A third-generation Little Caesars franchisee, Taylor Johns has made a name for himself in his outstanding community efforts, dedication, and leadership. In 2024, Johns was named one of the International Franchise Association’s Franchisees of the Year.
“As far as other jobs go, pizza is the only thing I’ve ever done,” Johns says, but his success goes beyond his lineage.
Just like the brand, Johns’ grandfather hailed from Detroit. He opened his first Little Caesars locations in 1983, which were then passed on to Johns’ father. For the past 15 years, Johns has owned the same 16 stores that he used to “help out” in as a child.
“Growing up, I was probably making pizza at 7 years old,” he says. “That’s the only thing I’ve ever done, and really, the only thing I had any interest in doing.”
Johns’ franchise company is named Karalina Enterprises, pronounced like “Carolina,” its home state.
He says his grandfather, whom Johns never got the chance to meet, named it after Johns’ sister Kara, who also helped her father in the back of house and remains heavily involved in the business.
The amount of time Johns spent in his family’s stores from a small age also led to him being well-versed and experienced in every position, though he notes that operating the pizza oven was his favorite when he was young.
Johns describes the moment he knew the family business was what he wanted. His family had a relationship with the founders of Little Caesars, Mike Ilitch and his family. As a child, “Mr. I” would travel to South Carolina to check in with Johns’ father and his locations.
One day, while Johns was visiting his grandparents in Detroit, Ilitch invited him and his father to spend the day with him. He recounts seeing Ilitch’s office and the Fox Theatre, as the famed pizza chain magnate acted as their tour guide. As a 10-year-old, Johns says the highlight of the day was sitting in Ilitch’s box seats alongside his friends and family at a Detroit Tigers baseball game, of which Ilitch was the sole owner.
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Johns says, “To see a founder that built, I want to say, half of Detroit off of Little Caesars, and how much the community respected him and what he meant to the city, how he interacted with his employees and people within the office, it just had a long impression on me. I just knew that someone that built all that, I wanted to be a part of it, even if it was just a small piece of it.”
Although Little Caesars has been the family business for years, Johns says he truly loves the brand but especially its commitment to being family-run despite its immense size. Additionally, he stands behind the “Hot-n-Ready” price point as a “big reason that sets us apart from other brands.”
Little Caesars has also made a recent switch in technological updates, implementing machinery and equipment to assist in automation, maintain consistency, and keep up with higher volume orders. He says these additions have made training new hires easier in the restaurants.
His father served as an inspirational figure for his business leadership, as Johns says, “Being able to see how he interacted with the employees, how he interacted with the guests, how much he cared … there was an impact he was able to make on [his employees].”
As a franchise owner, Johns sets himself apart as not just a leader, but a role model for his community of the Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson area. While he aims to visit one restaurant per day, he says “relatability with the team members is a big part of [being present].”
Because Johns’ father received a kidney transplant as a child, Karalina Enterprises has worked closely with an organization called Donate Life America. In his tenure as franchise owner, Johns has continued this work, saying he wants to help support causes that are “relatable for the community.”
One such example, he notes, is a family who worked in his restaurants, all of whom had muscular dystrophy. As summer nears, he says, “we run a fundraiser for two months to try to send as many kids off as we could that had muscular dystrophy to a summer camp.”
Johns also says he and his family have assisted in the Toys for Tots drive for years. His wife has been extremely helpful, he says, in involving their three children in the organization as well and teaching them to give back to their community, even at a young age. Their personal participation led Johns to turn eight of his units into drop-off sites for toys.
In September 2024, Hurricane Helene hit the Carolinas, causing immense damage especially in western North Carolina. Johns says only one of his stores had power during the initial storm, but he immediately reached out to his director of operations, Tony Kirby, to see what they could do to help. Within the next month, Johns and his team of 12 were inside of the Little Caesars “Love Kitchen” food truck in Newland, North Carolina, serving warm meals to 500 people each day.
Johns has volunteered with the Love Kitchen before, but, he says, “I’ve never done it in a disastrous setting. Doing it in a disaster setting, and seeing people coming through that just lost everything that have smiles on their faces just to be able to get a hot meal—I mean, it’s not a feeling that you can describe to anyone.”
In 2025, Johns is looking forward to breaking ground on his first new location (in Belton, South Carolina) while acting as franchise owner. He is also looking at adding three more new units over the next couple of years.
