The Restaurant Technology Guys Podcast brought to you by Custom Business Solutions
The Restaurant Technology Guys Podcast brought to you by Custom Business Solutions
Innovating Consistency: Donato's Pizza with CEO Kevin King
Innovating Consistency: Donato's Pizza with CEO Kevin King
In this episode of the Restaurant Technology Guys podcast, host Jeremy Julian is joined by Kevin King, the CEO of Donatos Pizza, a legacy brand based in Columbus, Ohio. Kevin shares his journey in the restaurant industry, including his return to Donatos, and discusses the company's unique value proposition and operational consistency. The conversation delves into Donatos' emphasis on high-quality ingredients and their strict adherence to consistency, aided by their proprietary technology and operating systems. Kevin also talks about the brand's innovative use of AI in ordering, automation, and their strategic partnerships, including with Red Robin. The episode explores Donatos' future plans, including automation in kitchens and expanding their footprint while maintaining core mission values of quality, service, and hospitality.
00:00 Audio Donatos Pizza
00:11 Introduction to Today's Episode
01:13 Meet Kevin, CEO of Donatos Pizza
01:47 Kevin's Career Journey
02:53 Returning to Donatos
07:23 Donatos' Unique Value Proposition
11:28 Mission and Values of Donatos
14:21 Customer Experience and Market Strategy
16:56 Technology and Innovation at Donatos
30:07 Franchising and Expansion
35:38 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
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Jeremy Julian:In today's episode, we are joined by the CEO of Denatos pizza. Which is a over 60 year old brand, out of the Columbus, Ohio area. They have a very unique value proposition as it relates to opening restaurants and the things that they do, Kevin. And I talk a lot about how they use their operating system, why he came back to the brand after being gone for a number of years, as well as how they utilize technology to differentiate themselves against some of the bigger brands that are out there. Please join us in listening to Kevin's story and all the amazing things that he and his team continued to do since she's been back in 2022. if you don't know me, my name is Jeremy Julian. I am the chief revenue officer for CBS north star. We developed the north star point of sale solution for multi-units. Please check us www.Cbsnorthstar.com and now onto the show. Welcome back to the restaurant technology guys podcast. I thank everyone out there for joining us as I say each and every time I know you guys got lots of choices. So thanks you guys for hanging out with us today. We are joined by a Newly minted I think ceo and it's been a couple of just a couple months But i'm gonna let kevin talk a little bit about kind of his work history where he's been And then really we'll get to highlight the brand that he's getting to To spearhead right now at Donato's. But Kevin, why don't you introduce yourself to our audience? For those that don't know who you are, where's the work background and some of the, some of that history, because I think it'll go into, what you guys are trying to do at Donato's now going
Kevin King:Jeremy, thank you for having me on today. I really appreciate it. Uh, again, uh, CEO of Donato's Pizza, Columbus, Ohio based chain. I've had the privilege of being here. Uh, I'll explain that I guess in a little bit, but, I started my restaurant career in a little neighborhood pizza place, worked there through high school and college and went to work for, Domino's pizza out of college. great time for them. it was in the late eighties. And a time of rapid growth. I got to do a lot of great things as a really young guy. came to Donato's in 1990, spent 13 years here through, 2003. Donato's went from really a Columbus, Ohio pizza chain, To a pretty national presence because it was acquired by McDonald's in 1999. I left in 2003, and, spent a couple of years in the banking business, realized I really missed the pace and, people of the restaurant industry went back, went to Papa Murphy's in Portland, Oregon. was a part of that brand for over 10 years. was a part of building about a thousand restaurants, during that time. And 20, 16 I went to Smoothie King. had a great time there. great, fantastic brand. A part of, some transformational growth there too. And in 2022, came back to Donatos. as the president and then the CEO in October of this year. So excited about what the future holds, but a lot of great, times and some great brands I was with throughout my career.
Jeremy Julian:I love that. And I say it often from those people that bounce back. it's amazing how many people get started in the restaurant industry and they'll try something else and then come back to it. Any specifics as to why. You came back, Kevin, other than the pace, you alluded to it. But I, I teased that, I could probably be a multimillionaire if I created some kind of therapy session for X restaurant tours that try and get out and can't figure out how to get out, type of thing, cause it is, it's pretty addicting and a pretty amazing, amazing industry that's given so much to so many people.
