Little Caesars history

The first Little Caesar's franchise location opened in 1962 in Warren, Michigan, and at the time was still called Little Caesar's Pizza Treat.

During that decade, delivery was a service of most Little Caesars restaurants, but in 1971 the chain moved to carryout only.

The now-famous "Pizza! Pizza! Two Great Pizzas! One Low Price!" slogan became a permanent part of Little Caesars' marketing campaigns in 1975.

The company is famous for its advertising catchphrase "Pizza! Pizza!", which was introduced in 1979.

In 1980 the chain had 226 units with sales of $63.6 million.

The family acquired the Red Wings' home ice as well in 1982.

In 1984 the company built its 500th restaurant, then saw the 1,000th Little Caesars just two years later.

When it hired Cliff Freeman & Partners in 1986, Little Caesars had 1,000 outlets across the nation and was prepared to spend about 5 percent of its annual revenues (or $20 million that year) on advertising.

The Ilitches commissioned a dramatic renovation of the 10-story office building adjacent to the Fox Theatre, which they purchased in 1987, establishing a new world headquarters in Detroit.

The theater was reopened in November 1988 and was ranked as the nation's top grossing theater--in sales and attendance--by Performance magazine that year.

Little Caesar moved its corporate headquarters to the Fox Office Centre, adjacent to the Theatre, in 1989.

Both restaurants were opened in 1990.

In 1992 Financial World magazine even reported that the Red Wings were the most valuable franchise in the National Hockey League (NHL). The percent of capacity attendance at Joe Louis Arena (the Red Wings' home ice) was among the highest in the NHL.

Child, Charles. "Domino's Preparing to Step up Pizza War." Crain's Detroit Business, May 31, 1993.

Prewitt, Milford. "Pizza Chains Ditch Discounts in Back-to-Basics Bake-Off." Nation's Restaurant News, August 1, 1994.

Yet 1995 was still a decent year for Little Caesar, with the introduction of the enormously popular stuffed crust pizza and revenues of over $1.1 billion.

Frank, Robert. "Marketing and Media: Building a Better Pie—Pizza Hut Is Topping Rivals with Cheese…." Wall Street Journal, January 18, 1996.

The Cloning commercial, launched March 31, 1997, portrayed a group of white-coated scientists (a writer for the Orange County Register likened them to something from an Ed Wood movie) watching a colleague in a glass-encased room with a sheep.

In 1998, Little Caesars filled what was then the largest pizza order, filling an order of 13,386 pizzas from the VF Corporation of Greensboro, North Carolina.

Ilitch Holdings, Inc., was established in 1999 to provide the companies owned by Michael and/or Marian Ilitch with professional services.

Papa John's expanded in all directions, opening a new outlet virtually every day, with hopes for 2,000 by the year 2000.

One of their famous pizza is the DEEP! DEEP! Dish pizza which was added in 2013.

On December 10, 2014, Little Caesars announced plans for a new eight-story, 205,000-square-foot Global Resource Center to be built at Woodward Avenue and Columbia Street in downtown Detroit.

On January 31, 2016, it was announced that the proposed new Little Caesars Pizza Global Resource Center had grown by one floor to be a nine-story building at Woodward and Columbia Street.

The first location was in a strip mall in Garden City, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, and named "Little Caesar's Pizza Treat". The original store closed in October 2018.