Quick Informal Government Summit
Carl Comeaux, CEO of Crust Pizza Co., shares a take a look at his profession, his achievements and business developments forward of his look at Quick Informal Government Summit 2025.
Picture: Willie Lawless/ Networld Media Group
June 20, 2025 by Mandy Wolf Detwiler — Managing Editor, Networld Media Group
In anticipation of the upcoming Quick Informal Government Summit, FastCasual.com is spotlighting panelists taking part within the annual business occasion.
Crust Pizza Co. CEO Carl Comeaux will share perception on “The Franchise Paradox: Progress and Empowerment within the Trendy Period” session aimed analyzing the normal franchise mannequin and the way it’s altering by client calls for, tech and a shift in franchisee expectations.
Occurring 20 years, the Quick Informal Government Summit has been the premier gathering for top-level restaurant executives trying to innovate, join and elevate their manufacturers. This 12 months’s occasion is happening October 5-7 in Austin Texas.
The summit is run by Networld Media Group, publishers of Fastcasual.com, QSRweb and Pizza Market. It’s one in all a number of main business conferences all year long. Click on right here to register for the Quick Informal Government Summit. The subsequent Networld Media Group occasion is the Restaurant Franchising & Innovation Summit happening March 16-18, 2026 in San Diego, California. High restaurant leaders will spend two and a half days of networking, inspiring tales and confirmed methods.
Describe your present function.
Carl Comeaux serves because the chief government officer (CEO) of Crust Pizza Co., main the model’s transformation from a regional favourite right into a quickly increasing, sustainable franchise entity. This is a breakdown of his key roles:
- Imaginative and prescient & Technique: Drive development with a transparent growth roadmap — 30-plus items now, aiming for 250 system-wide inside 9 years.
- Operations & Techniques: Oversee day by day operations throughout gross sales, advertising and marketing, retailer improvement, and franchisee assist.
- Product & Tech Management: Guarantee product consistency—recent day by day dough, proprietary cheese & sauce throughout all areas.
- Tradition & Franchisee Relations: Keep sturdy franchise tradition by means of associate advisory councils, franchisee assist, and community-driven values.
What was your first-ever profession function and what’s one vital lesson you discovered from it?
I’ve been self-employed since I used to be 16 years outdated; My first enterprise was in health as a private coach which taught me how you can work with totally different personalities in an effort to assist them obtain their objectives.
Carl is impressed to work within the restaurant business as a result of he sees it as a platform for transformation — each private and communal. He is captivated with:
- Creating significant experiences by means of meals — pizza that connects households, teammates, and neighborhoods.
- Empowering franchisees to personal their future — giving on a regular basis folks a transparent path to independence by means of a scalable mannequin.
- Fixing operational puzzles — constructing good programs that make success predictable, not unintended.
- Legacy constructing — serving to others create generational wealth by scaling from one location to many.
For Carl, it is not nearly pizza — it is about utilizing the restaurant enterprise to construct function, partnerships, and prosperity.
What do you take pleasure in most about your present function?
As CEO of Crust Pizza Co., Carl enjoys being within the driver’s seat of a model that’s altering lives. What he values most:
- Imaginative and prescient constructing: Setting a transparent path and future for the model, then watching the staff rally round it.
- Franchisee wins: Listening to tales of franchisees hitting milestones, constructing generational wealth, and attaining freedom.
- Mentoring: Teaching rising entrepreneurs, serving to them turn out to be sturdy operators and leaders.
- Strategic execution: Turning large concepts into playbooks, processes, and predictable outcomes.
Carl finds pleasure in bridging imaginative and prescient with execution — and seeing the tangible ends in the lives of franchisees and the communities they serve.
What’s a typical false impression folks have about what you do?
A standard false impression folks have about what Carl does is that he merely “runs a pizza firm.” In actuality, Carl is constructing a scalable franchise ecosystem — which is excess of pizza. His function includes:
- Strategic improvement: Planning multi-state expansions and optimizing unit economics.
- Franchisee enablement: Teaching on a regular basis folks to turn out to be assured operators and homeowners.
- Model development: Overseeing advertising and marketing, actual property, coaching, tech, and capital deployment.
- Tradition management: Making a value-driven surroundings that retains the Crust mission alive in each retailer.
He isn’t within the kitchen tossing dough — he is within the boardroom, on web site visits, in franchise interviews, and behind development fashions that may flip 30 items into 250-plus.
What’s one profession achievement you are most pleased with?
One profession achievement Carl is most pleased with is remodeling Crust Pizza Co. from a small native idea right into a fast-growing, multi-state franchise model — whereas preserving its group roots and excessive product requirements. Particularly, he is pleased with:
- Scaling from a number of shops to 30-plus open or in improvement, with a transparent plan for 250+ throughout the Southeast.
- Constructing a franchise mannequin that empowers on a regular basis folks — not simply seasoned restaurateurs — to turn out to be profitable enterprise homeowners.
- Creating infrastructure that turns imaginative and prescient into actuality: coaching programs, vendor networks, retailer playbooks and tradition frameworks. It is greater than development — it is proving that with the suitable programs and values, a neighborhood pizza place can turn out to be a generational enterprise.
Who’s/was your mentor and what’s one vital lesson you discovered from them?
Keith Cunningham; every thing begins out as a good suggestion until it is not. Be sure to spend time asking your self nice inquiries to get nice solutions … finally pondering time!
What business developments do you suppose are at the moment over-hyped and why?
Promote to Non-public fairness as a result of if you’re rising that’s the worst concept.
What business developments do you suppose do not get sufficient consideration and why?
Buyer satisfaction: they’re our boss … if they do not come again then they hearth everybody inside the firm.
What recommendation would you give to somebody simply beginning out in your business?
Be sure to have a DAWG character which implies you do not quit…it is onerous however value it!
In case you weren’t working in your present area, what would you be doing as a substitute?
Proudly owning a enterprise is all I do know…I do not know.
About Mandy Wolf Detwiler
Mandy Wolf Detwiler is the managing editor at Networld Media Group and the location editor for PizzaMarketplace.com and QSRweb.com. She has greater than 20 years’ expertise masking meals, folks and locations.
An award-winning print journalist, Mandy brings greater than 20 years’ expertise to Networld Media Group. She has spent almost twenty years masking the pizza business, from impartial pizzerias to multi-unit chains and each dimension enterprise in between. Mandy has been featured on the Meals Community and has gained quite a few awards for her protection of the restaurant business. She has an insatiable urge for food for studying, and might let you know the place to seek out the perfect slices within the nation after spending 15 years touring and consuming pizza for a dwelling.
