Franchise Talk

Uno’s Pizza Chain Roots Run Deep

April 8th, 2009 | Author: Jack

Chicago invented deep-dish pizza, but it took an entrepreneur from Boston to serve up Windy City-style slices on the national stage. In the mid-1970s, Aaron Spencer owned more than 30 Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises in Greater Boston. When Spencer attended a franchisees’ meeting at a Chicago advertising agency, pizza from the original Uno location was part of the lunch spread.

The table was set for Spencer’s next venture.

“The idea that hit me was: Deep-dish pizza was absolutely new to me, so there must be a bunch of people like me,” Spencer said. “Maybe there was a business opportunity.”

It would take another three years for Spencer’s plan to pay off with the opening of Pizzeria Uno’s first East Coast location, on Boylston Street in Boston. Today, there are more than 200 Uno Chicago Grill restaurants in the U.S. and abroad, with more than $471 million in sales in 2007.

Spencer talked about the bumpy takeoff of the Uno chain during a party on Tuesday to commemorate the Back Bay restaurant’s 30th anniversary. The 77-year-old Newton resident is chairman emeritus of West Roxbury-based Uno Restaurant Holdings Corp., the operator of the Uno chain.

Spencer studied business at Boston University and planned to go into insurance, but the starting $50-a-week salary offered by Aetna couldn’t match his income selling baby furniture door-to-door during college. He bought a distributorship and took Springfield-based Baby Product Corp. national before buying his first Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise in 1966. Full story.

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