March Featured Business
Toppers Pizza, Eau Claire

     Toppers Pizza. with two locations in Eau Claire — Eastridge Center and next to Bowl-Winkles on N. Clairemont Avenue — opened in October of 1998 and is owned by Andy and Caro Johnson. (They also own the Toppers on Lyndale Avenue in the Uptown area of Minneapolis.)
    Andy worked at the first (and then only) Toppers Pizza in Whitewater while attending the university there, while Caro attended UW-Eau Claire. When graduation began to approach they both knew that before they ventured off into the world of job hunting they wanted to try to make a go of something of their own. 
    During his time at Toppers Pizza Andy had become friends with the owner and creator of the franchise — Scott Gittrich — who approached Andy with the idea of him starting his own location. Andy and Caro discussed it, and with his know-how of the inner workings of a pizza place as well as his undergraduate work in both business and accounting, plus her degree in public relations and contacts with the students of UW-EC, it seemed to them to be a great venture they could embark on together. 
    “We now have 50 dedicated team members who work for us in our three locations,” Andy says.
    When Andy and Caro opened Topper’s Pizza on the west side of Eau Claire in 1998, they did so with money borrowed from their grandparents. Plus, all their equipment had been loaned to them by Scott Gittrich. For the first year they worked every shift, since the store was only open from 4 p.m. to 3 a.m. 
    “It was a crazy time and we slept in the daylight and worked in the moonlight. Throughout the first year our sales were not what we had hoped for, but we knew that this was not an issue to bring us down,” Caro relates. “We finally broke our milestone of generating $1000 in sales in one day during the 1999 Super Bowl. That is when we decided to open at the more "lunch" friendly hour of 11 a.m.” 
Since that fateful day, Toppers has grown by leaps and bounds. The Johnsons began hiring store managers and staffers, giving themselves time off to pursue a life out of the store. By catering to the late night crowd and UW-EC students, Toppers quickly became a local favorite.
    In 2001 Andy and Caro opened their second store on the east side of Eau Claire. Their intention was to be able to provide service and great food to all those folks the west side location could not reach. 
    Next the Johnsons decided to open a Toppers Pizza in Minnesota, since both grew up in the southern suburbs of the Twin Cities. (Eagan and Lakeville respectively). After scouting possible locations they settled for the Uptown area of Minneapolis. That store gained popularity once they adopted on-line ordering in the fall of 2008. 
    “We have had a great time delivering to and serving the residents who order from our stores,” Andy says.
The website Toppers.com makes it easy to order online, as well as touting most of the chains achievements and including a few words from the company’s founder.
    Caro notes that she and Andy try to treat their staff well, taking them skiing in Colorado, or taking the managers to Vegas for expos, as well as on numerous other camping and skiing trips each year. They also hold yearly competitions to see who can make the fastest six-sauced skins, and several employees get to attend Toppers Pizza conventions held in a different resort town in Wisconsin every year.
“    Ever since I graduated from UW-EC I knew that this was the perfect place for a fun pizza place to find its niche,” Caro relates. “The Chippewa Valley allows us to have a broad selection of customers who are very fun to design pizzas for. We enjoy the ‘town’ feel with the ‘city’ energy.” 
    According to Caro, Toppers has always supported sending children to both the Eau Claire Children's Museum and to Cavalier Games. They have been involved with Battle of the Bands and Special Olympics, and have collected Toys For Tots and non-perishables for Haiti. “We are always involved with incoming students moving into UW-EC and love working with student organizations,” she says. 

     Click here for a valuable coupon from Toppers Pizza

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