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Kelly Imo Interview
(Imo's Pizza)
It’s a St. Louis landmark. Opened in 1964, by Ed and Margie Imo, Imo’s Pizza quickly became “the” pizza to order. Now, 56 years later (2020) Imo’s Pizza has grown by leaps and bounds.
Here to talk about a true American success story is Kelly Imo, who married into the Imo family by marrying Carl Imo, one of founders Ed and Margie Imo’s sons.
Q - Kelly, are Ed and Margie Imo still alive?
A - They absolutely are and both are in fantastic health. They both live here in St. Louis. They were both born here and they were born in little communities about 5 miles from each other and they’ve been here ever since.
Q - As part of the Imo restaurant, what are your job duties?
A - Well, it’s kind of a funny question. My job duties have sort of been created an evolved in the last five years. We had a generational transition about five years ago and my in-laws were looking to step back from their duties particularly my mother-in-law. She had really been gosh; I don’t know what the term is, not CEO, not President, all in one. When you create your own business from the very beginning you sort of grow as needed. The structure was just very organic of the company. The company has grown into several different companies, a growing grocery company, a manufacturing company the whole franchise system. Anyway she has done that for so many years and my father-in-law has pretty much been retired for 20 years. He hasn’t been in the stores for 20 years. Five years ago they began the transitional process. It was determined my husband was going to be the second generation president. He was now going to take over the duties. So, fast-forward me I used to be an English teacher, a high school English teacher. So, I have sort of jumped into the role of what we’re doing today, the key outreach, the interviews. I do a lot of our promotion. Anything that’s on local television, any interviews. That’s me.
Q - Was Ed Imo the first guy to think of the idea of delivering pizzas? Was he ahead of all the national chains that do that today?
A - (Laughs). That’s hard to say with any definitive answer. Dominoes really began in 1973 and we began in 1964. So, the answer to your question is a resounding yes just because we were there first. Little Caesars I think, just at the start of the year (2020) at least here in the Midwest began delivering. There were carryout only. Can I answer you 100%? I don’t really know. I do know that in 1964 nobody in the St. Louis area was delivering pizzas. That was actually one of their main reasons for beginning the business. Both of them are Catholic, raised Catholic. On Fridays, especially during Lent and all Fridays, meat was a sacrifice. You couldn’t have meat on Fridays if you are Catholic. So, Margie and Ed on Friday evenings when they were very young would have to wait until after midnight to get a meat pizza on a Friday night. So, there was a little place literally down the block, a mom-and-pop restaurant, a pizzeria restaurant that they would call ahead and order their pizza for pickup at midnight. Obviously a lot of people in the area did that to. So, that sort of where the idea of delivery was born. They both said wouldn’t it be wonderful if we didn’t have to walk down the block at midnight and pick up our pizza. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if someone would bring it to us? And so, that was sort of the mostly true legends of why they decided delivery was going to be such a great idea.
Q - What did they know about making pizzas? Did they make pizzas for themselves, from scratch, at home before they opened the restaurant?
A - Yeah. They really didn’t know much per se other than it was kind of like staple here in the Midwest particularly in St. Louis. There were a lot of mom-and-pop pizza places on the corners and a lot of the taverns sold pizzas. Specifically, they knew nothing. I will say that my father-in-law is 100% Italian and his mom, grandma Lena, obviously like most Italian women would cook all the time. So there was probably a large history of tomato sauce in the family. But, as for what Ed and Margie new, it was just a food group that they loved. Something they looked at as a treat because they were a young, newly married couple that had no money, whatsoever. To eat out was a splurge and pizza was the most affordable eating out treats. It was just something they enjoyed together. They thought wouldn’t it be great if we can do this.
Q - It took them five years to save $1500 to start the business did it?
A - Yeah.
Q - Ed was laying tile by day and making pizzas at night. He must’ve been a very ambitious guy.
A - He was. They (Ed and Margie) both were. They’re both extremely hard workers. They got married and like most young couples at the time had babies right away. So, while they are doing this there are also raising children. Ed would go to work. He was a tile setter by trade with his two brothers. During the day Marge would make the sauce and the dough and let it rise all during the day and then Ed would come home from work, cleanup, take whatever she had made for the day and then go to their little makeshift store and they would sell pizzas until they ran out.
Q - They started the store with a used oven, two refrigerators and a stove they bought for $75, and an old tackle box they used as a cash register.
