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COPPELL, TEXAS - Joe Croce, founder of CiCi's Pizza, is stepping down as president and chief executive of the 420-unit chain he built over the last 18 years, but few changes in the fast-grown company's strategy are expected under new management ownership.
Croce, 44, told a franchisee convention this month in Biloxi, Miss., that he planned to sell his shares in the company by midyear to a CiCi's management group so that he could focus on his family and church. Terms of the buyout were not detailed.
"This management team has been here for a combined 45 years, and yet they are still young and yet they are still hungry," Croce said. "You take that with the strategy that's working tremendously, and it's really not a big change. They are in control of something that they are already making work. It's really not as big a change as everyone might think."
Assuming ownership of the company will be Craig Moore, vice president of operations; Robert Kulick, president of JMC Restaurant Distribution, CiCi's purchasing division; Forbes Anderson, chief financial officer for both CiCi's and JMC Distribution; Joe Flanigan, vice president of marketing; Robert Grosshuesch, vice president of training; and Robert Parent, vice president of development.
Croce opened the first CiCi's Pizza as a takeout-only shop in suburban Dallas in 1985. The concept evolved into a $3.99, all-you-can-eat pizza buffet that by 1997 had grown through franchising to...