because it kind of started
as an Italian coffee inspiration.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
I don't think Italy was high on their list.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
So all in due time, tell us about because I
know you had a stint at Smoothie King as well, Right.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Yes, I did. I spent time at Smoothie King. That's
a great brand.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Loved it.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
I got to work with the owner. He wasn't the founder,
but he is kind of the modern day founder of
that brand really because he really focused it in on
health and nutrition. And I was a part of their
growth for six and a half years. So great brand.
Really loved it. Learned a ton and to me, that's
(11:37):
what work really is for us is what can you learn?
And you know, what are you going to learn and
how are you going to grow? And then how are
you going to apply that to what's next in your life,
whether it's work or it's helping other people out.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
So you you first arrived at Donato's in ninety nineteen,
ninetety ninety, Jim hired you, I'm assuming.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
At the time, Yes, twenty four stores, all in Columbus,
you know, I think Lancaster was the furthest store away.
So it was great to watch Donado's grow. I was
there for thirteen years, and the thing I'll always remember
is Jim talked a lot about it then, and it
(12:19):
is business. There's more to business than making a profit.
That can't be the reason the business exists. It's got
to be more. And so that was something Jim had
searched on for a long time. Mentors had told him,
you know, business's doggy dog killed before be killed. Yeah,
he just said, there's got to be a better reason.
There's we've got to bring purpose, We've got to bring
(12:40):
values to to business. And so Jim really set out
on proving that you could bring your values to work
and and that you could.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Grow a successful business.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
And I think you know, he's built a number of
successful businesses. He's a great mentor to the whole community,
and it's all built around values. To y, we have
a real simple thing we call gape capitalism. It's uh
it's three main tenants. Our lead with love, follow the
Golden rule, and do the right thing. And so that
(13:12):
kind of sums up what Jim's values were that he
wanted to bring to business and and to really prove
that you could build great businesses, extremely successful and and
keep to those principles and values and do things the
right way.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
And he's he's done that. I love it. I took
it with me and I brought it.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Back with me and uh so, so we talk a
lot about it at at Denato's. I know the Grody
Company does as well. And you know, when Jim started,
you couldn't talk about love and the business. Love and
and work didn't go together at all. And love means
so much more than you know, than emotional love. But
(13:54):
you know, it's just it's just about a better way
to do things. It's bringing things to life through love
and thinking about what you want, how you would want
to be treated. And a lot of times we say,
if you lead with love and you follow the Golden rule,
doing the right things easy because you know what it is.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah, well, I love that. That's such a great message too, Kevin.
What were you responsible for your first time around at Donados?
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Well, I was the only one at Donato's knew anything
about franchising. I was young, but I knew a little
bit about franchising and I started a franchise program in
the early nineties for Donados.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Wow. You started something that that now is your your
core thing right at Donatos?
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Wow?
Speaker 2 (14:36):
And that was about learning, you know, first, what do
we need to do? What what things do we need
in place in order to create a franchise, And so
digging in and learning and setting about what those what
the program looked like, how we are going to grow.
Uh So I was a part of that from the
very beginning. Spent thirteen years build a lot of stores
(14:56):
at Tonado's, kind of cut my teeth into what store
development or store growth look like. And was there during
the time where the family sold to McDonald's and and
I left right before the family bought it back. So
I had a great experience. And you know, I think
I mentioned it a few minutes ago, but work is
(15:18):
about learning. Life is about learning, you know. And I
think if you set about thinking about how life is
a lifelong journey to learn, that's a great premise to
start life with, because you know, we learn every day,
you learn new things, you dig in deep, and and
then you apply your experience throughout life. And I think
(15:40):
it's tremendous. So I learned a ton and I did that.
You know, Donatis was young, and it was aggressive at
the time, and Jim took some young leaders gave him
a lot of leeway to help grow the business. But
we had a fantastic foundation and a great leader.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Yeah, I'm glad you brought up McDonald's because that's the
one thing people are always interested in. I lived through that.
I was here when that transaction happened. Could you for
those that don't know or would just like to, I guess,
get reacquainted with it or what really happened? What happened there?
Speaker 2 (16:19):
You know, there's a time, in a right time, in
a right place for everything. Donato's was doing great ninety
nine when the family sold it to McDonald's and it
started with a growth premise, and you know, it just
didn't pan out the way McDonald's and they ran into
some tough times in their core business and it was
(16:39):
easier to focus in on their core rather than growing
some other businesses.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
At the time.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
They had invested in Chipotle and yeah, Donado's Boston Market
and a few other ventures, and they just circle back
to their core. But Donado's got to circle back to
its core too, So you know, when Jim and Jane
Grody bought the company back from McDonald's in two thousand
(17:06):
and three, it was all about bringing the core values
back to life. So the company shrank a little bit
in the early two thousands and set out a pace
for growth from there and innovation. That's the other part
that Jim Grody has always done is thought about innovation,
whether it's a piece of equipment in the back of
(17:28):
the house that grew into a great company called the
Grody Company today, or our operating system and the process
we use, or our dough system, which is truly unique.
Jim thought about innovation from then. Denado's experimented with taking
bake back in the early two thousands and did some
(17:48):
frozen pizzas for a long time. But we've always been
about innovation and what's next, and never afraid to try
something that is going to make a difference in the
business or not. You know, if you know not everything
you try is going to work. Some of it is
worth the trial, but then you kind of figure out
(18:08):
what your core is. So taking bake was something short
lived for Donado's, but in the end it also made
Denados who we are today. So yeah, it's all great.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Kevin. I know you said you left just before the
family bought the company back from McDonald's, but it just
out of curiosity. I don't know if you can answer this,
but when the family did buy it back, any idea,
what was the vision then? What was the goal? Was
it more innovation? Any idea? What that was from there.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
I think the real goal was preserving the legacy, okay,
because Donato's was a great brand when it was sold
in ninety nine, and it kind of drifted a little
bit during the McDonald's ownership when it was part of
a huge corporation, and especially as McDonald's was struggling a
little bit and it was going to focus its efforts
somewhere else. And Jim and Jane's vision was to bring
(19:01):
it back to the original vision. Yeah, and that is
about a business built on principles and values, a business
that takes care of people, and grow it from there
and prove that Denado's has what it takes to be
a big brand across the country and around the world hopefully.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Yeah, so the family buys Denato's back. You left, Where
did you go?
Speaker 3 (19:23):
I went to Chase Okay.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
You know, I had been in the pizza business my
whole life since age fourteen, and I said, well, let
me go do something else. And it sounds totally wild,
but I was on the retail branch side, and I
was actually on the retail branch development side, so it
was building up branches and I had a great experience there.
But there were things I missed. The pace of the restaurant.