Kevin King:Yeah, I think, when I left in 2003, I left in autos and I, and just thinking about what I wanted to do in my career. I was, in my late thirties, but, I'd only ever worked in a restaurant. I'd never done anything different. And I'm, I was like, what else is out there? And I went to work for, for Chase. And, it was relevant because I went to work for the retail bank. on the store development or the branch development side. So it was really relevant experience. It sounds like it was totally off base. and what I would say is I met some fantastic people and I work with some really smart people, but the pace in a bank is so different than the pace in the restaurant business. And, And just being a part of and, experiencing the people and the customers and the guests and everything that we do in the restaurant business. I did. I missed. I missed that. And I sum it up with, I was on a trip to Detroit. and we were, Looking at bank branches and where should we grow and how should this go? And it turned five o'clock and everything's over, right? All the branches close, everything's done. Everybody goes and scatters and goes their own way. And I'd spent my whole life in the restaurant business and things are just getting started at that time. And, it just, it epitomized what I missed. And that was that pace. and you build throughout the day, especially in the pizza category where I'd spent. Up to that point, 100 percent of my time, you're building towards that evening day part, five o'clock. The day doesn't end. It's just starting and, in a bank, it's over and you're thinking about the next day. So that, that's really what I miss. It's the best way to describe it is I thought, wow, the day's over. what am I going to do?
Jeremy Julian:That's hilarious. and again, there's so many people that have been on the show in the past that have said Oh, yeah, I tried this I tried that and I just couldn't you know, I needed to come back you talked about coming back as the president and Donato's a couple of years ago I guess towards the latter part of the pandemic 2022, I guess maybe it was, not completely over. There was still some stuff there. Help me understand that journey and what brought you back, what brought you back to Donatos and why did you think that you wanted to be back to make a difference there with that brand.
Kevin King:Yeah, I think what brought me back totally is, I wanted the opportunity to lead a brand and it was the role and the opportunity. but not only a brand I wanted to lead a brand that I was going to be a hundred percent all in and believed, and, I've worked for some great people and some great brands, and I wouldn't trade any of that. anything I did in my career for anything, I just think it was great. but I learned so much from Donato's, in formative time in my kind of management career or leadership roles. And that was about what principles and values and how important they are to the organization. And so I knew the family, and so I knew where those values were and I knew how much a part of it was. And, I could say similar things about Smoothie King had a very principled and values, mission, vision driven organization. And I loved that, but this was the opportunity to lead an organization that had same mission, vision, values that were incredibly important to who they are and what they do. And I knew that I could, Take those and build upon those and have a great future. that's really what brought me back. It was, I wanted to be a part of a brand that mission, vision, and values were core to who they are and what they were knowing that was never going to change. And cause then I knew I could build on a solid foundation and build and help grow the brand for the future.
Jeremy Julian:I'd love that. And I'd love to dig into the, to the, mission. And for those that are watching on YouTube, you'll see'em over your shoulder. But before we jump into that, Kevin. For those that haven't experienced a Donato's brand, what sets them apart? What makes them different than, I don't know, say I say the big three or the big two, that are out there, the Pizza Hut, Domino's and Papa John's of the world that, people obviously know because they're, they're international and huge. What makes Donato's different from a, both a product, from a, an experienced perspective, because I do think that goes into what your guys brand promises and why you guys have such a strong brand. steadfast mission to, to create, create joy and those kinds of
Kevin King:Yeah, so Donato's is differentiated in really about product quality, a step above what you get from the traditional national brands. And Jim Grody, he started Donato's in 1963. he himself had only ever worked, he was a paper boy and he worked in a pizza shop and, believe it or not. His first opportunity to buy a piece of shop came to him as a senior in high school. and his dad said, no, you cannot do this. He's dad, I just need you to help out a little while on Friday nights while I go play football. Cause I, he was a part of the football team. And he goes, then I'll come right afterwards and I'll run the businesses. Dad's no, you're going to finish high school and you're going to go to college. And, but Jim at 19 years old dropped out of Ohio state and. had his second opportunity to buy a pizza company and it was the remnants of what Donato's or it was the beginnings of