Ablak Holdings is Having Coffee With Its Pizza

“I decided to bring in a management company to run Vocelli and look for other franchise brands,” he said.

Ablak Holdings includes Ablak Real Estate, call center service Zafer Solutions, and film company Ablak Productions, as well as Vocelli, a chain of mostly franchised carry-out and delivery pizzerias operating in 10 geographic markets.

Talks with Rockn’ Joe began in February 2013.

“Ablak Holdings has the infrastructure in place to grow another brand and support the franchisees going forward,” said Scott Mashuda, managing director of business brokerage River’s Edge Alliance Growth, retained by Ablak last year to find opportunities. “It’s something smaller franchisors don’t typically have.”

Ablak wants to do more acquisitions and retained River’s Edge to find deals.

“We’re already working with Scott on new ones,” Ablak said. “That can never stop. Our strategy is buy and hold. We want to manage the companies long-term and integrate good systems. We want to get into categories in franchising that have great growth potential.”

And although Ablak got his start in the restaurant industry — “I got into the business in 1984, washing dishes in New Orleans,” he said — options aren’t limited to food or retail.

“We could handle any kind of business as long as they’re franchising,” Ablak said. “I’ve seen 50 companies in the past couple years and the ones that are growing are diversifying. Right now, there are a lot of great deals out there.” And although Ablak got his start in the restaurant industry — “I got into the business in 1984, washing dishes in New Orleans,” he said — options aren’t limited to food or retail.

“We could handle any kind of business as long as they’re franchising,” Ablak said. “I’ve seen 50 companies in the past couple years and the ones that are growing are diversifying. Right now, there are a lot of great deals out there.” (Patty Tascarella/Pittsburgh Business Times)