(19:48):
Restaurant business is different than the pace of the banking business,
and I missed the pace of the restaurant business. While
I was there, I learned a ton. I met some
great people. You know what a great story Chase is,
grew out a bank one from Columbus and into the
behemoth that they are to so great again, great brand,
(20:08):
great experience.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
But I knew I was.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Destined to be in the restaurant business and missed it.
And so I took what I learned and applied it
somewhere else.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Wow, Kevin, eventually you would find yourself back at Donados.
You landed back?
Speaker 3 (20:23):
What did you?
Speaker 1 (20:25):
When was that?
Speaker 2 (20:26):
So I came back at the beginning of twenty twenty two.
Jane and Tom Krause, who was the CEO at the time,
we're thinking about succession and what was next for Donados.
Tom was thinking about what was next for him and retirement,
and they reached out to me in twenty twenty one
and we started a conversation, and you know, I was
(20:50):
shocked and flattered at the time, and I actually had
never thought of moving back to Columbus. But we had
great conversations, and it was a great opportunity and my
wife and I were thrilled to be moving back to Columbus.
And you know, like we talked about the very beginning,
what a great community.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
So that's how it started it.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
And I came back in twenty two as the president
and worked with Tom for two and a half years
when and then he retired in October of twenty four.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
So and where were you living before you came back?
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Where were you at?
Speaker 1 (21:28):
You were a Dallas Okay, So you came back. What
was that like knowing that in a few years you
were going to take over the company as the CEO.
What was that feeling like?
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Well, it was exciting and scary at the same time.
You know, and if you don't say it's scary, then
you really haven't given it the thought. Regardless of how
much confidence you have in yourself to take on and
lead an iconic brands, there's some fear and scare in there,
but you know, it was mostly excitement.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
I couldn't wait.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
You know, Denatos is a brand that I always loved,
always respected. Jim Grody and Jane are fantastic people, and uh,
you know, the one thing that I missed during a
time I followed from Afar is how involved in the
community that Jane was able to do and the awesome
things that she did using the power of Denados and
(22:25):
and that. You know, so you got icons in Jim
as a business person, but really Jane too in the
community here and.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
What she's done.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
If if you haven't seen what Jane did down at
the REB Center on the south side of Columbus, bringing
that community back to life, it's super impressive. And she
put a lot of energy into that. And she talks
about talent and treasure, so she put a lot of time, talent,
and treasure into that and it's a fantastic thing for
(22:55):
our community.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Yeah. Boy, she is a pillar of this community too.
I've just a heart of gold. Kevin. I'm not the
greatest at math, but I'm thinking about your timeline here.
It had been over twenty years since you left Denatos.
Twenty years Yeah, so clearly you left a lasting impact
you had to have with Denatos for them, twenty years later,
(23:18):
they're calling to you, like heyn any interest in coming back.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Well, you know, it teaches you stay in touch with
people throughout your life. You never know when things come
around for sure. But again, the Grody family, Denados, Jane
Jim are people I kept in touch with and watched
Denados from Afar and watched what they had done and
(23:45):
how they had turned the business around in the early
two thousands and then really set about growing it and
was so you know, life lesson keep in touch with people.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
It pays off. It's good for you.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
And you know, and I think from Jane or Donato's perspective,
it was I had gone off, worked with a couple
other brands, been a part of some big growth, and
so I could bring some of those lessons back to
Donato's and help us grow for the future.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Yeah, so you get back a little over twenty years
later to Donado's. How different was the business that you left?
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Well, it was the different, It was different and the same.
You know, so that's such a cliche kind of answer.
But what was the same? Let's let's talk about the same.
You know, the product quality, the focus, the attention to
detail on the product quality.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
That hadn't changed it at all.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
And you know, how we care for our people and
our team and the importance that our our team is
to us, that hadn't changed at all. But boy, the
business had changed a little bit. It was coming out
of COVID.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
You know.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
The biggest sharpest.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Thing that kind of I immediately was how the business comes.
In the nineties and early two thousands, it came over
the phone or in person, face to face, and I
come back in twenty twenty two and it all comes digitally.
So it all comes in over the web, and the
customer's experience is all that web experience. And that was
(25:24):
radically different than the business that I had left, so
how important it was. So that was probably the first thing.
And then we had just challenges in the post COVID
world and a little bit of staffing challenges in twenty
two and so we immediately had to dig in on
how can we get better at service, How can we
get better at taking care of our people and reducing
(25:47):
our turnover and making sure that we're a great place
to work. I think Denatis was always a great place
to work, but COVID changed things a little bit and it.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
Was hard. You know.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
The thing about COVID it was hard for the pizza
business was we were busy during the pandemic, and our
people were in the restaurant, they were working, they had
masks on and they were separated from each other inside
the restaurant. But there was a ton of demand and
we had to take care of the customer and the guest,
and so people were going out to restaurants, but they
(26:19):
were ordering a lot of pizza, and so our people
were tired, and so we had to make sure that
we did everything we can to show them how they
were valued, investing them a little bit and create a
better environment.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
For them to working.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Kevin, just out of curiosity, are more people even post COVID,
ordering pizza out versus dining in. I feel like I'm
not seeing as many people dining in anymore now anywhere.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Yeah, the business has really changed. Okay, you know, the
beautiful thing about pizza is it's portable.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
I like to say pizza is.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Is about fun, family and sharing because it's a food
that you order a pizza for the family or two,
or hopefully order four or five for your family.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
But yeah, that's us.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
But you share, you know, you you it's not where
everybody orders their own meal. So it's a meal that
people love to share and they love to be around family.
I don't think you can say the word pizza without smiling,
and so it's always a fun occasion. So people love
that in their home and that that has changed, and
(27:30):
that trajectory was on that path anyway, COVID just accelerated.
Oh okay, you know, so you know people still like
to dine out. They tend to dine out for other
occasions because pizza is a great one to have at home.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Yeah, Kevin, I want to get to this new automated
Vendi machie you have at CMH. But to your point
about the work shortage, I want to read you a
quote from the robotics company you partnered with. He said,
Covid exposed some realities in the restaurant business. There is
a labor shortage, especially in the quick service industry in
(28:04):
places like airports, hospitals, and universities. The hope is that
this robot that automated vending machines will help fill that void.
Was that part of this goal and what you're seeing
with the work shortage?
Speaker 3 (28:18):
Yeah, and not just that.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
I mean we think there are great environments that are
really hard to staff. Getting people to work in an
airport's really difficult. You got to come early, you got
to park a long way away, you go through security.
You've got a whole lot of things that make staffing
in that kind of environment difficult.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Same with a hospital.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
It's difficult to get staff in certain kind of places.
And and so all of that feeds that. I mean,
we're still going to have traditional denados that are staffed
by people. We're not putting these robots in our restaurants.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
How many phone calls did you get after this article?
