Pita Pit—Billy St. Pierre
Billy St. Pierre’s three Anchorage Pita Pits are among the top four revenue producers for the entire chain. Courtesy of Billy St. Pierre
80
Billy St. Pierre first stumbled onto a Pita Pit when he was doing a sports management internship in Oregon. There was a Pita Pit right down the street and St. Pierre’s coworkers ate there frequently. The first time he ate at Pita Pit, St. Pierre says he called his dad, a successful Fairbanks restaurateur and businessman, and told him he needed to bring the concept to Alaska. But St. Pierre went on to other things, including getting his MBA, and it wasn’t until he saw another Pita Pit in Bozeman, Montana, that the idea really clicked. “I ate there three times in three days,” he says. “I wasn’t particularly keen on sitting on a job from nine to five. I went to the website and submitted a letter of interest.” At the time, few of St. Pierre’s friends had even heard of Pita Pit, which specializes in pita sandwiches, so the brand itself wasn’t a huge selling point. “I love the product,” he says. “That was the number one thing. I knew it was unique to Alaska. I think it is a great brand and a fun-loving brand.” St. Pierre drew up a “massive” business plan. “I knew the importance of being prepared,” he says. He spent the six months before the first Pita Pit opened talking it up on social media. He documented the whole construction process on Facebook, gave away Pita Pit workout shirts to his friends and tagged them in photos. “When we first opened for business, it was busy, very, very busy,” he says. “The initial community response was better than I ever imagined it could be.” The next year, St. Pierre opened a second store and followed that with a store in Tikahtnu Commons last summer. The three stores are among the top four revenue-producers in the entire chain. He’s continuing to scout locations elsewhere in Anchorage, as well as Wasilla and possibly Fairbanks. “What I’d really like to do is find someone to partner with me and live in Fairbanks,” he says. “In my opinion, we do a great job running our stores. We’re involved on a daily basis; we’re in the stores on a daily basis. In the restaurant business, I think owner participation is essential to the business. “I’m trying to balance the next best location and affordable real estate and what I want my personal life to be,” he says. The restaurants employ about eighty people, mostly part-time, but St. Pierre says turnover has been very low. “Most of them are students or younger folks just figuring out life,” he says. “Some of these kids started off with us at sixteen. We’ve been able to watch our staff grow up and play a positive role in their lives.” St. Pierre says his biggest challenge is logistics. “In Alaska, compared to the Lower
Alaska Business Monthly | December 2015 www.akbizmag.com