The Xenia location was the last Rapid Fired Pizza restaurant owned by Gray and Rapid Fired Pizza founder Ray Wiley. They also previously owned the Beavercreek location on Dayton Xenia Road, the Kettering location on East Dorothy Lane and the University of Dayton location on Brown Street. All three locations have closed within the last year due to low foot traffic.
Credit: NATALIE JONES
Credit: NATALIE JONES
About one year ago, the Kettering-based pizza chain was sold to Pie Guys Restaurants LLC, based in South Carolina.
Gray explained the four stores they continued to operate after the sale were “lower volume stores.”
“After the sale, we were hoping we could bring those up to be profitable and they still just never rebounded,” Gray said.
As they close the doors to their last Rapid Fired Pizza location, Gray says she and Wiley will now focus on Hot Head Burritos.
In 2007, Wiley launched the Hot Head Burritos restaurant concept. Today, there are 82 stores total.
Gray and Wiley own 13 Hot Head Burritos locations. Gray says all employees at the Rapid Fired Pizza location in Xenia were offered positions at their other companies.
Gray says she wishes nothing but the best to the other five Rapid Fired Pizza locations in the Dayton area.
“We appreciate all the support over the years,” she said. “We were sad to close the stores. We still feel like it’s a really good product and I personally still eat at the other restaurants that are open.”
The remaining food at the Xenia restaurant was donated to Miami Valley Meals, Gray said. Miami Valley Meals is a nonprofit organization that recovers and transforms food into free meals for distribution throughout the area.
For more information, visit www.rapidfirepizza.com.
Credit: NATALIE JONES
Credit: NATALIE JONES
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