Speaker 3 (28:54):
We got a few.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
And you know, it's not about replacing people in our
restaurants are still going to be there.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
It's about where.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Else can we give people access to donados that they
never had it before. Yeah, and so we think this
gives us this great opportunity. And you know, we're still
looking at automation in our restaurants. We have some things
and I mentioned at the very beginning, we put one
hundred pieces of pepperoni on a large pizza. That takes
a lot of time.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
It's tedious.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
If a machine can do that, so our people can
be more forward facing with our guests. If that can
improve the environment that our team works even better. Right,
So there are some things and the way we look
at automation is where can we apply automation that's going
to make the pizza more consistent, and a machine fresh
(29:45):
slicing pepperoni onto a pizza. We can do that with
a machine in our kitchen. But that's going to free
up people to interact with our guests at the pickup
window or the front counter and or the delivery driver
at the front door. So we're still going to have
people in our restaurants. We still love people, we value people.
We love our people in our restaurants. But if we
(30:07):
can make it just a little bit better to work
in by taking away some repetitive tasks, that's how we
look at automation now. The fully automated kitchen at the
airport is for areas where staffing is tough or off hours.
That machine is can be open all night. If there's
a late night flight that's late and so this machine
(30:28):
is pre security. So if you had to go pick
somebody up and their flight is a couple hours late,
there's no place to eat at the airport late at night,
and or you're in a hurry and you are running
to a gate. You can bring food through security. You
can't bring liquids, but you can bring food through. So
you know this isn't an area that's difficult to staff.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
So we love it.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
So it is super cool. It's going to make a
fresh from the very beginning, custom made pizza in about
six minutes. Okay, so it's not made ahead of time
and it's not frozen ahead of time. Uh, you can
watch it through the window. It's gonna grab the crust,
it's gonna sauce it, cheese it, top it, bake it,
cut it, and stick it in a locker for you,
(31:13):
which you're gonna use code to open and take your
pizza that was made for you. You know, it's not
made thinking you're gonna come. It's made for boxer and
that's amazing. Yeah, it's super cool. Love people to try
it out. It's the first of its kind.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Yeah, it's only six minutes. It only takes six minutes
for you to wait.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
That must be one powerful oven.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Well, you know it's gonna take a little longer if
one hundred people come up in order, all at the
same time. But uh, it's a it's a it's really cool. Uh,
love everybody to see it.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
We wouldn't have done it if you couldn't get a
Donato's pizza out of it.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
And you can't. And uh, it is so hot coming
out of there. Uh.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
If you're you're grabbing it out of that locker, be careful.
You're gonna burn your mouth with the sauce and the cheese.
But uh, it is super cool. We're excited about it.
We're just one week in. Yeah, we're learning a lot
every day. There's still there's still lots of people doing
tweaks around the around it right now, but pretty soon
it's going to be operating autonomously.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
And uh, you know, we'll have associates come in and
stock it and clean it every couple hours.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
But it's it's super cool.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
Where else I know, you must have ideas of where
else you'd like to put these, Oh, we.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Have a ton of places. Uh, And we're working. We
have a partner called Apatronics.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
They're a Canadian company that we're working with and we're
both working on this strategic plan where number two and
number three is.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
And we're not the company that's building them, right okay.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
And and they were they wrote the software for the robot.
It's it's a it's an armed robot grabbing it moving around.
They've they've done some amazing things.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Uh, And again it's the first of its kind in
the world that's actually making fresh made peace from start
to finish. So where else we kind of set up before,
we see a huge opportunity on the non traditional side,
which would be airports, hospitals, maybe a shopping mall, places
like that, office buildings, warehouses you know where you know,
(33:19):
I think it like an Amazon warehouse.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
What do they eat every day?
Speaker 2 (33:22):
Well, we could have a fully autonomous pizza kitchen in
there for them every day. So there are just so
many possibilities. You know, you think you're driving down the freeway.
It could be in a rest area in the sin Ohio,
could be in places like that where I just need
I need great food and I need it pretty quickly, all.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
Right, Kevin, Now be completely honest. Is there much of
a difference between ordering a pizza at an actual Denatos
versus this kiosk? Is there is there much of a
difference at all?
Speaker 2 (33:53):
No, there really isn't, okay, and we wouldn't do it.
It's about quality, it's about consistency. And we worked with
a Patronics for months on the consistency of the product,
and we had to make sure it was the same.
And the beautiful thing about our operating system is we
can do things like this and we can make it
the same. So side by side, you can go get
(34:15):
your pizza from from the a concourse on your Southwest
flight one from the robot.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
I bet you can't tell the difference.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
I might do that next month.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Actually, I'd love to hear what you think. Tell me
which one's better. You're on, You're on?
Speaker 3 (34:29):
I will.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
I will definitely do that, And it's exciting to hear
that you You have plans to put those in other places.
I can think of a few right now. Ohio Stadium
would probably be one of them.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Well, we do sell pizza in Ohio Stadium already, I know,
but yeah, yeah, And we're doing something super cool with
Ohio State. We are putting in a Rover kitchen. Have
you seen the rovers all around Ohio State. I have
that deliver so this fall they'll be delivering fresh, hot
made Donado's pizza out of a Rover kitchen on Ohio
(35:01):
State campus, available for students and staff at the university.
So we can't wait to see that too.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Those took me some getting used to. At first, I'm like,
what are these little creepy crawler things that are going
all over the place. I mean, I was fascinated, I know.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
But if you're twenty years old, you'd be all in
and you're like, wow, oh yeah, I can get fresh
Deenadu's pizza delivered to my room by one of those rovers.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
I'm all in.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
I don't have to walk outside at all in twenty
degree weather in January. So yeah. A quick question regarding
as we wrap up here, Kevin. Kevin King is with us.
He's the president CEO of Donado's. This week's guest on
CEOs you should know Kevin. It appears that through the years,
Denado's has figured out that franchises. It's more lucrative to
(35:49):
have franchises versus corporate owned stores. Is that right?
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Well, we have fifty one great company stores. They're all
in Columbus.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
What we've learned over the years is we can do
a great job run in the Columbus stores, but there's
nothing that's to substitute for a local owner.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
And that's what franchising does. Uh.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Franchising is a fantastic business model. And I actually just
learned last week. Uh, the very first franchise or was
Ben Franklin. Among all the odd things he did, he
was the modern inventor of franchising.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
He was the Postmaster General and uh you could only
get paper from the post office to write letters on.
And uh, selling paper was the first franchise, So franchising
didn't I.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
Didn't know it yet.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
I'd been in the business my whole life and I
only found it out last week. So uh so Ben
Franklin first franchise or But franchising is such a great
model because you take the best of what a company
does and you put local ownership and local involvement in
the community. And there's no substitute that for a business.
Uh you know that business. That franchise owner can touch
(37:00):
his associates. He can be an impact in their lives
much better than somebody else. And we can certainly do
that with our fifty one company stores. And you get
outside Columbus, it gets much harder. You're not there every day,
and you're relying on layers of management. They don't know
the owner, and the owner's not as involved in the community.
