Little Caesars
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| Little Caesars Enterprises, Inc.
<tr><td colspan="2" style="text-align:center; padding:16px 0 16px 0;">Image:Little-Caesars-Logo.jpg</td></tr> | |
| Type | Subsidiary of Ilitch Holdings |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1959 (Garden City, Michigan,USA) |
| Headquarters | Detroit, Michigan
<tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Key people</th><td>Michael Ilitch, CEO and Chairman</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Industry</th><td>Restaurants</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Products</th><td>Pizza take-out</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Website</th><td>www.littlecaesars.com</td></tr> |
Little Caesars is estimated to be the fourth-largest pizza restaurant chain in the United States.<ref name="chain2">Estimated by Technomic Inc., a food industry research firm in Chicago. Tom Wlash. "Little Caesars thinks huge - Detroit chain plans to add hundreds of stores nationwide", Detroit Free Press, March 21, 2006.</ref> The company claims to be the largest carry-out pizza chain in the world.<ref name="chain">"Companies and Venues", Ilitch Holdings, Inc., July 18, 2006.</ref> It was founded by Mike Ilitch and Marian Ilitch in 1959 in Garden City, Michigan (in the same city that the first Kmart was built), as "Little Caesars Pizza Treat." The company is famous for its advertising catchphrase, "Pizza! Pizza!" which was introduced in 1979. The phrase refers to two pizzas being offered for one price (Often comparible to the price of a single pizza from competitors). The pizza were served in a single long package. Little Ceaser's has discarded the unwieldy packaging in favor of typical pizza boxes, but has kept the famous slogan.
By 1987 <ref>http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=12881</ref> it was available across the Northern United States; in 2006 it also operates in parts of Canada, Puerto Rico, Guam, South Korea, Honduras, Slovakia <ref>http://www.littlecaesars.sk</ref>, the Dominican Republic, Czech Republic <ref>http://en.itesco.cz/en_cz/stores/praha/od_praha_narodni</ref>, Mexico, Turkey, the Philippines, Ecuador, Egypt, Aruba, Iceland, Guatemala and Japan, Curacao, Mexico, Kuwait, Saudia Arabia, El Salvador, Qatar, Venezuela, UAP, Cancun, Lebanon, Bahrain
Little Caesars is most famous for offering two pizzas for the price of one (hence the "Pizza! Pizza!" slogan). Little Caesars is also notable for their $5.00 "Hot-N-Ready" pizza promotion, where large pepperoni and cheese pizzas are ready for pickup with no need to call ahead. Some franchise locations choose to use $5.55 or $5.99 pricing instead.
Ilitch Holdings, Inc. provides professional and technical services to all companies owned by Michael and/or Marian Ilitch. This includes the Detroit Tigers, Detroit Red Wings, Detroit's MotorCity Casino, Olympia Entertainment, a film theater company, a development company and the Hockeytown Cafe (which formerly housed Second City Detroit) and Fox Theatre in downtown Detroit.<ref>Illitch Holdings, Inc. [1] Accessed 16 June, 2006</ref> In 2005, combined revenues of Ilitch-owned businesses totaled $1.5 billion.<ref>Illitch Holdings, Inc. [2] Accessed 16 June, 2006 (Number at bottom of page)</ref>
The company is looking to expand again, especially in the Northeast U.S. Currently, there are around 2,000 locations, down from a peak of around 5,000 in the 1990s.<ref>USA Today Little Caesars plans pizza empire Accessed 16 June, 2006</ref>
While Little Caesars owns the "Pizza! Pizza!" trademark in the U.S., the unaffiliated Pizza Pizza restaurant chain owns the Canadian trademark. As a result, Little Caesars cannot directly use its well-known slogan in Canada, but has used "Delivery! Delivery!", "Quality! Quality!" or other such double-word taglines in advertising and on packaging in Canada.
Little Caesars was among the first to use a new kind of speed cooking conveyor oven, the "Rotary Air Impingement Oven" as described in U.S. Patent 5676044
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