Derrick Rose, known for his ability to get hot on the basketball court and dish out assists to his Chicago Bulls teammates, will be taking those particular brand of skills off the court. Rose will be keeping things hot and dishing out pizzas as a part-owner of Chicago-based pizza maker and restaurant, Giordano’s.
The business move came about when his agent, former Bulls guard B.J. Armstrong, revealed to Victory Park Capital Advisors managing partner, Richard Levy, that Rose was a fan of Giordano’s. Victory Park Capital Advisors bought the pizza establishment last year and hope to expand its reach beyond the 43 restaurants in its chain, of which only three are outside the state of Illinois.
Will this be a wise purchase for Derrick Rose? Well, who doesn’t like pizza?
As a private company, Giordano’s doesn’t disclose revenue, but the company’s CEO and president Yorgo Koutsogiorgas said the brand has been growing at 5 to 9 percent a year, without price increases. He said the company will make roughly 13.4 million pizza pies this year.
Koutsogiorgas said the company will use Rose by putting his image on a special takeout box and will drive customers to his favorite pie, a thin crust version with cheese, sausage and red peppers.
Sounds like Rose will be living the dream of every portly person like me, other than choosing the thin crust of course. In any case, it seems like a smart move to buy into a successful franchise, as opposed to spending money frivolously as a lot of high-profile athletes seem to do nowadays. Good luck, D-Rose.