what Donato's is today, but not exactly. And really Donato's is what Jim Grody created and it's all about quality and consistency. it's the quality of the ingredients. It's about abundance and it's about that consistent. product and that consistent experience every time. Jim knew by working with two different owners in the first place. He was one who was all about consistency and making sure the customer got the other owner wasn't, and he could see it. Because he worked nights with both of them, but he knew that the nights that the one owner worked, who was all about quality and all about consistency, kept growing and the nights where the other owner worked weren't kept declining. And so as a teenager recognized the value and importance of consistency. So Donato's is. Always thought you can't be high quality without being consistent. So we have a operating system that I would put up against any operating system in the world to make consistent product and to make great tasting pizza. and that's just a part of it. It's really the combination of those two things, quality and consistency. So qualicity, it's not a word. that's
Jeremy Julian:I love that though. That's a fun
Kevin King:that, but it's like, how do we bring those two things together so that we can deliver a consistent experience for the guest? Because in Jim's mind is, You can't be high quality if it's not the same every time. and it's not about the pizza that Kevin wants because Kevin might want more pepperoni and less sauce, but it's about what Donato stands for. And that's making pizzas to our recipe. So we have a whole operating system built on that. And Jim has been on a 81 years old. He's still involved in the business today, he, is he wakes up every day thinking about how can I make that Donato's experience more consistent? And if the equipment or the technology or the product wasn't there to deliver on that, then he was going to figure out how to do it himself. And he's done that. he did that when I was here in the nineties, he did it while I wasn't here in the two thousands and the, and he's doing it in the 2020s. if the, it's all about how to deliver that experience and that experience is built on quality, but it has to be the same every time. So that's really what differentiates Donato's, and it has differentiated Donato's for decades, six decades, and it will continue to as we move forward.
Jeremy Julian:That's a really cool story. And I'm, I, I hope somebody is capturing all of that stuff for the founder, cause that'd be a, that'd be a really cool story to put out into the world to just share, talk about your guys mission. you talked about the fact that you came back based on your, based on the mission of what it is. And again, I'll read it over your shoulder to, to promote goodwill through products and services. You just talked a ton about the product and you talked a little bit about the service, principles and people that being your guys's mission to, to promote goodwill through products and services, principles and people, why does that resonate so much with you as a person, as well as how do you see that play out in the
Kevin King:what's fascinating to me is Jim Grody talked about principles and values in business before it was in vogue, right? So and he founded Donato's with those basic principles, but didn't necessarily have the words to exactly. put it all together and down on paper. And the heart of that, those words were always to promote goodwill. And there was a lot behind that. And that is, founded in really what people, what you would call the golden rule, do unto others the way you want to be treated. And so the goodwill was always part of it. And it sounds religious, but it's not, it's really about just a base principle is treat others the way you want to be treated. it doesn't have to be religious. It can be religious. if that's who you are or what you are, that's great. And that's fantastic. But who doesn't want to be treated, The way they want to be treated, the way they, who doesn't want to treat others the way they don't want to, they want to be treated themselves. And, so it, it was all found on that, but it is about our product. So we start with, we sell great, we sell pizza, we sell a ton of pizza, we sell great pizza. And, again, and when I talk about that consistency service and people are core to that, it's I can hand you a great pizza. But if I'm not treating you with respect and dignity and saying thank you and having hospitality, it's not a great experience. It's not consistent, and none of those experiences can be delivered without people. So words became a part of what it is, but it was always a part of Donato's. The words really came together in the nineties. and then they've been that consistent missing mission as we go forward. the part I would really tell you is it never really changed. That is who Jim was in the sixties and the seventies and the eighties. that words came together in the early nineties. But, and they've been a part of who Donato's is for the last, 30 years, but they were always part of who we were for the whole 60. the, it, it does resonate with me. I appreciate quality products in my life. I appreciate good service and none of that is possible without great people. the people are integral to executing that mission. So they gotta be inside the mission. They gotta be a part of the words.
