The Johnny's Pizza House is one of the American Dream playing out from Johnny Huntsman's first location in 1974 where he introduced the people of North Louisiana to pizza, the whole way to 2022 where the brand is now fully owned by the employees. JPH has been dominating the region for decades with their family-forward, sharing is caring attitude. In this episode, I sit with friend and former client, Melvin Delacerda to unpack the magic that makes JPH a fantastic place to work. Transcript 00:00.00 vigorbranding Everyone today I am joined by longtime friend and client. Ah, Melvin Dalierta who is the president and Ceo of Johnny's pizza house Melvin say hello give a little bit of backstory. 00:11.27 Melvin good morning joseph good good see my friend um my name's Melvin Delaserta I have been started working with Johnny's pizza house in high school and not just last month turned sixty years old so that gives you an indication of how long I've been with this company. Um, started in high school just because that's where all of my buddies were working had no intention of it turning into a career but I hit it at the right time and the company proved to be ah, a good place to to work and I enjoyed it enjoyed The people enjoyed the restaurant. Industry and so like said it's all these years later I'm I'm still here with with Johnny Pizza started out at the very bottom of course. Yeah I was only sixteen years old so you know was busing tables and cutting up meat and shredding cheese and just all the things you do in a restaurant and. Worked my way up eventually got into the the area of human resources with the company and eventually moved on up into the position I'm in now. 01:17.47 vigorbranding Nice yeah, and I think your your journey is not dissimilar from a lot of other folks in the organization if I recall so for for those who are not familiar with Johnny's pizza house. It is a multi-unit brand out of. Ah, based in West Monroe Louisiana which is the northwest of the state technically correct or kind of north central ish yep and then but it's all across the the north mostly the northern part of Louisiana you've gotten down to to baton rouge but haven't quite cracked into. 01:37.31 Melvin Yeah, North East yeah 01:51.44 vigorbranding New Orleans which is obviously what most people will be familiar with Louisiana um, ah, can you describe the service model and and basically how it's worked compared to like some of the other major piece of chains. 01:52.90 Melvin Right? and. 02:02.68 Melvin Well, you know we Johnny started this company back in 1967 so we're coming up on our fifty fifth anniversary and when he first started. Company and in Monroe Louisiana which has crossed a river from where our headquarters is it was probably I think the second pizza place in the whole area. So needless to say when he started he had to introduce people to pizza they they literally did not know what pizza was. He had learned the craft going to school in Iowa where he went to college and brought it down here and and was originally but was making it for his friends and at the poker game and that sort of thing and they encouraged him to you know you need to do this for the public. So starting out like said. Johnny had to sell other things you know to hamburgers and you know he had a grill so and then at the same time he offered the pizza and introduced it to the to the people needless to say as a result of that I think. His brand and and his company became very emotionally a part of the people here in North Louisiana you know they were probably third or fourth a generation of customers now and so he need us to say we we have a a strong hold on this. Part of the country. Um, and I mean it's it's something that you can't replicate you know pizzas everywhere now so you can't go into an area and and you know become the first pizza place and and steal people's hearts that way. So when we go into new markets now you know we have to