Collins Foods Recruits Gagg

Collins Foods International Inc., which has been working for the last couple of years to add pizza and pasta to its corporate menu, has brought in a former Pizza Hut executive to head a newly formed division.

William Gagg, 37, a former senior vice president of restaurant operations for Pepsico Inc.’s Pizza Hut division, will join Collins Foods as a vice president and will serve as president of the new division.

Los Angeles-based Collins Foods is the largest single franchisee of Kentucky Fried Chicken stores and owns the majority of the Sizzler “steak-seafood-salad” chain. A third division, Collins Foodservice Inc., is a wholesale food and restaurant-service operation.

The newest division will oversee Collins Foods’ most recent ventures: Gino’s East of Chicago, four adult-oriented, deep-dish pizzerias; Josephina’s Cafe & Pizzeria, a chain of 11 equally upscale pizza-pasta places, and Ed Debevic’s Short Orders Deluxe, billed as a return to the 1950s diner.

The Ed Debevic’s diner is being developed jointly with Lettuce Entertain You Inc. of Chicago and Big Four Inc. of Phoenix. Two prototype outlets, featuring private-label beer, five different kinds of chili and other “quality short-order food,” have opened in Chicago and Phoenix, and a third is planned later this year in either San Francisco or Los Angeles.

“The new division has an awful lot of potential,” Collins President Richard P. Bermingham said. “We’re going to put some money behind it, wanted a top-notch professional who knew food, knew how to handle people, and we think we found it in Bill Gagg.”

Gagg was with Wichita, Kan.-based Pizza Hut for four years, and spent 10 years with the Sambo’s chain, most recently as a regional vice president.