(37:21):
So strong we love the franchise model for rowan Tonado's
outside Columbus.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Okay, that totally makes sense. I completely understand that a
whole lot better. Kevin, What is the future of Denados
at this point? It seems like the culture continues to
thrive and be the same as it was back in
nineteen sixty three. But what does the future look like?
Speaker 3 (37:45):
You know?
Speaker 2 (37:45):
The future for us, it's about high quality, consistent pizzas
wherever we can grow to. So it's about growth, but
not growth for growth's sake. It's about growth making sure
that we can bring our principles and our value use
and we can bring great tasting pizza consistently to the consumer.
So as long as we can do that, we're going
(38:06):
to continue to grow.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
All right, By the way, quick a little rapid fire
if you don't mind. You seem like a very laid back, loving,
understanding guy. But is there anything that upsets you at work?
Maybe maybe something an employee would do, or what your expectations.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
I think the expectations are around to us as living
our values. So what upsets me is when somebody doesn't
live our values. So you know, I'll just come right
back to did they lead with love? Did they follow
the golden rule? And did they do the right thing?
It's upsetting when somebody doesn't. But that's a teaching moment
for us as leaders is let's just go back to
what we stand for and let's make the right decision
(38:45):
that way. So you know, getting angry isn't worth it.
It's a teaching moment. So how do we teach that
person on our team how to lead with love and
follow the golden rule and do.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
The right thing day In the life of Kevin King.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
You know, work is a big part of my life,
but my family is too. My wife, two dogs here,
got three kids, none of them live locally, so those
are things. And love being around people, love being out
in the community and doing fun things.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
Finally, words of wisdom, any advice for up and coming entrepreneurs,
somebody who would like to be a CEO someday.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
Life is a journey. Follow the path you don't never
know where it's going to take. Learn every day, and
the last thing is be curious. Curiosity is what teaches us.
It leads you down a path that curiosity, So be
super curious, learn every day and live life.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
All right, Kevin King, President and CEO to not as Pizza. Kevin,
it has been a pleasure. Thanks for your time, Thank you,
it was great. CEOs You Should Know is hosted and
produced by Brandon Boxer, a production of iHeartMedia, Columbus
Columbus in Central Ohio have a rich history of companies
being headquartered here, everything from technology, manufacturing, retail, insurance, and more.
But what about the leaders behind these companies? What makes
them tick? How do they get their start? This is
where you get to meet the captain of the ship.
Welcome to CEOs You Should Know and iHeartMedia Columbus Podcast.
Welcome back to our latest episode of CEOs You Should Know.
(00:23):
This is an iHeartMedia Columbus podcast. I'm your host, Boxer,
along with this week's guest. First of all, I'm just
gonna it's not a warning. I'm just gonna let you
know right now. You're gonna love this guy's personality. He
won me over even in pre production of doing this.
But Kevin King is the latest CEO and president of
(00:44):
Dinado's Pizza. Of course, if you live in Columbus. Donado's
has been the King of Pizza, the staple of pizza
since nineteen sixty three, and Kevin took it over last
year in twenty twenty four. He is this week's special
guest on CEOs You Should Know. Kevin.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Welcome, Thanks, Boxer, thrilled to be here, appreciate a lot
of fun.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
It absolutely is. Because I have so much to ask
you in the world the pizza and the world the business.
I want to talk about this brand new automated vending
machine that just made its debut at Poor John Glenn Airport.
But first let's get a little bit more about you.
When someone comes to Columbus, or someone that doesn't know Donados,
(01:28):
how do you describe it to them?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
To me, Denados is that neighborhood pizza place with great
tasting food, consistent and abundance. When Jim Grody started Denados,
it was always about high quality and quality and consistency
go hand in hand. So we wanted to make sure
that every Donado's pizza tastes exactly the same. And he's
set out on a mission to make it happen. So
(01:51):
if you want a Donado's pepperoni pizza, whether you get
it at the Columbus Airport or you get it from
your neighborhood, Denados all over Columbus is going to be
exactly this, and it's going to have our large has
one hundred pieces of pepperoni on Where can you get
that anywhere else? So that's how I describe anatus. I
think that's what makes it unique and special.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
By the way, full disclosure, Because you're in front of me,
I might as well tell you this. The restaurant at
the airport, I forget the terminal, whichever one has Southwest Airlines,
it's probably the terminal, Okay, So that one works. That
restaurant works because every time, like we live here, so
we get Tonados all the time. Yet we're leaving for
(02:32):
Florida or somewhere else the West coast and we get
Tonado's pizza before we leave. So I just want you
to know that restaurant clearly works.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Well, that's great.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
You know, if you're gonna get on a four hour
flight to California, what better due and bring a pizza?
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Travels great.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
We have a great franchise e, Robert Lee, who runs
the airport locations for us. He's a fantastic guy, super
involved in the community.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
And he does a great job.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
So love hearing that you love it, and it's fantastic
that we have that great experience. And Southwest brings a
lot of people through Columbus on connecting flights.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Yeah, and Denatus is a part of it. They love
it there.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
We're also in the c Concourse Delta and I tend
to travel out of c more than a but you know,
bringing a pizza on a plane is great and.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Did not smell so good too. Kevin King is this
week's guest on CEOs. You should know an iHeartMedia, Columbus
podcast CEO and president of Dinato's Pizza h Kevin, There's
so much I want to get to with you. You've
had quite the adventure in the restaurant industry. Why don't
we start with where where you were born? Raised, where
you grew up?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Well, I was born in Texas, but I grew up here.
I grew up writing Columbus, moved here as a young kid,
went to school here, I went to Saint Charles and Columbus,
I went to Miami University. So I spent you know,
all my formative years in Columbus.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
You know, been a lifelong Buckeye fan.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Even though I left Columbus for over twenty some years
growing up or after growing up here and coming back,
I took that Buckeye pride with me. It's been a
part of me. And you know, even in some tough places.
I was in Oregon, Duck Country and Portland, Oregon for
eleven years. Wow, and deep in LSU country and New
(04:22):
Orleans too few. But you can't take the Buckeye out
of me. And I'm thrilled to be back in Columbus
and being a part of it. So I did grow
up here, and it's a great place to grow up.
It's a great city. But you know what, it changed
a lot while we were gone. I can't believe how
much Columbus kind of grew up. And leaving and coming
back and seeing how it had changed was really awesome.
(04:44):
And you know what a great city we have.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Yeah. I arrived back in ninety nine and left for
five years to work for a sister cluster in Washington, DC.
