"Wall of Fame" Franchise Owner Profile: Noreen Hale

Noreen Hale is the owner of a Nick-N-Willy's in Kenosha, Wisconsin. In our franchise family, she is what many would consider a superstar franchise owner.

For Noreen, the dream of opening a pizza restaurant began soon after the events of 9/11. The enormous tragedy which rocked the nation, really hit home for Noreen. Her husband was working as a pilot and the aftershock of 9/11 made them think they needed to make some changes in their lives. For Noreen, that change would mean working closer to home and building a business their young family could grow with.

So in 2004, Noreen and her husband chose to partner with the Nick-N-Willy's Franchise Company and make their entrepreneurial dreams come true. Noreen says they absolutely loved the pizza and were sold on the take-n-bake concept. Noreen was savvy enough to know though that it was going to take alot more than just a great product to make her franchise successful.

She was going to need to get her pizza into as many people's mouths as possible through promotions, special events and community programs.

And that's just want she did. Since she opened, Noreen's been actively involved in her community with groups like Special Olympics Wisconsin and the local high schools. Most recently, she participated in Kenosha’s Great Pizza Bake-Off in the support of the Boys and Girls Club. She even managed to win the most votes in her category and her restaurant was honoured as Kenosha’s Best Local Pizza Chain for the sixth year in a row! ( To read the full article in the Kenosha News click here: http://tinyurl.com/yzop23k

Noreen is also proud to have helped to raise over $200,000 for a range of different non-profit groups through her fundraising card program. The chain-wide program works by selling the pizza gift certificates to non-profits for just $1. The cards are then re-sold as part of a fundraising campaign for $10, allowing for a profit of $9 on each card sold. Outside of fundraising, Noreen is also active in many school programs. Most recently, she participated in Pleasantary School’s (TNT) “Try New Things” workshop where she presented on nutrition – because pizza can be nutritious – especially at Nick-N-Willy’s!

It helps that Noreen has an education in public relations and therefore, understands the value of relationship building in the community. She also used to work as a teacher and TV personality so training her team of employees and acting as a mentor has been a natural fit! She's proud to be the “mother” to a large team of employees many of them who have stayed with her from high school through to college. As an added bonus, both her sons have taken an interest in her business and are the backbone of her staff.

If you live in the Kenosha area or are ever passing through, please make sure to stop in at Nick-N-Willy's at 7435 117th Ave on Hwy 50 and pay a visit to Noreen and her team!

Own a Nick-N-Willy's - it's easier than you think!

If you've ever dreamed of being your own boss and running a pizza restaurant, Nick-N-Willy's could have the perfect franchise opportunity for you - yes, YOU!

Believe or not, becoming a Nick-N-Willy's franchise owner is easier than you think. Of course, there is a process and we do have certain requirements, but ultimately we're looking for enthusiastic people who love our pizza and believe in our concept to join our team of franchise owners. If this sounds like it could be you, then we could be interested in helping you start your own pizza business using our proven system for success.

Currently, Nick-N-Willy's has several established restaurants for sale for the exceptional price of just $60,000. This exciting offer is currently available in:

• Plano, TX
  
• Holladay, UT
  
• Glendale, WI
  
• Chanhassen, MN

We've positioned the resale price on these franchises in this way because we want to attract local people with passion for pizza who want to take a hands-on approach to how they run their business. Our goal is to partner with people who want to commit to making a difference through the product and service they provide, and their involvement in the community in which they operate.

Owning a franchise is an ideal opportunity for those seeking a career change, whether they're dissatisfied with their current job or if they've been laid off. Becoming a franchisee can even be a viable option if you're a recent college graduate, retiree or "mom-preneur". Our family of franchise owners runs the full spectrum of unique and passionate people who truly enjoy their jobs and believe in the Nick-N-Willy's franchise system.


Many of our franchise opportunities won't last long, so if you're interested in learning more, check out the franchising section of our website at http://www.nicknwillys.com/files_2/franchising.php and fill out the contact form or call our Franchise Development Manager at 1.866.985.8586 ext 422.

This could be your year to make alot of "dough" and as the saying goes, "if you build it, they will come"....and eat lots and lots of pizza!! Dare to dream big and consider becoming a Nick-N-Willy's franchise owner today.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Super Bowl and Super Amounts of Pizza!

With the big game this Sunday, millions of people all over the world will be tuning into the festivities of the pre-game, half time and for sure, all of the commercials! At Nick-N-Willy’s we are all about the festivities with family and friends gathering in front of multiple televisions throughout the house. We have thousands of customer’s all over the country that make Nick-N-Willy’s their Super Bowl tradition.