A - That’s so true.
Q - I’m just wondering if anybody could open a business like that today. And, what about health inspectors, did they encounter them back in 1964?
A - I don’t know. I wasn’t there but I think there was very little of that especially on the local community level. There was a little place that we called the “Hill” where the Italian immigrants came. It was very, very, very local. I can’t imagine there were any quote, unquote health inspectors that showed up. I really can’t imagine that. In those days it just wasn’t something they did. I guess they stayed where the big restaurants were. They grew organically by need rather than by ambition. Now, you start a business you better have a five-year plan, a 10 year plan, a 15 year plan. My mother-in-law has often commented that literally their only goal was to make enough money to save for a down payment on a house. They were living in a flat at the time, a little flat. She said that was it.
Q - How did they get the word out that they were open for business? Did they do any advertising? Was it strictly word-of-mouth?
A - At that point, the first five years, strictly word-of-mouth, family and friends, there was no money to advertise. It’s not like they had any kind of advertising budget. And really they didn’t need to because again the community itself, it had such a breadth and depth of people that they knew. Word travels fast. Eddie and Marge are making pizzas. Then as they got two and three years deep into it, they would bring family into the fold. If somebody needed a job and they had a job, somebody needed to help make the dough, they would bring family and friends in. And that’s really how they began to grow and how the franchise process started.
Q - How many pizza parlors does Imo’s have today?
A - Right now we have 100.
Q - And they’re located where? Primarily in the Midwest?
A - Yeah, all within Missouri, except I want to say we have four in Illinois. Literally across the river in Illinois. Not far within 25 miles. And, we have one in Overland Park Kansas, but were definitely very centralized in Missouri.
Q - You’re into franchising?
A - Yes. All the Imo’s pizzas except for one which belongs to Margie and Ed are franchises. Even my husband and all of his siblings who own pizza parlors, we are all still franchises.
Q - You also have a mail order business?
A - Yes. Of course we have a website. It’s called pizza nationwide (.com) you can order pretty much any of our products, of course are pizzas. But, we also sell our signature dressings and other products you can have them shipped right to you.
Q - Do you offer vegetarian and vegan products?
A - We do not offer vegan products. We have vegetarian choices. That’s mainly ingredients based depending on what you want on your pizza. But, we also are now starting to work on a gluten friendly crust. We are our own manufacturer and distributor of many of our proprietary products, the biggest being our crust. We make all of our crust for all of our franchises. To create a vegan friendly crust, our investment in technology would be significant to buy machinery to do it the way it needs to be done. We’re working on it but, we don’t have it quite yet.
Q - When you purchase an Imo’s restaurant, how do you maintain the quality of your products?
A - it’s a very good question. We have a pretty extensive list of proprietary items that to be an Imo franchise you need to purchase which includes the basic ingredients. You have to buy our crust which ensures our crust is always the same, our pizza sauce which goes on the pizza which we make, our provost cheese which is our signature cheese. That’s really one of the things that sets us apart. We have our toasted raviolis that are manufactured just for us. The thing we do right off the top is we tell them these are the products you have to buy from us. This is our proprietary blend of spices, seasonings and cheeses. That alone knocks out about 85 to 90% of the food quality in terms of what they need to do. We also have a division of quality control, people who will come to stores and make sure the store is what we need it to be. Since were all independently owned and franchised a lot of our buildings are not the same. We haven’t started making people build the exact same building and we have franchisees that have been with us for 35 to 40 years. We’re starting to do some things that are cosmetic that really point just to branding that were asking people to do, but those aren’t nearly as important as the food product. That’s our number one priority is quality and consistency.
Q - Do you have people that own more than just one restaurant?
A - Yes. We have groups is what we called them, like anybody else that will own, I think one of the largest grouping of restaurants that one of our franchisees owns is eight. It might be nine but I think it’s 8 which is quite a bit to keep all those plates spinning in the air. It’s like any other business, the owner; the manager needs to be present in visual.
Q - That’s hard to do.
A - It is. You need to have good people.
Q - Good people are hard to find.
A - Yes, sir
Q - The restaurant business is a tough business to be in.
A - Yes, Sir it is. It’s not as glamorous as many people think (laughs).
Q - But, people do like pizza!
A - Yes. People everywhere like pizza. It’s amazing. It really is amazing.
Official website: www.imospizza.com
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