The Strategy That Has Kept Hunt Brothers Pizza At The Forefront Of Drive-Thru Food

Once you drive outside the city limits and hit the backroads, places to grab a hot slice get thin. Luckily, one food you can count on is Hunt Brothers Pizza, especially east of the Mississippi. Since its founding by the four Hunt brothers in Tennessee in 1991, the pizza brand has been steadily expanding to gas stations and convenience stores. Today, it's the largest pizza chain in the U.S. with about 10,500 locations across 36 states, and there's still plenty of room to grow.

Unlike most pizza restaurants, it doesn't do delivery. You'll see the red-and-green glowing sign at local convenience stores like Fillers in Montezuma, Georgia, or DD's Market in Wartburg, Tennessee — places where you'd need to drive about 20 minutes to find a Domino's or Pizza Hut. The draw is convenience, a $10-$17 price tag for a whole pie, and consistency. Each location offers two sizes: a large 12" pizza or "Hunk A Pizza," which is a quarter pizza and plenty for one person. With a variety of toppings and a model that puts convenience store owners in control, the brothers were onto something with their strategy for growth.

For convenience stores, the partnership with Hunt Brothers Pizza makes sense and adds to typical gas station fare beyond hot dogs spinning on a roller or prepackaged sandwiches. (Not knocking the gas station hot dogs too much; it's where you'll find some of the best ones. Though you'll also find some of the worst.) Hunt Brother's model isn't franchise-based, so it doesn't collect fees or charge for marketing. The company supplies the dough along with sauce, cheese, and toppings, and puts store employees in charge of handling the quick assembly and baking.

The pizzas start with frozen crusts and are baked at 525 degrees for about five minutes, then moved to the warming case so you can grab one and get back on the road. A breakfast pizza is available for the early crowd, loaded with sausage, bacon, and eggs to go along with your morning brew. What's more, grabbing that coffee is one of the keys to this strategy: Once the convenience store draws you in for your gas station road trip pizza, you're more likely to grab a soda and a side of chips to go along with it. Of course, each store is different depending on the amount of traffic it sees, but one store owner told Inc.com that he estimates that customers coming for the 'za spend about $10,000 in his store each month.