All of our stores will be working hard in preparation for the big weekend. We will begin not just on Sunday, but all week long in preparing. We will bring in extra staff, extra sauce, extra cheese, toppings, fresh veggies, and of course make lots of “made from scratch dough”. You can bet on Saturday night all of our stores will be working late into the night up to our arms and elbows in dough! Our Nick-N-Willy’s scratch recipe made with imported extra-virgin olive oil with our own secret blend of ingredients is why we have thousands and thousands of Nick-N-Willy’s fanatics all over. We anticipate to make during a five hour period on Sunday afternoon a pizza every 1.3 seconds throughout all of our Nick-N-Willy’s stores. That is indeed a lot of pizza!

Great offers for the Big Game! Nick-N-Willy’s has four great offers on our web site (http://www.nicknwillys.com/) to make everyone’s Super Bowl party even better. Catch these great deals: Order 3 medium-one topping pizzas for $5.00 each; or for $20.00 receive 1 medium signature pizza plus 2 Medium 1 topping pizzas; or 2 large 1 topping pizzas for $15.00; and feed the whole gang with a 24 piece Wild Willy’s Wings, an order of any family salad, and a 6 piece Focaccia sticks with dipping sauce all for $26.00. Great deals for a great day!
So no matter if you are rooting for Peyton and the Colts, or the “Who Dat Nation” from New Orleans, this weekend is sure to be a great time. Don’t forget to call in your order ahead and we will have it ready when you are. We look forward to being apart of your own great Super Bowl party and don’t forget to order Dessert!

Sunset at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival

A message from Richard Weil, the President & COO of the Nick-N-Willy's Franchise Company.

Park City's infamous Main Street at night

We have concluded our last delivery and attended the last event for the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. The past few weeks have certainly flown by as our local Park City franchise owner, our store in Holladay, Utah, and our corporate operations team worked on every little detail to make sure that we delivered the very best Nick-N-Willy’s experience to each and every festival volunteer.

Our team at Nick-N-Willy's in Holladay, UT

Piles of steaming hot Nick-N-Willy's pizza at one of dozens of Sundance venues we delivered to.

Festival volunteers enjoying Nick-N-Willy's pizza!

When we began our discussions this past Fall about becoming an “Official Provider” for the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, we only began to understand the dynamics of such a large gathering and well known festival. From our first conference calls in December to the last pizza delivery this past Sunday, we realized we were working on a very special internationally acclaimed event!

Richard Weil (middle) with members of the Park City Nick-N-Willy's team

More pizza deliveries!

Having met this final weekend many Sundance Film Festival (SFF) goers from the early 80’s to contemporary fans while standing in lines awaiting film screenings, to passerbys on Park City’s famed “Main Street” and points in between, SFF holds a very special place to the thousands who attend. As I reflect upon our first experience at the Festival through our own video, blogs, Facebook fan page, Twitter feed, pictures, comments, and testimonials, it all seems to sum up as a wonderful “experience”.

Richard helps out delivering pizza to the Sundance Headquarters

On Saturday night attending the final gala and chatting with SFF volunteer coordinator Emily Aagaard, she gave NNW not only two thumbs up, but perhaps the greatest complement in that she said “every delivery, every pizza and every volunteer so appreciated and enjoyed the NNW product”. What more could we as a provider of great food and service want but to have our customers expectations met and exceeded! So, we did what we said we would do, and that was to make SFF and Nick-N-Willy’s “happen”, and happen we did!

Sonia and her staff work on yet another order for Sundance!.

We have so many people to thank but clearly to start with; our franchise owner in Park City, UT, Sonia Bernard McCall and her staff. Sonia, thanks is a mere understatement to you and your team. Thank you again to our NNW store in Holladay, UT for the behind the scenes support and their own service to SFF. Kudos to our VP of Operations, Paola Rossi for such great attention to details and execution. Big thanks also to Chris Weil for his creativity, energy and expertise. Additional thanks to Tanis Sullivan who has been the glue on the information and social networking highways.

"Nick", the pizza box man, on the slopes at Sundance

Finally, from our new friend, “Nick", the pizza box man as well as hundreds of new social media fans, we have left Park City and the 2010 SFF with great memories, tired feet, and hundreds of pounds of dough, sauce, and cheese and a countless happy Sundance volunteers.

Don't forget to eat more NICK-N-WILLY'S PIZZA!

Post by:
Richard F. Weil, CFE
President, CEO
Nick-N-Willy's Franchise Company, LLC

Why Sundance?

Many people have asked us why we agreed to become an "official provider" of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Why would a pizza franchise company with 40 locations in states throughout the U.S. want to support an internationally renowned independent film festival?

The answer is simple: exposure

At the moment, Nick-N-Willy's is a small pizza franchise company but we have plans to grow and get much, much bigger. We want more people to try our delicious pizza, calzones, focaccia sandwiches, wings, salads and desserts because we think our food tastes better. We also want to invite more people to partner with us as franchisees because we also believe our franchising model is better.

