After falling in love with the Wisconsin-based, “better pizza” brand as a student, Taylor to quarterback Toppers’ four Madison locations
As a running back for the University of Wisconsin Badgers, Jonathan Taylor has learned the value of hard work, teamwork and being part of a family. He finished his college career as the sixth best all-time rusher in the NCAA and the first player in history to rush for more than 6,000 yards in a three-year span. He was in the top 10 of Heisman Trophy voting three times (at 6th, 9th and 5th). For the 2018 and 2019 seasons, Taylor was named a unanimous first-team All-American and recipient of the Doak Walker Award for the top running back in college football. In January 2020, he announced that he will forgo his senior season and enter the 2020 NFL Draft. Now, as Taylor looks ahead to his bright future in the NFL, he’s taking the skills he learned as an athlete into the business world as a franchisee of Toppers Pizza.
The Wisconsin-born brand offers pizza, with more than a million combinations of fresh, high quality toppings, Topperstix, baked Buffalo wings, Tots, Mac, monkey bread and more. After just one bite of Toppers Pizza’s garlic parmesan wings at the Regent Street location in Madison, Taylor was hooked. Becoming a co-owner of the brand’s four Madison locations was a true full-circle moment for Taylor, and a decision he arrived at easily.
“The biggest thing that drew me to the organization was how friendly and open they were, inviting me to the team,” said Taylor. “When you meet the Toppers home office team, you get a warm, welcoming feeling. It’s like a family member that you see during the holidays that you can’t wait to spend time with. That family atmosphere is going to help me stay connected to Madison.”
As a franchise owner, Taylor plans to continue giving back to the Madison community, which he did often in college, including working with organizations like Badgers Give Back and Badgers Penpals.
“At Toppers Pizza, we are all about our family, which extends from our customers to our team members to our franchisees,” said Toppers Pizza Founder and President Scott Gittrich. “We are proud to welcome Jonathan Taylor into the Toppers Pizza family, and look forward to seeing how skills on the football field and love of Toppers’ food translate into business ownership.”
Capitalizing on the booming better pizza category and fueled by the passion of Founder & President Scott Gittrich and a team of experienced industry veterans, Toppers Pizza has formulated the perfect recipe to appeal to both pizza enthusiasts and savvy investors. Headquartered in Wisconsin, Toppers is one of the fastest growing better-pizza chains in the United States. Toppers is committed to quality and consistency throughout the system, and plans to maintain corporate ownership of 25 percent of all locations while the brand expands to continuously improve on best practices and product development. Toppers fanatics love the brand’s fresh, handmade and customizable pizza baked in about 360 seconds and delivered extremely fast, with more than a million combinations of fresh, high quality toppings, and the brand’s signature line of flavored Topperstix and baked Buffalo wings. In 2018, Entrepreneur Magazine ranked Toppers as one of the Top 200 Food-Based Franchises. For more information on Toppers Pizza, visit https://www.toppers.com.
