Great Alaska Pizza Company makes the franchise switch

MAT-SU -- Six months after 10 of Alaska's Little Caesars Pizza Pizza restaurants became the Great Alaska Pizza Company, owner Mark Sines and operations director Tracy Terranova are pleased with the change.

"We are the first locally owned franchise," Terranova said. The Great Alaska Pizza Co. not only replaced its former franchise in name; it is now set up as a franchise not unlike Little Caesars or Pizza Hut. While Sines controls all 10 of his restaurants and his satellite store in the Sullivan Arena, most of the restaurants are for sale -- excluding the Palmer and Wasilla sites -- and Sines and Terranova are hoping that more will want to buy into the franchise and start their own restaurants.

"It's very exciting to give this opportunity to the people in Alaska," Terranova said.

Rumors as to why the company pulled away from Little Caesars have been floating around the Valley. Terranova quashed a rumor that the change was made because of an expensive yearly payment to Little Caesars for the use of the business name and recipes, and said the change was really based on the cooperative company's loss of stores around the country.

"It really has nothing to do with finances, at least not as much as people think," Terranova said. "The reason we left is, nationally, Little Caesars went from 5,000 stores to 500 stores in the last year. We have chosen not to be a part of that."

Armed with a handful of new recipes, Terranova said the company is ready and able to begin selling the franchise in other areas of Alaska, namely the Kenai Peninsula and Southeast.

Terranova said there has been interest from outside the state as well. She said businesses in five states are interested in buying into the franchise, though she chose not to name which states.

She said changes made within the company have all been positive, and even though the franchise switch has been hectic, she is now seeing the results of that change.

"We wanted the best, we upgraded all our ingredients," Terranova said.

Even with the upgrade, Terranova said the Great Alaska Pizza Co.'s draw is still the same as it was when they were Little Caesars: A lot of pizza at a low cost.

"We are a value driven company," she said. "We are still about value … we know (especially in lieu of 9/11) people are not going for the Cadillac of pizzas. They are asking how much can I get for 20 bucks, for 10 bucks?"