The 2010 Sundance Film Festival has given us the opportunity to reach out to about 50,000 people at the event. Most of them from the United States, but many from other parts of the world. The festival is located in an area where we have two restaurants - one in Park City, the other in Salt Lake City. The event has also given us a chance to feed 3,000 people, most of whom are from the Park City area and other markets where we have restaurants. All of these people are new potential customers and franchisees.

In addition, we have leveraged our sponsorship of Sundance through "Official Provider" branding, social media and media relations, and managed to capture new audiences through newspaper articles, radio interviews, Twitter, Facebook and blog posts.

Total exposure has exceeded the value of our investment and we're pleased with the results.

Overall it's been a win-win for everyone. We got the exposure we wanted and festival organizers got the best pizza for their event!

Nick-N-Willy's Vice President of Operations, Paola Rossi explains more about our contribution to Sundance and why we wanted to get involved.

Click below to listen to our interview with Paola Rossi, VP of Operations at Nick-N-Willy's Pizza:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q73FMReJrHI

A Day in the Life of "Nick", the Pizza Box Man at Sundance

The day started with a little snow which worried our friend "Nick", the pizza box man. He had a full day of pizza deliveries ahead of him to hundreds of festival volunteers, but even just a bit of snow could cause serious damage to a guy made out of cardboard!


Knowing that the volunteers depended on him and that a hot slice of pizza was the best cure for anyone’s appetite on a cold winter day, Nick was determined not to let the slushy snow get the best of him. He headed into the Park City Nick-N-Willy’s to start preparing for a busy day ahead of pizza deliveries. He helped to get the oven fired up and the prepare all the fresh ingredients to the quality standards of a Nick-N-Willy’s pizza. Nick and his team then went to the streets armed with pizzas, salads, and focaccia sandwiches ready to feed hundreds of hungry festival volunteers.

While delivering pizza from one theater to the next, Nick was desperately hoping to catch a glimpse of a few celebrities amongst the crowds. Just as he was pulling up to make his final pizza delivery at the Eccles Theater, he thought he saw actor, Philip Seymour Hoffman jumping into a taxi. The event is crawling with movie stars and film makers. If only Nick could get a box of pizza into their hands!

Star struck, he forged on to deliver piping hot pizzas to the eagerly awaiting volunteers. As he entered the theatre he was greeted like a celebrity by all the volunteers who were thrilled to be receiving Nick-N-Willy’s pizza. This couldn’t have made Nick more pleased as he passed out all of his favorite pizza recipes like the Aegean, Taste of Tuscany, and the Big Kahuna. He became even more proud as he heard encouraging comments from around the room like “I love the sauce!”, “Delicious!”“The crust is amazing!” and even, "This is the best pizza I’ve ever had!"

Nick could feel his box cheeks flush and his cardboard knees go weak. This was the reason for his existence - to spread his passion for Nick-N-Willy’s and his love of pizza.

Walking back to his car Nick glanced at his watch seeing it was only 2:30 and as much fun as he had making everyone so happy, he couldn’t resist the opportunity to take in a slice of the slopes to reward himself for all the hard work he had done that day. He dashed over to the mountain where he was able to get in a few runs (very carefully) prior to closing time.

As night time began to fall upon Park City, Nick had an “out of box” experience as he reflected on the day’s events and knew that each person he met today would remember him and the delicious pizza he provided. As he laid his box head to rest, he fell into a deep sleep and dreamed of pepperoni slices, gooey cheese and crispy thin crusts being enjoyed by all.

Sundance Film Festival Feast Provider

Sonia Bernard-McCall slices pies at Nick-N-Willy's in Park City, Utah

What does it take to be an official provider of pizza for 3,000 volunteers at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival? The answer is great tasting pizza, an organized team and a strong leader with a passion for pizza. Sonia Bernard-McCall is the owner of the Nick-N-Willy's in Park City and she is the reason 3,000 festival volunteers will be able to enjoy hot, delicious pizza for free from Nick-N-Willy's. Sonia and her team have been able to seemlessly keep up with the demanding pizza delivery schedule without ever missing a beat. Every day for the last few weeks Sonia's been rallying her crew to bake and deliver volumes of pizzas to hundreds hungry people.

To Sonia, the exposure at the festival is already paying off. A large majority of the volunteers are from the Park City area and Sonia expects most of them will become Nick-N-Willy's customers after they taste her incredible pizza made with the freshest ingredients and signature pizza dough recipe. The new customers are already streaming in.




Sonia's goal is to share her passion for pizza with as many people as possible. By participating in Sundance, the biggest event in her community, she's doing exactly that.

Click here to hear an interview with Sonia about her store's participation in the 2010 Sundance Film Festival

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgfoUyvC-OU