And I came back and I looked at my wife
and I said, Wow, this isn't Cowtown anymore.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
No, it is really different and really great. And you know,
there's these these couple key areas that were so much
a part of this changing city. I mean, I think
Bridge Park is one, East End certainly is another. But
even the Short North and the Cap. I remember when
they were first talking about this thing called the Cap. Yeah,
and what a great job that did bringing together like
(05:22):
downtown in the Short North and that's a great part
of town. Yeah, I mean it's all over, it's so much,
it's grown up.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
It's great.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
I mean, Kevin, look what they're doing with the North
Market and that building that's that's gonna be a skyscrape
or a tower.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yeah, I can't believe that myself. I just learned it's hotel,
condo's office. It's all three and you know that's going
to be great for that neighborhood. And uh, you know,
just looking at what the arena district became, because originally.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
It was yeah, it.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Was just the Blue Jackets arena, and now you have
the Clippers are there and the crew h and it's
all connected to both downtown in the Short North.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
I think it's awesome.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Yeah, it's it's wild to see what has happened the
transformation of our great city. Kevin, So you graduate, let's
let's start from here. You graduate from Miami. Had you
already been in the restaurant business before you.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Graduated or it's it's really kind of weird.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
The only I've only been outside the restaurant business for
two years and I worked for Chase. So I started
as a young kid working in a neighborhood pizza place.
It was called Tony's Villa. It was in Westerville and
then in Dublin, and I worked there throughout college. Whenever
I came home from break or needed some money for
the weekend, I would work And so that was great.
(06:42):
And then what do I do when I graduate from Miami?
I got to work for Domino's Pizza. So I've really
been in the pizza restaurant business my whole life. I
never would have guessed that in a million years. But
it's a great career and a great place to learn
work values, social values, and to have a great career
(07:03):
to grow and develop and do lots of different things
in lots of different places.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Kevin, I'm guessing you did everything but the very first
job that you had at Tony's because it was pizza.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
So I was a dishwasher. Okay, I was fourteen years old.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
So you know, it's a beautiful thing about Ohio, and
it's a beautiful thing about Donado's as we still hire
kids at fourteen and fifteen. And I was fourteen years old,
and what was I qualified to do?
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Wash dishes?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
And so I probably did that for my first year there,
and then I grew into doing other things, cook and
ultimately managed. You know, as a young kid, I was
a manager there and I learned a ton about it,
and that is I mentioned it before, but that's one
of the great things about Donado's has always hired fourteen
(07:51):
and fifteen year olds, and what we love about it
is teaching people lifelong skills and values about work ethics,
morals and values. And you know, when we hire kids
at that age, they tend to stay with us for
a really long period of time. And so, you know,
it happened to me as a young kid working for
(08:11):
another neighborhood pizza place, but it's a part of who
Donatos is too, and it's a fantastic thing.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Domino Is. Was that just because you had the dubious
honor of being at Dinados twice, having two stints at
Denado's this is your second obviously was Dominoes just before Donado's?
Or how did that work?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
It was so after I graduated from college, Denado's or
Dominoes was on rapid growth.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
This was in the eighties.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Delivery, you know, fast delivery was still kind of a
new thing, and Dominoes was thirty minutes or free back.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
I was going to say, was that that promotion.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
It was definitely back then. It was a rapid growth
period and I worked for them for close to five years.
It was a great time. I was young, but I
got to do so much, and I was and single,
so therefore I got to take on some challenging things
and challenging places. But some of that challenge took me
(09:08):
to Australia for a year wow, and into Canada. You know,
I was twenty five years old living in Australia as
a Domino's pizza person, so learned a ton there, learned
a lot about the pizza business beyond.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
What a restaurant was. That was my first exposure to franchising,
what is that like?
Speaker 2 (09:28):
What is that? What does how does that business model work?
But also to international and growing and introducing people to
something completely new and different. So it was a great experience,
but that was right before.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Me Naos Kevin, I'm I'm guessing Australia was a big
international market. Are there other countries that might surprise us
that are huge lovers of American pizza?
Speaker 2 (09:53):
That you know, American pizza which you know everybody thinks
it's Italian pizzabout American pizza is a huge thing.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
All around the world world.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Okay, Australia then it was still relatively new. Pizza Hut
and Dominoes were pretty much it back then. I think
Japan has always been a place where pizza's big. Oh okay,
but the beautiful thing is now today American pizza is ubiquitous.
It's everywhere around the world, and it is super popular.
And you know, I read things about American pizza in
(10:23):
Italy which seems so strange and weird, but it is today.
Maybe not the most famous or most popular pizza, but
you know, American pizzas in Italy today.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
It would appear to me that maybe Italy would be
very competitive or I don't.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Think it's high on our list for growth, but you know,
have a time and a place, maybe it will happen.
But I wouldn't say that's where I would jump off
the and say, hey, let's go to Italy and serve
pizza there.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
But you know that can invest a lot in that.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
I think that was.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
True for like Starbucks, right because it kind of started
as an Italian coffee inspiration.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
I don't think Italy was high on their list.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
So all in due time, tell us about because I
know you had a stint at Smoothie King as well, Right.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Yes, I did. I spent time at Smoothie King. That's
a great brand.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Loved it.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
I got to work with the owner. He wasn't the founder,
but he is kind of the modern day founder of
that brand really because he really focused it in on
health and nutrition. And I was a part of their
growth for six and a half years. So great brand.
Really loved it. Learned a ton and to me, that's
(11:37):
what work really is for us is what can you learn?
And you know, what are you going to learn and
how are you going to grow? And then how are
you going to apply that to what's next in your life,
whether it's work or it's helping other people out.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
So you you first arrived at Donato's in ninety nineteen,
ninetety ninety, Jim hired you, I'm assuming.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
At the time, Yes, twenty four stores, all in Columbus,
you know, I think Lancaster was the furthest store away.
So it was great to watch Donado's grow. I was
there for thirteen years, and the thing I'll always remember
is Jim talked a lot about it then, and it
(12:19):
is business. There's more to business than making a profit.
That can't be the reason the business exists. It's got
to be more. And so that was something Jim had
searched on for a long time. Mentors had told him,
you know, business's doggy dog killed before be killed. Yeah,
he just said, there's got to be a better reason.
There's we've got to bring purpose, We've got to bring
(12:40):
values to to business. And so Jim really set out
on proving that you could bring your values to work
and and that you could.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Grow a successful business.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
And I think you know, he's built a number of
successful businesses. He's a great mentor to the whole community,
and it's all built around values. To y, we have
a real simple thing we call gape capitalism. It's uh
it's three main tenants. Our lead with love, follow the
Golden rule, and do the right thing. And so that
(13:12):
kind of sums up what Jim's values were that he
wanted to bring to business and and to really prove
that you could build great businesses, extremely successful and and
keep to those principles and values and do things the
right way.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
And he's he's done that. I love it. I took
it with me and I brought it.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Back with me and uh so, so we talk a
lot about it at at Denato's. I know the Grody
Company does as well. And you know, when Jim started,
you couldn't talk about love and the business. Love and
and work didn't go together at all. And love means
so much more than you know, than emotional love. But
(13:54):
you know, it's just it's just about a better way
to do things. It's bringing things to life through love
and thinking about what you want, how you would want
to be treated. And a lot of times we say,
if you lead with love and you follow the Golden rule,
doing the right things easy because you know what it is.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah, well, I love that. That's such a great message too, Kevin.
