Woodstocks Pizza Co-Owner Divulges the Secret Sauce for Success

Woodstock’s Pizza Co-Owner Divulges the Secret Sauce for Success

If you’ve ever attended, worked at, or even lived near San Diego State University (SDSU), chances are good that you’ve eaten – or at least heard of – Woodstock’s Pizza. 

Woodstock’s, which is known for their late hours, craft beer selection and willingness to deliver just about anywhere in the SDSU area, opened at the original location on Rolando Ct. in 1984 by founding partners Chuck Woodstock and Mike Chew. 

When Woodstock and Chew were killed in a plane crash in 1985, Jeff Ambrose, who started with the company as a delivery driver, rose through the ranks to become president of the organization, while the Woodstock family retained ownership.

Laura Pankratz moved to San Diego a few years before Woodstock’s Pizza opened.  She moved to California the same day she finished her bachelor’s degree at Ottawa University in Kansas. After moving to San Diego, she enrolled in the MBA program at SDSU’s College of Business Administration (now the Fowler College of Business) because “I wanted to learn more about business, especially marketing, and I knew SDSU had a strong business department.” She completed her MBA in 1989.

About a year after completing her MBA, Laura was attending a charity event at the Rancho Santa Fe Polo Club when she met Jeff, who shared with her that he was the president of Woodstock’s Pizza. “Kind of a funny thing,” recalled Laura. “At first, I didn’t believe him when he said he was president of a pizza restaurant company with a location at SDSU.” But the two ended up hitting it off and they were married in 1993. 

That same year, Laura started her own business as a marketing consultant in the health care industry. In 2001, Jeff joined her in the world of entrepreneurship when the Ambroses purchased Woodstock’s to become co-owners of the company’s then-five California locations (the location in Corvallis, Oregon remains under ownership of the Woodstock family). At the same time, Laura ended her consulting business and joined Woodstock’s as the company’s marketing director. 

Today the company has seven California locations, all of which are located near major public universities, including the original SDSU outlet which moved to its current location on the corner of El Cajon Blvd. and College Ave. in 2003. While the Woodstock’s at SDSU is still serving its pizza with the decades-old secret sauce recipe to the children and grandchildren of its original customers, the Ambroses have stayed current with their business practices to maintain their competitive edge. “We never want to get complacent and that’s not easy when you’ve been around as long as we have,” said Laura. “Since we are focused on college markets and we continually look at what is relevant to that group. We incorporate a lot of technology behind the scenes to monitor our customer base and make sure we’re using the right channels to reach them.” In addition, their stores have “gone green” using energy efficient lighting and appliances, serving their food with reusable cups, plates and utensils, and offering compostable containers for carry-out meals. 

Staying relevant is only part of Woodstock’s secret to success. “Jeff likes to talk about a three-legged stool, with the three legs being our team members, our guests, and a profitable enterprise,” Laura explained. “All three have to be balanced to achieve success.” This strategy seems to be working for the Ambroses since they were recently named number one in gross sales among all independent pizzerias in the U.S. 

Laura credits the lessons she learned from her SDSU MBA classes as giving her the foundation to build a successful enterprise. “I find that I use lessons I learned in every class of my MBA program – finance, economics, accounting, human resources, management, marketing and IT – because those lessons are pretty timeless and business success is still built on fundamental principles,” she said. “I’ve never lost my love for learning, which I think is important as methodologies change and we continue to seek relevance with our target markets.”

For all those budding chefs/entrepreneurs who want to follow the Ambroses’ example as successful restaurant owners, Laura offers this advice: “Don’t get into the restaurant business because you love to cook! It’s not about cooking – it’s about having a strong business sense and the infrastructure to allow others to work for you in a profitable manner.”