Jeremy Julian:and clearly it resonated well enough with you that you bounced back after so many years that you said, you know what, they treated me well, they were helped me. You talked about it being super formative, in your, professional upbringing. For those that again, haven't experienced a brand, is it all delivery, is it all dine in? Is it, help. Walk through a Donato's experience for the majority of what it is that you guys do. Because again, for those that either haven't experienced it or, on their rotation is not a Donato's so that they can understand how do you guys go to market? What's your primary go to market and where do you see things continuing to change within, within the
Kevin King:For sure. Donato's has always had multiple access points, delivery, dine in, carry out. we've had pickup windows since the early nineties. the majority that More than half of our restaurants have pickup windows today. so that's always been a part of it. How we really come to market today is that most consistent customers want pizza off premise. so we definitely come to market. with a pretty even mix of pickup and delivery and a small percentage is dine in. so we do play in all of those, characteristics, all those access points, but it is today. It is about how I get a great tasting, consistent product. to a guest's home, whether they pick it up at our restaurant or whether they, or whether we deliver it to them. So that's how Donato's comes to markets. We sell mostly pizza. We have sub salads, appetizers, wings, and other, products. We are about the pizza that we make and that we sell and we have some great side items too. we're a predominantly dinner business, but we are open for lunch. We do it every day. We do, we do Really day parts, lunch, afternoon, dinner, and late night. what do people want? People want pizza on Friday night. And, this operating system is built and executed about, being able to deliver a ton of pizza during those peak hours on Friday night. and. and always in an effort to unlock that bottleneck. And, we could probably spend all day talking about how Donato's has done that over time. originally it was about the operating system, how we make pizzas. It was about the dough system that we use. We make all of our dough in a central facility here in Columbus, Ohio. We ship it to the stores. it's a live yeast product. So the least the yeast is still living. It is, it is flash, frozen to preserve that yeast during the transportation. it's proved here centrally to give it. consistency and all of that was about Jim innovating and getting that pizza more and more consistent to the restaurant so we can deliver, we're able to be ready for the rush so that we can deliver a ton of pizza at that peak period. technology has always been a part of it. In the early two thousands, Jim wanted a point of sale system that would help deliver that consistency and that was about printing out a ticket with the. on the ticket. We weigh every ingredient on that pizza. And so there was
Jeremy Julian:That goes back to your consistency
Kevin King:yeah, there was no point of sale system in 1990 that would print out our recipe on a chip or a ticket for the store to make. So Donato's wrote its own point of sale software, put it out its system. every time you order a ticket is printed out, the pizza is made on a scale. with those weights. Exactly. and why is that so complicated? Because we do half and halves. We do multiples. We do all kinds of custom pizzas. We do light sauce, extra sauce, extra cheese, light cheese, no cheese. We make a pizza the way our guest wants, but it has to be the same every time. Hey, Joe made me this great pizza last week. I'm hoping you can do it. if Joe's not there, it's not going to be exactly the same unless we do it the same. We do it out on a, we do it on a chit. So we still have our own point of sale system today. It's evolved obviously a ton since the nineties when it was deployed. Denados has explored multiple times using somebody else's point of sale system. We've always come back to our own. The same is true today in an, our, in our online environment, both our app, and our web ordering system is proprietary to Donato's. We've continued to evolve it and we'll continue to make it even better and better every day. Over 90 percent of our orders come through our online engine. whether it be a phone in through a call center or digitally ordered or ordered through, the third party platform today, UberEats and DoorDash. our, we've innovated along the way for a long time.
Jeremy Julian:That's incredible.
Kevin King:story.
