Quick Informal Govt Summit
Carl Comeaux, CEO of Crust Pizza Co., shares a have a look at his profession, his achievements and trade developments forward of his look at Quick Informal Govt 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 Govt Summit, FastCasual.com is spotlighting panelists taking part within the annual trade occasion.
Crust Pizza Co. CEO Carl Comeaux will share perception on “The Franchise Paradox: Progress and Empowerment within the Fashionable 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 Govt 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 considered one of a number of main trade conferences all year long. Click on right here to register for the Quick Informal Govt Summit. The following 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 position.
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 progress with a transparent enlargement roadmap — 30-plus models now, aiming for 250 system-wide inside 9 years.
- Operations & Programs: Oversee each day operations throughout gross sales, advertising, retailer growth, and franchisee help.
- Product & Tech Management: Guarantee product consistency—recent each day dough, proprietary cheese & sauce throughout all areas.
- Tradition & Franchisee Relations: Preserve robust franchise tradition by means of companion advisory councils, franchisee help, and community-driven values.
What was your first-ever profession position and what’s one vital lesson you realized from it?
I’ve been self-employed since I used to be 16 years previous; My first enterprise was in health as a private coach which taught me tips on how to work with totally different personalities in an effort to assist them obtain their objectives.
Carl is impressed to work within the restaurant trade as a result of he sees it as a platform for transformation — each private and communal. He is obsessed 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 methods 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 objective, partnerships, and prosperity.
What do you take pleasure in most about your present position?
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 route and future for the model, then watching the crew 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 change into robust operators and leaders.
- Strategic execution: Turning massive concepts into playbooks, processes, and predictable outcomes.
Carl finds pleasure in bridging imaginative and prescient with execution — and seeing the tangible leads to the lives of franchisees and the communities they serve.
What’s a standard 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 way over pizza. His position includes:
- Strategic growth: Planning multi-state expansions and optimizing unit economics.
- Franchisee enablement: Teaching on a regular basis folks to change into assured operators and homeowners.
- Model progress: Overseeing advertising, actual property, coaching, tech, and capital deployment.
- Tradition management: Making a value-driven surroundings that retains the Crust mission alive in each retailer.
He is not within the kitchen tossing dough — he is within the boardroom, on web site visits, in franchise interviews, and behind progress fashions that may flip 30 models 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 neighborhood roots and excessive product requirements. Particularly, he is pleased with:
- Scaling from a number of shops to 30-plus open or in growth, 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 change into profitable enterprise homeowners.
- Creating infrastructure that turns imaginative and prescient into actuality: coaching methods, vendor networks, retailer playbooks and tradition frameworks. It is greater than progress — it is proving that with the fitting methods and values, a neighborhood pizza place can change into a generational enterprise.
Who’s/was your mentor and what’s one vital lesson you realized from them?
Keith Cunningham; all the pieces 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 trade developments do you assume are at the moment over-hyped and why?
Promote to Personal fairness as a result of in case you are rising that’s the worst thought.
What trade developments do you assume 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 trade?
Be sure to have a DAWG character which suggests you do not surrender…it is arduous however value it!
Should you weren’t working in your present area, what would you be doing as an alternative?
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 positioning 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 practically twenty years masking the pizza trade, from unbiased pizzerias to multi-unit chains and each dimension enterprise in between. Mandy has been featured on the Meals Community and has received quite a few awards for her protection of the restaurant trade. She has an insatiable urge for food for studying, and may let you know the place to seek out one of the best slices within the nation after spending 15 years touring and consuming pizza for a residing.
