Fast-Growing Blaze Pizza Adds More

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Blaze Fast-Fire’d Pizza is bringing more flaming ovens to Canada. The Pasadena pizza chain plans to open two eateries in Calgary in January, the company said this week. The openings follow last month’s launch of a site in Toronto, Blaze’s first outside the United States.

The additions will give Blaze an empire of 95 stores, including nearly a dozen in Los Angeles. The chain’s explosive growth since opening its first spot in 2012 – with revenues soaring by 4,200 percent – put it atop the Business Journal’s list of 100 Fastest Growing Private Companies, which came out earlier this month.

The Calgary sites, located about 12 miles apart, will aim to send lots of pizzas – made with Canadian flour, of course – down its open-kitchen assembly lines. One 2,500-square-foot location will seat 80 people; the other will seat 90 people and is planned for 3,000 square feet.

More stores are in the pipeline, including some high-profile sites such as the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston and Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Fla.

Co-founder Rick Wetzel – who also created Wetzel’s Pretzels – recently told the Business Journal that the company has aimed for quick growth to get ahead of competitors in the fast-casual pizza market.

“It was going to have to shift from getting it figured out, to going very fast,” he said.

The company generated more than $32 million in revenue last year.

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