Jeremy Julian:and that was really where I was going a little bit with it. Kevin was just, you know what, you talked about one of your previous employers, Domino's, like I remember talking to somebody on the Domino's team and they're like, we're a technology company that sells pizza as much as they are a pizza company that, that, that writes their own technology. Cause in order to control. Which again, goes back to the founders controlling the experience. You got to control the experience both from a, a tech perspective, as well as what the product is that you've got in there. You talked about your operating system quite a bit. Where do you see the tech going? we had a guy on the show earlier in the year, in the And 2024, we're recording this in early 2025, who's got voice ordering coming into platforms. Do you guys see that playing a part? Do you guys see AI playing a part and kind of those things? Cause you, you as now the CEO need to decide where you're investing time, money, and energy as it relates to what guests are looking for, because I think. Guests continue to involve evolve. They've continued to evolve the pandemic really accelerated digital ordering. Pizza has always been there, but digital ordering now becomes one of those things that whether it's voice ordering, it's text to order, it's using your smartphone or I'm not your smartphone, but the smart AI bots that are out there, that those things are continuing to go, where do you see that? progressing for you guys as an
Kevin King:first of all, I think the guest wants instantaneous access to order, and so therefore it's going to be, it has to be phone centric. It is going to be about our phones, but we want to be wherever the guest wants to order. So we're going to be on the edge there. We implemented our first call center. in the summer of 2022 with a partner, and we evolved that to an A. I. Based order taking system today. That's operator assisted A. I. So there's an operator that listens to every call. And if the A. I. Stumbles, the operator steps in eso. That's an important part of where we are. It's enabled a lot by being on the forefront of that. Is it perfect today? Nope. It's not perfect today. And that's why we have an operator assistant. I had some, absolutes in that. I want to be easy. If the guest wants to talk to the store, it's got to be easy, for the guests to be able to talk to the store. So that's an important part of our. call center system. I've been stuck in phone trees as a guest of other brands and there's nothing more frustrated than, and you wind up yelling into the phone operator, representative, whatever you want me to call it. And I didn't want that a part of our experience. So it had to be easy to get to the restaurant and we'll continue to do that. so we leaned in heavily. on call center in 2022. and follow that right up with a I, and think that is the future of phone orders. As long as guests want to order on the phone, we want that option available for him, and we'll continue to do that. And then the rest of our, online platform, yes, AI is ultimately going to be a big part of it by suggesting what the guest wants, based upon their order history, based on whom they are based on time of day, a week, whatever it is. and we want to continue to make sure that's easy for them. And then the A. I. On the backside is how do we reach the guest? So loyalty mining the data that we have, and it is a great thing to be in the pizza business because we do. Customers are predisposed to giving us their address, giving us their phone number. and so that we can track their order history and know who they are when they order how they order. And we gotta make it sure. So technology is this category, this segment of the restaurant category is on the forefront of technology. Domino's has certainly done a fantastic job of leading the way there. and we are going to continue to be a part of that as well. And where we can innovate, we'll innovate where we can. by technology that's already out there and use it in outside our system will be a part of that as well. So we don't have to build it. I'm certainly not a person who says, Oh, we have to build everything that we use, we'll use other pieces of technology for sure. but if we need it and it doesn't exist, we're going to go out there and we're going to get it done. that, that's my philosophy. technology is going to be a massive part of our category going forward. There's still a lot that can be automated in the back of the house technologically. There still can be a ton, automated in the back of the house with machinery that can make the product more consistent. And the way I talk about that in our internally is if we can eliminate repetitive tasks done by associates, we'll do that with technology, with equipment, with automation, so that we can focus, Associates that we have to maximize that experience with the guests that they have. And that's what we want to do. I'm actually reading a book right now, called zero to one zero to one by Peter Thiel. And he talks, this book was written in 2014, but he talks about a I is not to replace humans. A I is to enhance what the human can do in the experience with their guests. And that really super resonated with me. It actually it captured what I believe I didn't have the words. So he obviously had more time to think about the words. And obviously he's a technical technology innovator and been a part of some huge technology companies. But that's what was is going to happen with AI for Donato's is we're going to utilize automation. in order to maximize the benefits that humans can provide to other humans, it's not to replace humans. It's not, yeah, we put a hundred pieces of pepperoni on a pizza. That is not, it's not super fun.
Jeremy Julian:Yeah. And it's hard to find people nowadays that want to put 100 pieces of pepperoni on a pizza like you and I might have when we were teenagers. it's tough. I've got three teenagers living with me and they don't want to go into the kitchen and go, go do that if they can help it. They're fine with a robot doing it and being able to stand in the front of the house and talk to a
Kevin King:Yeah. And we're working right now on a fully automated kitchen that we're going to install in the Columbus airport early here in 2025 with a company called Appetronics. so we're excited about that. It's not going to replace humans totally in our world because there's going to be a ton of human interaction between, the guests and, what we do from an automation perspective, but automation is a huge part of our future automation, innovation, and technology. Those three words are, I think they fall under the word innovation. So we're going to be innovative and we can be innovative. On automation, we can be innovative on technology and we can be innovative on flavors and, innovative on our menu and making sure our menu is food forward and, nutrition forward as we continue to go forward. So all those are part of innovation in my mind.
