Pita Pit franchisee prepares for fast expansion in region

Standing in a lunch line at a Pita Pit franchise

in Portland,Ore. a couple of years back,

Paul Dunham entertained himself by mentally

calculating the finances of the restaurant.

Impressed, he did his homework and

bought the rights to franchise the pita chain in

northern Nevada.

Not long after Dunham opened a Pita Pit

location at 6633 S.Virginia St. in late 2005, his

accountant, Jerry Jones,was sufficiently

impressed by the numbers to help Dunham

put together an investor group that's going

gangbusters.

Pita Management Group LLC, the company

established by Dunham and Jones,will open a

store in Carson City this month. A third location

at the Sparks Crossing shopping center is

set for early summer.And the group hopes to

nail down locations in downtown Reno, northwest

Reno, the Vista area of Sparks and

Fernley.

That sort of growth,Dunham says, is

unusual for a company whose 120 franchisees

are mostly mom-and-pop owners who work

the stores themselves.

The 25-year-old Dunham has no inclination

to spend his days behind the counter,

serving up pitas.

"I work to live,"he says. "I don't live to

work."

To pull that off, he spent a year developing

the tools that store managers need to run their

own operations without his presence.

Some of the steps were simple the purchase

of plastic cups to help workers measure

out the right portions of meats and vegetables

to stuff pitas, for instance.

Elaborate chore sheets, meanwhile, lay out

detailed instructions for cleaning of the store.

At the same time,Dunham makes certain

his managers know they have the authority to

manage. He hangs around the south Reno

store only a few hours a week.

"They don't have me breathing down their

neck. They know what to do," he says.

The parent company of Pita Pit watches

Dunham's nontraditional approach multiple

locations,modified store layouts, training

regimens with some caution.

Christina Hatfield, director of marketing

for the company based in Couer d'Alene,

Idaho, says the company is willing to consider

some tweaking of its concept but emphasizes

uniformity among store locations.

"We are guided by the principal that maintaining

the continuity of our operating system

has been the key to our success," she says.

Dunham,meanwhile, says he looks to

blend his careful management approach with

the folksy atmosphere found in many Pita Pit

franchises.

"We still have to give it that mom-and-pop

vibe,"he says. "We want it to be a very well run

mom-and-pop."