What were you responsible for your first time around at Donados?
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Well, I was the only one at Donato's knew anything
about franchising. I was young, but I knew a little
bit about franchising and I started a franchise program in
the early nineties for Donados.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Wow. You started something that that now is your your
core thing right at Donatos?
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Wow?
Speaker 2 (14:36):
And that was about learning, you know, first, what do
we need to do? What what things do we need
in place in order to create a franchise, And so
digging in and learning and setting about what those what
the program looked like, how we are going to grow.
Uh So I was a part of that from the
very beginning. Spent thirteen years build a lot of stores
(14:56):
at Tonado's, kind of cut my teeth into what store
development or store growth look like. And was there during
the time where the family sold to McDonald's and and
I left right before the family bought it back. So
I had a great experience. And you know, I think
I mentioned it a few minutes ago, but work is
(15:18):
about learning. Life is about learning, you know. And I
think if you set about thinking about how life is
a lifelong journey to learn, that's a great premise to
start life with, because you know, we learn every day,
you learn new things, you dig in deep, and and
then you apply your experience throughout life. And I think
(15:40):
it's tremendous. So I learned a ton and I did that.
You know, Donatis was young, and it was aggressive at
the time, and Jim took some young leaders gave him
a lot of leeway to help grow the business. But
we had a fantastic foundation and a great leader.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Yeah, I'm glad you brought up McDonald's because that's the
one thing people are always interested in. I lived through that.
I was here when that transaction happened. Could you for
those that don't know or would just like to, I guess,
get reacquainted with it or what really happened? What happened there?
Speaker 2 (16:19):
You know, there's a time, in a right time, in
a right place for everything. Donato's was doing great ninety
nine when the family sold it to McDonald's and it
started with a growth premise, and you know, it just
didn't pan out the way McDonald's and they ran into
some tough times in their core business and it was
(16:39):
easier to focus in on their core rather than growing
some other businesses.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
At the time.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
They had invested in Chipotle and yeah, Donado's Boston Market
and a few other ventures, and they just circle back
to their core. But Donado's got to circle back to
its core too, So you know, when Jim and Jane
Grody bought the company back from McDonald's in two thousand
(17:06):
and three, it was all about bringing the core values
back to life. So the company shrank a little bit
in the early two thousands and set out a pace
for growth from there and innovation. That's the other part
that Jim Grody has always done is thought about innovation,
whether it's a piece of equipment in the back of
(17:28):
the house that grew into a great company called the
Grody Company today, or our operating system and the process
we use, or our dough system, which is truly unique.
Jim thought about innovation from then. Denado's experimented with taking
bake back in the early two thousands and did some
(17:48):
frozen pizzas for a long time. But we've always been
about innovation and what's next, and never afraid to try
something that is going to make a difference in the
business or not. You know, if you know not everything
you try is going to work. Some of it is
worth the trial, but then you kind of figure out
(18:08):
what your core is. So taking bake was something short
lived for Donado's, but in the end it also made
Denados who we are today. So yeah, it's all great.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Kevin. I know you said you left just before the
family bought the company back from McDonald's, but it just
out of curiosity. I don't know if you can answer this,
but when the family did buy it back, any idea,
what was the vision then? What was the goal? Was
it more innovation? Any idea? What that was from there.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
I think the real goal was preserving the legacy, okay,
because Donato's was a great brand when it was sold
in ninety nine, and it kind of drifted a little
bit during the McDonald's ownership when it was part of
a huge corporation, and especially as McDonald's was struggling a
little bit and it was going to focus its efforts
somewhere else. And Jim and Jane's vision was to bring
(19:01):
it back to the original vision. Yeah, and that is
about a business built on principles and values, a business
that takes care of people, and grow it from there
and prove that Denado's has what it takes to be
a big brand across the country and around the world hopefully.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Yeah, so the family buys Denato's back. You left, Where
did you go?
Speaker 3 (19:23):
I went to Chase Okay.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
You know, I had been in the pizza business my
whole life since age fourteen, and I said, well, let
me go do something else. And it sounds totally wild,
but I was on the retail branch side, and I
was actually on the retail branch development side, so it
was building up branches and I had a great experience there.
But there were things I missed. The pace of the restaurant.
(19:48):
Restaurant business is different than the pace of the banking business,
and I missed the pace of the restaurant business. While
I was there, I learned a ton. I met some
great people. You know what a great story Chase is,
grew out a bank one from Columbus and into the
behemoth that they are to so great again, great brand,
(20:08):
great experience.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
But I knew I was.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Destined to be in the restaurant business and missed it.
And so I took what I learned and applied it
somewhere else.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Wow, Kevin, eventually you would find yourself back at Donados.
You landed back?
Speaker 3 (20:23):
What did you?
Speaker 1 (20:25):
When was that?
Speaker 2 (20:26):
So I came back at the beginning of twenty twenty two.
Jane and Tom Krause, who was the CEO at the time,
we're thinking about succession and what was next for Donados.
Tom was thinking about what was next for him and retirement,
and they reached out to me in twenty twenty one
and we started a conversation, and you know, I was
(20:50):
shocked and flattered at the time, and I actually had
never thought of moving back to Columbus. But we had
great conversations, and it was a great opportunity and my
wife and I were thrilled to be moving back to Columbus.
And you know, like we talked about the very beginning,
what a great community.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
So that's how it started it.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
And I came back in twenty two as the president
and worked with Tom for two and a half years
when and then he retired in October of twenty four.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
So and where were you living before you came back?
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Where were you at?
Speaker 1 (21:28):
You were a Dallas Okay, So you came back. What
was that like knowing that in a few years you
were going to take over the company as the CEO.
What was that feeling like?
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Well, it was exciting and scary at the same time.
You know, and if you don't say it's scary, then
you really haven't given it the thought. Regardless of how
much confidence you have in yourself to take on and
lead an iconic brands, there's some fear and scare in there,
but you know, it was mostly excitement.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
I couldn't wait.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
You know, Denatos is a brand that I always loved,
always respected. Jim Grody and Jane are fantastic people, and uh,
you know, the one thing that I missed during a
time I followed from Afar is how involved in the
community that Jane was able to do and the awesome
things that she did using the power of Denados and
(22:25):
and that. You know, so you got icons in Jim
as a business person, but really Jane too in the
community here and.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
What she's done.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
If if you haven't seen what Jane did down at
the REB Center on the south side of Columbus, bringing
that community back to life, it's super impressive. And she
put a lot of energy into that. And she talks
about talent and treasure, so she put a lot of time, talent,
and treasure into that and it's a fantastic thing for
(22:55):
our community.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Yeah. Boy, she is a pillar of this community too.