Jeremy Julian:Hey, I appreciate you, you going so deep into that, Kevin. That's, that was great. one of the things that, I know a lot of listeners that are restaurant people are super jealous about is the fact that 90 percent of your orders are digital. So you know who your guests are. So many of those people are struggling to figure out how do I identify who's coming into my brand day in and day out, and it's, you pegged it perfectly. For those that are naysayers, as it relates to voice AI, can you give them just a little bit of. A little bit of color on why you thought voice AI was something that you guys could go do because Every time I bring it up with brands, they go no way I don't want to be stuck in the you know in the tree And quite frankly the more I start to play with the technology the more i'm blown away With how much more efficient it is than getting put on hold or sitting and listening. Hang on hold Please you get on hold and now you're you know i'm calling to place an order while i'm driving home from work and I could have literally just driven there and gotten to the point Yes,
Kevin King:with, you said you have teenagers at home, I think you said three. they don't want to talk on the phone. do they ever want to learn how to answer the phone? The answer is no. And, I'm, I was all in on it because I know that the next generation does not want to talk on the phone. And so we rely on those people to be in our restaurants and, frankly, they don't want to. And it's a horrible place to take a phone call inside a pizza restaurant. We have a lot of things going on. We got a lot of things dinging and buzzing, and we've got a, a really loud oven and, Hoods and all these, and then you're asking somebody who doesn't want to be on the phone to take an order on the phone. So that, that led me right to let's see how we can get this done professionally and then right into AI and, AI done well. Is great. And I, I definitely agree with the naysayers saying I don't want to be stuck in a phone tree. And that's why we leaned in with a I with operator assisted. So as long as the A. I. Is learning, which is what it's doing right now. And if I didn't see it learning, I'd say we're gonna have operator assisted forever. but I don't think we will because I don't think it's necessary because the A. I. Is getting better and better every day. We started with a pilot. Of AI in December of 2022. we rolled it out to 51 company restaurants in July of, no, we started with ai, in December of 23. Rolled it out to company restaurants in the summer of 24 and then to our franchise restaurants. So I could see it learning. I could see it getting better. we get great feedback on the AI and you know what the number one complaint on our AI is? When the operator transferred me to the restaurant didn't answer the phone. that tells me we're on the right path and we're on the right direction. And you just got to make sure you have those safeguards in there that when the customer is getting frustrated, that there's a way for them to escape. And for us right now, that's operator assisted. There's a person listening in onto that call and they're going to transfer them to the restaurant right away. Cause I don't want that frustration, but the technology is improving so fast. And, we don't have, generation that wants to talk on the phone. So if the computer can do it and learn and grow and experience it, then I'm going to lean in and I'm going to go that direction. So
Jeremy Julian:Yeah, again, I'm in that same ilk, or I was in that same ilk of, I don't want to get stuck, when you call American Express or you call, Delta Airlines, like you get stuck in these phone trees from time to time. but for me, the efficiency of being able to do that. And to your point, the tech continues to grow and, I'm pretty blown away with where it's at and where it's going. Cause I do think it'll be the future. And it's amazing how much faster, even, I used, I use even voice prompts within my own. my own workflow, how much faster I can get things done. If I just say, Hey, I need to pick up a pepperoni pizza on my way home versus having to pull my phone out of my pocket and go to the app, which can be super efficient, but at the same time, I love the fact that I can do it. And more and more brands are getting there because to your point, if I call the restaurant and they're not answering it, you lost that order. sometimes you lose that customer for that meal period. Kevin, we're going to flip real quick. You talked about your franchise groups as you're talking about rolling these things out. how big is the brand what percentage of its franchise what percentage of its corporate? How do people engage if I'm now, you know get done listen to this interview and I go Donato's I've always wanted to own a pizza place. Help me understand what that looks like for those that are
Kevin King:Yeah. So today, Donato's is about 180 traditional restaurants which makes, we own about a third of the restaurants. We have 51 company stores. we are an owner of the business. we operate the business and not just operate the franchise, which is something that we've that I always look for. I think franchisors always should continue to operate some restaurants. They don't have to operate all of them. but we are. So we are an operator. We are a franchisor. we're also, today. We're in 280 Red Robin restaurants across the country. Eso we have a partnership with Red Robin. It's branded Donato's on their menu. They're a fantastic operator. They do a great job. We'll continue to grow that partnership over the next several years. Eso Donato's is now coast to coast. We're in Washington, California, in Red Robin. We're in a bunch of states with Red Robin across the country, even in the East. but our traditional restaurants right now are in the Midwest and Southeast. we just opened in Dallas, so if you're in Frisco or Flower Mound, we have two restaurants in Dallas. As of, we opened in November. brand new in the Dallas area and we have restaurants in Oklahoma. we're continuing to grow and expand. It's a fantastic franchise. to me, the greatest thing about a franchise is it starts with the operating system. It's gotta be replicable. It's gotta be easy to execute. It's gotta be values driven and values based. So there's gotta be a purpose behind why the, company. And I think from, operating system from mission, vision and values. And then the third is just the box economics have to work. if you have those three elements, you've got something that, that is, franchisable and you can really grow. and so all those incredibly important, as somebody looks at franchising and growth, we are. definitely leaning in technologically, automation, even in on menu and food, the future of food. And we're going to talk a lot about more about that as the next number of years come, the automation and where food is going, where it comes from, what's in it. It not only has to look great and taste great, but there needs to be, some foundation in there too. So nutrition is going to be a huge part of our future and, excited about where Donato's can go.
