The downtown Spokane outlet of fast-food chain Pita Pit, located in the Crescent Court at 707 W. Main, has been chosen as the Coeur d'Alene-based corporation's test store for a planned expansion into financial districts across the U.S.

The 181-store chain, which sells made-to-order sandwiches of meat, cheese, vegetables, and sauces rolled into a round of pita bread, typically locates outlets near college campuses, but now is looking at helping franchisees establish stores in downtown areas to attract more of a business clientele, says Corey Bowman, Pita Pit's vice president for franchise development.

The company currently has 130 franchisees across the country.

"Probably 90 percent of those franchisees have plans to expand," says Bowman.

He and Peter Riggs, vice president of Pita Pit's corporate business unit and son of Dr. Jack Riggs, one of Pita Pit USA's initial investors, intend to help make that expansion a reality, and hope to do so by attracting a different crowd of customers to the new stores.

Riggs says experience gained from the Spokane test store will enable Pita Pit's franchise consultants to provide better advice to franchisees who are interested in opening downtown stores.

Pita Pit customers at a downtown store have different desires and need different hours of operation than those near a college campus, Riggs says. For example, the chain's store at 818 E. Sharp, near Gonzaga University here, operates extended hours on Fridays and Saturdays, from 9 a.m. until 2 a.m., to accommodate students there. Such extended hours would be unnecessary in a downtown business and financial district, he says.

Bowman says it's not clear how many new Pita Pit outlets will open as a result of the current effort, and says the company's expansion plan isn't focused on numbers of new franchises. "If you build a strong foundation, the numbers will take care of themselves," he says.

Riggs adds, however, that the company is "doing some looking in key markets that we're eager to expand in." One such market is Jacksonville, Florida.

"We could fit 20 to 30 locations in the greater Jacksonville area," he says. "Some of our top stores are in the state of Florida. Jacksonville is the right size, in the right state."

One aspect of a strong foundation the two vice presidents have been working on is uniformity of branding among its many stores. Riggs says that when a group of Coeur d'Alene investors bought the U.S. franchise rights to Pita Pit from founders Nelson Lang and John Sotiriadis, of Kingston, Ontario, Canada, in 2005, "There was no market support from corporate into the field. Each store had to do its own marketing."

As the company has become more well-known, however, a unified brand image from store to store has become necessary, says Riggs. He and Bowman say they've encountered resistance from franchise owners, typically as independent minded as their college-student customers, to their first attempts at implementing brand unity.

"They said, 'We're doing just fine.'" Riggs says. "They didn't see the need for the overarching brand unity plan we were trying to implement."

Riggs and Bowman helped remedy that problem with more of a grass-roots approach, by forming a marketing advisory council made up of elected franchisees from around the U.S.

"They meet with us regularly to discuss marketing initiatives," Riggs says. "The franchisees are much more candid with each other. They talk to each other; then they come to us to formulate and execute their ideas."

It's taken a year to implement, but the new strategy seems to be working, says Riggs.

Before Pita Pit USA Inc. formed in Coeur d'Alene in 2005 with 20 investors, the U.S. operations included 73 franchises. At that time, Bowman had Pita Pit outlets in Eugene, Ore.; Seattle; and Bellingham, Wash. His college buddy, Peter Riggs, had opened an outlet in Southern California with brother-in-law Paul Erwin.

Wanting to expand, Riggs began talking with Pita Pit founders Lang and Sotiriadis about locking out competition from other potential franchisees in Southern California.

The Pita Pit owners must have been impressed with him, because they offered him the entire U.S. as his territory. Riggs says the partners were tired of spending most of their time on the road. They had young children at home in Canada.

Riggs then talked with his father about buying the company. Jack Riggs began talking about the investment potential with friends in the business community, and then went ahead with the purchase. Sotiriadis went home to run Pita Pit Canada. Lang stayed with the U.S. company as board president and CEO, and moved his family to Coeur d'Alene. Peter Riggs talked with Bowman, who sold his outlets and moved to Coeur d'Alene for a management position in the company.

Now, Riggs and Bowman say they're not running the operation on a five-year plan, but instead, "We look at the shifting landscape every single day. That has helped us continue to grow."

They say their plan for riding out the current economic recession has been "to focus on quality rather than numbers."

Nevertheless, numbers are definitely at the forefront of their thoughts. Bowman says he believes the minimum saturation limit for Pita Pit franchises will be one store per 50,000 people in any given area. He says he would prefer to expand in a market with a franchisee who is already successful there. Before granting a second franchise in a city, Bowman wants to be sure the current store is profitable and meets corporate standards for cleanliness and product quality.

With about 20 new stores opened in 2009, and 25 more slated to open by the end of this year, Riggs and Bowman have their work cut out for them, but they hope that if businesses and their employees embrace Pita Pit as a favored lunch spot, the franchisor could soon see exponential growth.