Blaze Pizza Selects Qu as Unified Commerce Platform to Support Rapid Growth and Innovation

PASADENA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Blaze Pizza has chosen Qu’s unified commerce platform to enhance ordering and operational efficiency across the franchise system. Qu’s cloud-native system provides greater order accuracy and kitchen fulfillment, reducing the cost of labor and food waste. These advantages, along with extensive data collection, will allow for greater cost savings and a better user experience, ultimately supporting Blaze’s plans for rapid growth. The announcement was made at the Cota Connect summit in San Francisco, hosted by Qu investor Cota Capital.

Using fresh, high-quality ingredients and a fast-fired cooking technique, the fast-casual artisanal pizza brand serves up a build-your-own pizza experience across roughly 330 US locations. Qu will support Blaze’s plans for aggressive expansion over the next 5 years with the solid, unified data foundation and effortless user experience on the front-end, both necessary to scale rapidly and stably.

The decision to begin a system-wide rollout of Qu’s platform was finalized after the overwhelming success of an extensive pilot program involving numerous corporate and franchised locations. “The advanced and forward-looking nature of Qu’s cloud computing and real-time access to data makes it so much easier to get a holistic view of our operations and efficiency,” said Beto Guajardo, CEO of Blaze Pizza. “We’ve already seen a marked improvement in revenues and guest experience through fewer lost orders and higher order accuracy.”

As the complexity of Blaze’s restaurant network grows with every new location, Qu will play a key role in stabilizing system-wide operations with single-menu management across all channels, data normalization, unparalleled price customization, and a centralized administrative portal for more efficient enterprise control.

Blaze’s franchisees, management, and corporate staff can now access sales, inventory, and labor data at the store level, across custom groups, and across the entire brand network through the Notify app, which includes AI-based alerts tied to sales, labor, inventory and other criteria. By establishing a scalable, 360-degree view of the enterprise, Qu’s foundational data engine unifies the order journey—empowering faster and more effective decision-making by the people running the stores.

About Blaze Pizza

Established in 2011 by Rick and Elise Wetzel, the co-founders of Wetzel’s Pretzels chain, Blaze Pizza has established a reputation as a fast-casual artisanal pizza brand that offers a build-your-own pizza experience that is fast-fired in 180 seconds. The dough is made fresh in-house and never frozen. Their ingredients are thoughtfully sourced. The packaging is eco-friendly, and their pizzasmiths are specially trained to master the fast-fire, extreme heat ovens. Since opening its first restaurant in Irvine, California, Blaze has become a wildly popular and successful brand, enjoying an unprecedented growth rate.

About Qu

Qu is the restaurant technology company evolving POS, responsibly, for a more sustainable future. With the industry’s first unified commerce platform, Qu’s foundational data engine goes beyond fragmented omni-channel ordering experience to unify the order journey -- driving loyal, repeat customers and stability.

Focused on enterprise quick service (QSR) and fast-casual chains, our mission is to infuse speed, agility, and innovation into restaurant chains, enabling operators to seize new opportunities and improve profit margins - one order at a time. Above all else, Qu prides itself on transparent, responsible partnerships rooted in financial and moral stewardship for the restaurant industry.

Based in Bethesda, MD, Qu is backed by leading restaurant entrepreneurs and investors that have also backed Google, Salesforce, Uber, and Dropbox. Visit www.qubeyond.com.