VA Honors Little Caesars Founder for Supporting Vets...

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VA Honors Little Caesars Founder for Supporting Veterans in Business

WASHINGTON (Sept. 17, 2007) - Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson today presented a Secretary's Award to Little Caesars founder Michael Ilitch in recognition of his advancement of veterans in business through pizza franchise discounts.

Ilitch's restaurant franchise has a program to aid any veteran interested in starting a Little Caesars restaurant and also offers special opportunities with additional deep discounts, credit, training, and marketing support for those veterans who are service-disabled.

"Michael Ilitch recognizes the value of veterans in business," said Nicholson. "VA's Center for Veterans Enterprise will assist veterans seeking to become Little Caesars franchise owners and looks forward to helping veterans translate the leadership skills they learned while in uniform to business ownership and expansion."

In conjunction with the award ceremony, Ilitch, who is a former Marine, served pizza to homeless veterans at the VA headquarters in Washington from Little Caesars' "Love Kitchen," a pizza kitchen on wheels that travels across the U. S. and Canada to feed the homeless and disaster survivors.

To assist service-disabled veterans who want to open a Little Caesars restaurant, the program waives a $20,000 franchise fee on the first store, provides $10,000 credit on the initial equipment order, and provides a variety of marketing support and financing options and other benefits, which can total $68,000. For other veterans, the fee is reduced by $5,000 and the credit extended for equipment is $5,000.

Veterans are offered business opportunities by a variety of franchisers through the International Franchise Association's VetFran program. More information about the companies' special benefits for veterans is available at www.franchise.org and the VA Center for Veterans Enterprise's resource site to assist veteran entrepreneurs at www.vetbiz.gov.