Cicis Hires Kimberly Thompson to Double Store Count

A Veteran Hire With a Clear Mandate

Cicis Pizza wants to go from roughly 300 restaurants to 600 within five years, and it just hired someone whose entire career has been built around making exactly that kind of math work.

The all-you-can-eat buffet chain, which built its identity on what it calls TBPVA (The Best Pizza Value Anywhere), has named Kimberly Thompson as Executive Vice President of Development. Thompson brings more than a decade of franchise development leadership from brands including Bonchon, Walk-On's Sports Bistreaux, Jack in the Box, Del Taco and Philly Pretzel Factory. Her job at Cicis is narrow and clear: find new growth markets while protecting the buffet-pizza footprint the chain has spent decades building.

Why Leadership Calls This a Calculated Move

Jeff Hetsel, President of Cicis Pizza, described the hire as calculated rather than opportunistic. "As we look toward the next chapter of Cicis' growth, we're focused on being intentional about where we expand, who we grow with and how we support our franchisees along the way," Hetsel said. He pointed directly to Thompson's background as the reason she got the job: "We see tremendous opportunity to build on the brand's established presence while introducing Cicis to new communities across the country. Kimberly brings the leadership and strategic perspective to help us pursue that vision while maintaining the relationships and support that have been central to Cicis' success."

Hiring someone with Thompson's specific grounding in franchise development, rather than a general operations executive, tells you something about how Cicis views expansion right now. It's not being treated as a side project tacked onto existing leadership. It's being treated as its own discipline, with its own dedicated hire.

What Thompson's Role Actually Involves

Thompson's actual mandate involves building out the franchise development pipeline, vetting operators against the brand's qualifications, and working closely with Cicis' leadership, operations and real estate teams to walk prospective franchisees through development decisions. That means connecting candidates to infrastructure the brand has already built: training programs, site selection support, and supply chain backing through its distribution partnership with JMC Restaurant Distribution.

The business model she's selling isn't limited to the buffet line itself. Operators get multiple revenue channels, including carryout, catering, delivery and arcade game rooms, backed by national marketing support and real estate expertise. Pairing a hard numeric growth target with several built-in income streams reads like a deliberate pitch to prospective franchisees: this isn't a bet on buffet traffic alone.

Thompson Frames the Opportunity in Her Own Words

Thompson herself framed the appeal in blunt terms. "When you look at Cicis, you have a brand that families have known and loved for decades, a value proposition that resonates with today's consumers and a business model that gives operators multiple ways to serve their communities," she said. "What excites me most is the opportunity ahead. We have an established foundation, strong franchisee support and strong potential to introduce Cicis to new markets. Our goal is to double the brand's footprint over the next five years, and I'm looking forward to connecting with ambitious operators who want to be part of that growth."

That five-year doubling target gives her tenure a built-in scoreboard, one that will be impossible to ignore when assessing whether the hire paid off.

Why the South and Southeast Come First

Cicis currently runs close to 300 restaurants across more than 23 states, and the priority markets for new development are Texas, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama and Florida. That's not a scattershot national push. It's a cluster concentrated in the South and Southeast, regions where the brand likely already carries some recognition and where value-driven, family-oriented dining tends to perform well.

Building density in a connected group of states rather than chasing units coast to coast also makes logistical sense: tighter regional clusters mean more efficient marketing spend and a simpler supply chain run through JMC Restaurant Distribution.

Part of a Bigger Modernization Push

The timing isn't incidental, either. Thompson's appointment lands as Cicis is already putting money into restaurant operations, technology and guest engagement, which suggests the development push is one component of a broader modernization effort rather than a standalone growth initiative.

The repeated emphasis in Hetsel's comments on preserving franchisee relationships, even while chasing an aggressive expansion number, signals a company trying to grow without losing the operator-support reputation that got it here. Whether that balance holds will depend less on the five-year target itself and more on how many signed franchise agreements actually materialize in those five priority states, a figure the announcement doesn't yet put a number on.

A Veteran Hire With a Clear Mandate