Little Caesar pizza chain plans expansion in Georgia

<p>The Ilitch family's Little Caesar Enterprises Inc. says it plans to add hundreds of pizza outlets around the country, reversing a shrinkage that has reduced the number of stores from 5,000 in the early 1990s to 2,000 today.</p><p>The privately held company says it will open outlets in areas that include Georgia, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Oregon and Washington, D.C.</p><p>Details of the plan were to be announced Tuesday by Little Caesar Enterprises President David Scrivano, the Detroit Free Press reported. He became president last year.</p><p>Scrivano said the company is ready to push into the Northeast. There are no Little Caesars stores in Philadelphia and a handful in New York City and New Jersey. It also seeks growth in the Atlanta area, which now has five Little Caesars outlets "but could support 100," he said.</p><p>The Chicago-based food industry research company Technomic Inc. estimated that Little Caesars' 2004 sales totaled $1.2 billion. That would make it the nation's No. 4 pizza seller behind the Pizza Hut, Domino's and Papa John's chains.</p><p>Little Caesar Enterprises recently has increased its downtown Detroit headquarters staff by about 10 percent and has hired franchise licensing advisers and other managers in preparation for the expansion.</p><p>Little Caesars franchise operator Vicki Dunn-Marshall now has 16 stores in West Virginia, southern Ohio and eastern Kentucky and said she plans to add four stores.</p><p>"Sales are on the upswing," Dunn-Marshall said. "People are looking for value when money is tight."</p><p>Mike Ilitch founded the Little Caesars chain in 1959. He bought the Detroit Red Wings hockey team in 1982 and the Detroit Tigers baseball team 10 years later. His wife Marian bought a majority share of the MotorCity Casino in 2005.</p><p>Ilitch Holdings now is led by Christopher Ilitch, one of the couple's seven children.</p><p>The Ilitch family also has extensive real estate holdings in downtown Detroit, including the historic Fox Theatre, which the Ilitches restored and turned into one of the region's premiere entertainment venues.</p><p>___</p><p>On the Net:</p><p>HASH(0x1cdc3d8)</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x1cdc534)</p>