I've just a heart of gold. Kevin. I'm not the
greatest at math, but I'm thinking about your timeline here.
It had been over twenty years since you left Denatos.
Twenty years Yeah, so clearly you left a lasting impact
you had to have with Denatos for them, twenty years later,
(23:18):
they're calling to you, like heyn any interest in coming back.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Well, you know, it teaches you stay in touch with
people throughout your life. You never know when things come
around for sure. But again, the Grody family, Denados, Jane
Jim are people I kept in touch with and watched
Denados from Afar and watched what they had done and
(23:45):
how they had turned the business around in the early
two thousands and then really set about growing it and
was so you know, life lesson keep in touch with people.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
It pays off. It's good for you.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
And you know, and I think from Jane or Donato's perspective,
it was I had gone off, worked with a couple
other brands, been a part of some big growth, and
so I could bring some of those lessons back to
Donato's and help us grow for the future.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Yeah, so you get back a little over twenty years
later to Donado's. How different was the business that you left?
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Well, it was the different, It was different and the same.
You know, so that's such a cliche kind of answer.
But what was the same? Let's let's talk about the same.
You know, the product quality, the focus, the attention to
detail on the product quality.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
That hadn't changed it at all.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
And you know, how we care for our people and
our team and the importance that our our team is
to us, that hadn't changed at all. But boy, the
business had changed a little bit. It was coming out
of COVID.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
You know.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
The biggest sharpest.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Thing that kind of I immediately was how the business comes.
In the nineties and early two thousands, it came over
the phone or in person, face to face, and I
come back in twenty twenty two and it all comes digitally.
So it all comes in over the web, and the
customer's experience is all that web experience. And that was
(25:24):
radically different than the business that I had left, so
how important it was. So that was probably the first thing.
And then we had just challenges in the post COVID
world and a little bit of staffing challenges in twenty
two and so we immediately had to dig in on
how can we get better at service, How can we
get better at taking care of our people and reducing
(25:47):
our turnover and making sure that we're a great place
to work. I think Denatis was always a great place
to work, but COVID changed things a little bit and it.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
Was hard. You know.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
The thing about COVID it was hard for the pizza
business was we were busy during the pandemic, and our
people were in the restaurant, they were working, they had
masks on and they were separated from each other inside
the restaurant. But there was a ton of demand and
we had to take care of the customer and the guest,
and so people were going out to restaurants, but they
(26:19):
were ordering a lot of pizza, and so our people
were tired, and so we had to make sure that
we did everything we can to show them how they
were valued, investing them a little bit and create a
better environment.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
For them to working.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Kevin, just out of curiosity, are more people even post COVID,
ordering pizza out versus dining in. I feel like I'm
not seeing as many people dining in anymore now anywhere.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Yeah, the business has really changed. Okay, you know, the
beautiful thing about pizza is it's portable.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
I like to say pizza is.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Is about fun, family and sharing because it's a food
that you order a pizza for the family or two,
or hopefully order four or five for your family.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
But yeah, that's us.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
But you share, you know, you you it's not where
everybody orders their own meal. So it's a meal that
people love to share and they love to be around family.
I don't think you can say the word pizza without smiling,
and so it's always a fun occasion. So people love
that in their home and that that has changed, and
(27:30):
that trajectory was on that path anyway, COVID just accelerated.
Oh okay, you know, so you know people still like
to dine out. They tend to dine out for other
occasions because pizza is a great one to have at home.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Yeah, Kevin, I want to get to this new automated
Vendi machie you have at CMH. But to your point
about the work shortage, I want to read you a
quote from the robotics company you partnered with. He said,
Covid exposed some realities in the restaurant business. There is
a labor shortage, especially in the quick service industry in
(28:04):
places like airports, hospitals, and universities. The hope is that
this robot that automated vending machines will help fill that void.
Was that part of this goal and what you're seeing
with the work shortage?
Speaker 3 (28:18):
Yeah, and not just that.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
I mean we think there are great environments that are
really hard to staff. Getting people to work in an
airport's really difficult. You got to come early, you got
to park a long way away, you go through security.
You've got a whole lot of things that make staffing
in that kind of environment difficult.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Same with a hospital.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
It's difficult to get staff in certain kind of places.
And and so all of that feeds that. I mean,
we're still going to have traditional denados that are staffed
by people. We're not putting these robots in our restaurants.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
How many phone calls did you get after this article?
Speaker 3 (28:54):
We got a few.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
And you know, it's not about replacing people in our
restaurants are still going to be there.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
It's about where.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Else can we give people access to donados that they
never had it before. Yeah, and so we think this
gives us this great opportunity. And you know, we're still
looking at automation in our restaurants. We have some things
and I mentioned at the very beginning, we put one
hundred pieces of pepperoni on a large pizza. That takes
a lot of time.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
It's tedious.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
If a machine can do that, so our people can
be more forward facing with our guests. If that can
improve the environment that our team works even better. Right,
So there are some things and the way we look
at automation is where can we apply automation that's going
to make the pizza more consistent, and a machine fresh
(29:45):
slicing pepperoni onto a pizza. We can do that with
a machine in our kitchen. But that's going to free
up people to interact with our guests at the pickup
window or the front counter and or the delivery driver
at the front door. So we're still going to have
people in our restaurants. We still love people, we value people.
We love our people in our restaurants. But if we
(30:07):
can make it just a little bit better to work
in by taking away some repetitive tasks, that's how we
look at automation now. The fully automated kitchen at the
airport is for areas where staffing is tough or off hours.
That machine is can be open all night. If there's
a late night flight that's late and so this machine
(30:28):
is pre security. So if you had to go pick
somebody up and their flight is a couple hours late,
there's no place to eat at the airport late at night,
and or you're in a hurry and you are running
to a gate. You can bring food through security. You
can't bring liquids, but you can bring food through. So
you know this isn't an area that's difficult to staff.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
So we love it.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
So it is super cool. It's going to make a
fresh from the very beginning, custom made pizza in about
six minutes. Okay, so it's not made ahead of time
and it's not frozen ahead of time. Uh, you can
watch it through the window. It's gonna grab the crust,
it's gonna sauce it, cheese it, top it, bake it,
cut it, and stick it in a locker for you,
(31:13):
which you're gonna use code to open and take your
pizza that was made for you. You know, it's not
made thinking you're gonna come. It's made for boxer and
that's amazing. Yeah, it's super cool. Love people to try
it out. It's the first of its kind.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Yeah, it's only six minutes. It only takes six minutes
for you to wait.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
That must be one powerful oven.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Well, you know it's gonna take a little longer if
one hundred people come up in order, all at the
same time. But uh, it's a it's a it's really cool. Uh,
love everybody to see it.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
We wouldn't have done it if you couldn't get a
Donato's pizza out of it.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
And you can't. And uh, it is so hot coming
out of there. Uh.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
If you're you're grabbing it out of that locker, be careful.
