John Puckett weighs in on Pizza, Passion and Punch -
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Published on: 12/1/2007
Last Visited: 3/30/2009
John Puckett weighs in on Pizza, Passion and Punch
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John Puckett, co-owner of Punch, knows this type of pizza isn't for everyone.
"We do get customers asking us to put chicken, pineapple or Canadian bacon on our pizzas," he admits.
However, customers shouldn't look for a Hawaiian, Southwestern or taco pizza on the menu anytime soon.
None of those pies would meet with his business partner's approval, Puckett says.
Punch is run by two men named John.
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"My partner is really the genius behind the pizza," Puckett says.
"I just try not to screw up what he comes up with.
Instead, Puckett handles the "front of the house," explaining he enjoys customer service.
Puckett also works with the company's financial systems.
If his past professional success is any indication of his future business savvy, Punch Pizza has much to gain from Puckett's buy-in.
Puckett and his wife Kimberly, who live in Orono, are the couple that started Caribou Coffee.
Even if they couldn't pick Puckett out in a crowd, most Twin Cities residents are familiar with the story behind Caribou's founding.
While the company has since been sold, framed pictures of the Pucketts sitting atop a snow-covered mountain still grace many a Caribou walls.
It was during a vacation to Alaska that the couple decided they wanted out of the corporate world, and thus opened a coffee shop.
Yet their coffee shop soon morphed into its own corporation.
"We started Caribou in '92 and sold it in 2001," Puckett says, explaining that Seattle-based Starbucks did try to buy the company early on.
"The only way Caribou was going to survive was by growing really hard," Puckett says.
The company burst into a flurry of activity and expansion, opening locations as far away as Atlanta.
The tactic worked, at least close to home.
"Minnesota is the only market in the world, in the world," he emphasizes, "where Starbucks doesn't dominate the coffee scene."