Read the DAILY CAL Sep 8, 2004 Daily Californian Online, Berkeley, California article about Zachary's Pizza and the transition to employee ownership.
A Slice of the Pie
Zachary's Pizza Begins Transfer to Employee Ownership
By Betty Yu
(excerpt from article)
Chunky deep-dish pizza, thick crowds and long lines spilling out the door are hallmarks of two popular East Bay restaurants.
Zachary's Chicago Pizza has been a growing success since husband-and-wife team Zach Zachowski and Barbara Gabel opened their first store on College Avenue in 1983. Over the span of 21 years, they have tripled the square footage of the restaurant and more than doubled the number of seats. A second store opened on Solano Avenue in Berkeley in 1984.
Now the pair are retiring and giving Zachary's staff a piece of the pie-making the restaurants employee-owned through a program known as the Employee Stock Ownership Plan.
"We wanted to give our long-term employees a future," Gabel says. "We wanted to get out, and the ESOP is the best way to accomplish that and carry it on to the next generation. We think our employees deserve that."
Zachary’s is part of a small group of 11,000 businesses of every size, both publicly held and privately owned, that participate in ESOPs. In 2002, the plan covered over 8.5 million employees nationwide, according to the National Center for Employee Ownership.
Read the entire DAILY CAL article (opens in a new browser) | 
Zachary's is Editors' Pick for Best Pizza in THE DAILY CALIFORNIAN Best of Berkeley 2008.