You're gonna burn your mouth with the sauce and the cheese.
But uh, it is super cool. We're excited about it.
We're just one week in. Yeah, we're learning a lot
every day. There's still there's still lots of people doing
tweaks around the around it right now, but pretty soon
it's going to be operating autonomously.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
And uh, you know, we'll have associates come in and
stock it and clean it every couple hours.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
But it's it's super cool.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
Where else I know, you must have ideas of where
else you'd like to put these, Oh, we.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Have a ton of places. Uh, And we're working. We
have a partner called Apatronics.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
They're a Canadian company that we're working with and we're
both working on this strategic plan where number two and
number three is.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
And we're not the company that's building them, right okay.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
And and they were they wrote the software for the robot.
It's it's a it's an armed robot grabbing it moving around.
They've they've done some amazing things.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Uh, And again it's the first of its kind in
the world that's actually making fresh made peace from start
to finish. So where else we kind of set up before,
we see a huge opportunity on the non traditional side,
which would be airports, hospitals, maybe a shopping mall, places
like that, office buildings, warehouses you know where you know,
(33:19):
I think it like an Amazon warehouse.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
What do they eat every day?
Speaker 2 (33:22):
Well, we could have a fully autonomous pizza kitchen in
there for them every day. So there are just so
many possibilities. You know, you think you're driving down the freeway.
It could be in a rest area in the sin Ohio,
could be in places like that where I just need
I need great food and I need it pretty quickly, all.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
Right, Kevin, Now be completely honest. Is there much of
a difference between ordering a pizza at an actual Denatos
versus this kiosk? Is there is there much of a
difference at all?
Speaker 2 (33:53):
No, there really isn't, okay, and we wouldn't do it.
It's about quality, it's about consistency. And we worked with
a Patronics for months on the consistency of the product,
and we had to make sure it was the same.
And the beautiful thing about our operating system is we
can do things like this and we can make it
the same. So side by side, you can go get
(34:15):
your pizza from from the a concourse on your Southwest
flight one from the robot.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
I bet you can't tell the difference.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
I might do that next month.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Actually, I'd love to hear what you think. Tell me
which one's better. You're on, You're on?
Speaker 3 (34:29):
I will.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
I will definitely do that, And it's exciting to hear
that you You have plans to put those in other places.
I can think of a few right now. Ohio Stadium
would probably be one of them.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Well, we do sell pizza in Ohio Stadium already, I know,
but yeah, yeah, And we're doing something super cool with
Ohio State. We are putting in a Rover kitchen. Have
you seen the rovers all around Ohio State. I have
that deliver so this fall they'll be delivering fresh, hot
made Donado's pizza out of a Rover kitchen on Ohio
(35:01):
State campus, available for students and staff at the university.
So we can't wait to see that too.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Those took me some getting used to. At first, I'm like,
what are these little creepy crawler things that are going
all over the place. I mean, I was fascinated, I know.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
But if you're twenty years old, you'd be all in
and you're like, wow, oh yeah, I can get fresh
Deenadu's pizza delivered to my room by one of those rovers.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
I'm all in.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
I don't have to walk outside at all in twenty
degree weather in January. So yeah. A quick question regarding
as we wrap up here, Kevin. Kevin King is with us.
He's the president CEO of Donado's. This week's guest on
CEOs you should know Kevin. It appears that through the years,
Denado's has figured out that franchises. It's more lucrative to
(35:49):
have franchises versus corporate owned stores. Is that right?
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Well, we have fifty one great company stores. They're all
in Columbus.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
What we've learned over the years is we can do
a great job run in the Columbus stores, but there's
nothing that's to substitute for a local owner.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
And that's what franchising does. Uh.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Franchising is a fantastic business model. And I actually just
learned last week. Uh, the very first franchise or was
Ben Franklin. Among all the odd things he did, he
was the modern inventor of franchising.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
He was the Postmaster General and uh you could only
get paper from the post office to write letters on.
And uh, selling paper was the first franchise, So franchising
didn't I.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
Didn't know it yet.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
I'd been in the business my whole life and I
only found it out last week. So uh so Ben
Franklin first franchise or But franchising is such a great
model because you take the best of what a company
does and you put local ownership and local involvement in
the community. And there's no substitute that for a business.
Uh you know that business. That franchise owner can touch
(37:00):
his associates. He can be an impact in their lives
much better than somebody else. And we can certainly do
that with our fifty one company stores. And you get
outside Columbus, it gets much harder. You're not there every day,
and you're relying on layers of management. They don't know
the owner, and the owner's not as involved in the community.
(37:21):
So strong we love the franchise model for rowan Tonado's
outside Columbus.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Okay, that totally makes sense. I completely understand that a
whole lot better. Kevin, What is the future of Denados
at this point? It seems like the culture continues to
thrive and be the same as it was back in
nineteen sixty three. But what does the future look like?
Speaker 3 (37:45):
You know?
Speaker 2 (37:45):
The future for us, it's about high quality, consistent pizzas
wherever we can grow to. So it's about growth, but
not growth for growth's sake. It's about growth making sure
that we can bring our principles and our value use
and we can bring great tasting pizza consistently to the consumer.
So as long as we can do that, we're going
(38:06):
to continue to grow.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
All right, By the way, quick a little rapid fire
if you don't mind. You seem like a very laid back, loving,
understanding guy. But is there anything that upsets you at work?
Maybe maybe something an employee would do, or what your expectations.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
I think the expectations are around to us as living
our values. So what upsets me is when somebody doesn't
live our values. So you know, I'll just come right
back to did they lead with love? Did they follow
the golden rule? And did they do the right thing?
It's upsetting when somebody doesn't. But that's a teaching moment
for us as leaders is let's just go back to
what we stand for and let's make the right decision
(38:45):
that way. So you know, getting angry isn't worth it.
It's a teaching moment. So how do we teach that
person on our team how to lead with love and
follow the golden rule and do.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
The right thing day In the life of Kevin King.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
You know, work is a big part of my life,
but my family is too. My wife, two dogs here,
got three kids, none of them live locally, so those
are things. And love being around people, love being out
in the community and doing fun things.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
Finally, words of wisdom, any advice for up and coming entrepreneurs,
somebody who would like to be a CEO someday.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
Life is a journey. Follow the path you don't never
know where it's going to take. Learn every day, and
the last thing is be curious. Curiosity is what teaches us.
It leads you down a path that curiosity, So be
super curious, learn every day and live life.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
All right, Kevin King, President and CEO to not as Pizza. Kevin,
it has been a pleasure. Thanks for your time, Thank you,
it was great. CEOs You Should Know is hosted and
produced by Brandon Boxer, a production of iHeartMedia, Columbus
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