Jeremy Julian:one last question before we, we point, listeners to where they can learn more, but, you talked about non traditional, you talked about going to the airport. Is that some other area you guys are looking to grow or is it, cause you do have these operators from time to time that are like, Hey, I don't have you know, it's too expensive to get into a strip mall It's too expensive to get into some of these, traditional because i'm fighting with some of these other bigger brands But are there other non traditional whether that be cafeteria style, other
Kevin King:we think other venues are a huge opportunity for Donato's to supplement our traditional restaurants. and we see those, our vision is fully automated and semi automated. Yeah. the fully automated is what we're going to do in early 25 here in the Columbus airport. Can't wait to see it. It's going to be leading edge. I think you'll be able to hear, read and see all about it. and, maybe a reason for you to, come back to Columbus, but, that, but also I think semi automated. There's so much that we can do with automating certain parts of it that make it really work in a non traditional environment, whether that's universities, small spaces. All of these, the fully automated and the semi automated, are going to need to be supplied by a restaurant because no matter what it is, there's restocking, there's cleaning, there's, so I think that even creates a franchise opportunity unmatched out there so that I can have a traditional restaurant. and then I can have a couple semi automated or fully automated, kitchens that I supplement with it. that, that's a huge part of our vision going forward is we think that there's this real big opportunity for semi automated and fully automated kitchens. And, that Donato's can play a key role. Those. Fully or semi automated kitchens could be fulfilled by, third party Uber Eats of DoorDash or our own drivers. so there's a lot of things. We're looking at, drone delivery as well. And what does that look like in the future? it's just, those aren't our core right now. our core is our traditional restaurants and, but we're definitely seeing a future that fully automated, semi automated could play in.
Jeremy Julian:and even your comments earlier about your partnership with red robin, that's non traditional Obviously, you've got a burger concept and you guys got pizza inside of the burger concept So I love I love how innovative and how much I guess you guys believe in the brand promise to get the right product out to the people. for people that want to learn more, is it, Donato's dot com. tell them where
Kevin King:Yeah, it's an honest dot com from a guest perspective for sure that we lead with that. As we mentioned, 90 percent of people go through our digital engine. So it's an honest dot com. there's franchise information available there too. and, if you want to explore further, the fully automated, Or, semi automated kitchens with us. there's contact information that you can get off our website. Donatos. com is a great place. Great place to order. Today's Friday night. It's the middle of winter. Big snowstorm coming for a big part of the country. great time to, hunker down, watch some playoff football, and, get some great pizza.
Jeremy Julian:love it. love it. I'll have to, flower amounts, probably the closest store to me. So I'll have to go, go figure out how to check that store out and, And get some pizza,
Kevin King:Awesome.
Jeremy Julian:Kevin, thank you so much for, for joining us. Yeah, I'll, I'll have to take a selfie with, with the pizza and send it your
Kevin King:can't wait to see it. Thank you.
Jeremy Julian:I love that. I appreciate you coming and sharing the story. congratulations on all of the continued success to our listeners, guys. Like I said, at the onset, I know you guys got lots of choices, so thank you guys for hanging out. If you haven't already subscribed, please do so on your medium, player of choice. Kevin, thank you so much. And to our listeners, make it a great day.
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