COLUMBUS, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The owners of D.P. Dough, the nation’s largest calzone franchise and third largest college-focused restaurant chain, have inked an agreement to sell the company to Calios, a 13 unit competing calzone chain.
Each Calios restaurant will convert to D.P. Dough® as part of the deal, which was reached after months of negotiations between Matt Crumpton, CEO of D.P. Dough Franchising, LLC (owner of the D.P. Dough franchise) and Eric Cook, CEO of Food Guys, Inc. (owner of the Calios chain).
“After speaking with Eric it became clear that, if D.P. Dough and Calios joined forces, the whole would be greater than the sum of its parts,” said Crumpton.
Customers should not expect to notice any big changes. Crumpton, an attorney by trade who engineered the purchase of the D.P. Dough brand from its founder, will be joining Cook’s new D.P. Dough franchise management team in a consulting and general counsel role. In addition, the D.P. Dough marketing department, which Crumpton heads, will be retained as an outside marketing firm.
Cook is wasting no time getting started with D.P. Dough. He opened a D.P. Dough in Kalamazoo, Michigan in March, with more new stores to come in the next few months.
This merger of brands is a homecoming of sorts for Cook, who was formerly a D.P. Dough employee in Cortland, New York, and later opened his own calzone concept – Calios.
“It feels great to be back where I started, and to be able to grow D.P. Dough by bringing the two brands together just makes it that much more special,” said Cook. “This deal will give the company the burst of momentum it needs to reach our goal of having a D.P. Dough at every major college campus in America.”
About D.P. Dough
D.P. Dough is a Top 200 Entrepreneur Food Franchise. It is the 487th largest franchise brand in the world according to Franchise Times magazine. Since D.P. Dough Franchising LLC purchased the brand, it has experienced 24 consecutive quarters of year over year same store sales growth.
About Calios
Calios, originally called Zonies, is the Calzone King. Founded by Eric Cook in 2013, the brand has a total of 13 units currently opened, with more under development. Eric Cook and his team have perfected the art of opening restaurants in an efficient and economic manner.
