Villa Enterprises

Villa Enterprises Management is a privately owned, multi-concept quick service restaurant (QSR) franchisor with over 330 franchised and corporate locations in 38 US states and 6 countries. The company was founded in 1964 by Michele Scotto as a pizzeria called Villa Pizza that was located next to the original Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway in New York City.

Description

Villa Enterprises has five fast-casual restaurant brands; Villa Fresh Italian Kitchen (authentic Italian cuisine), Green Leaf's (salad concept), Banana's (smoothie concept), Casa Java (coffee concept), and South Philly Steak & Fries (sandwich concept). Since 2005, the company has also wholly owned and operated several upscale full service restaurants in Northern New Jersey: The Black Horse Inn & Pub and Piattinos in Mendham, NJ, George & Martha’s American Grille and Café Villa in Morristown, a six (6) The Office Beer Bar and Grill.

Villa Enterprises opened a test kitchen at its Morristown, NJ, corporate headquarters for menu research and development.

History

Villa Enterprises began in 1964 when Michele Scotto opened his first ‘Villa Pizza’ shop next to the original Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway in New York City. The success of that store has since led to expansion to over 300 locations. The company is currently run by founder Michele Scotto's two sons; Anthony Scotto serves as CEO, and Biagio Scotto is President.

Villa's menus support the culinary philosophy of founder Michele Scotto, who emigrated to the United States from Naples, Italy. Scotto believed that food should always be prepared by hand on the premises–not frozen or pre-processed–and feature only fresh produce, sauces and meats.

In 2004, Villa Enterprises opened a flagship ‘Villa Café’ location at Times Square in New York City, and in 2006 a new international headquarters in Morristown, NJ.

Entrepreneur Magazine named Villa Enterprises one of the top 500 Best Franchises of 2008.

In late December 2008, Villa Enterprises announced it acquired six Luciano Brickoven Pizzeria locations from the Luciano Group, and Villa plans to convert them to Villa Fresh Italian Kitchen restaurants in early 2009.

Brands

Villa Fresh Italian Kitchen features Italian entrees, old-world style pizza, homemade pastas, salads and strombolis

Green Leaf's features tossed salads, made-to-order wraps, grilled panini sandwiches and home made soups.

Bananas Smoothies & Frozen Yogurt features frozen fruit Smoothies, fruit Frosties, frozen yogurt sundaes and milkshakes, healthy snacks and hand-rolled pretzels.

South Philly Steak’s and Fries features classic Philly cheese steak sandwiches and fresh-cut fries, chicken cheese steaks, deli subs, Philly-style baked potatoes, and South Philly salads.

Locations

Besides Villa's full-service locations in New Jersey, their restaurants can found in high traffic areas like airports, sports and entertainment venues, retail outlet centers, casinos, regional malls, travel plazas, transport hubs and universities.

Internationally, Villa Enterprises currently operates 22 locations in Italy, the United Kingdom, Kuwait, the Czech Republic and Mexico. Villa began franchising operations in the U.S. and abroad in 1999.

References

Entrepreneur Top Franchises of 2008: (http://www.villapizza.com/pdf/EntrMagJan08.pdf)

American Executive: (http://www.americanexecutive.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6266&Itemid=90)

Kuwait Expansion: (http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS182667+22-Sep-2008+PRN20080922)

Full-service restaurants: (http://www.franchisewire.com/article.php?id=2864)[]

Villa Expansion: (http://www.chainleader.com/article/CA6625143.html)

Villa Enterprises acquires 6 Luciano Brickoven pizzerias:(http://web.archive.org/web/20090211180618/http://news.prnewswire.com:80/ViewContent.aspx?ACCT=109

Villa begins franchising in 1999: (http://www.entrepreneur.com/franchises/villaenterprises/282923-0.html)

External links

• Villa Enterprises official website