Blaze Pizza plans 1st overseas outlet

Blaze Pizza, the Pasadena-based upstart chain backed by basketball star LeBron James, is expanding outside North America for the first time after sales surged last year.

The chain, founded in 2011, will open its first overseas shop in March in Kuwait through a partnership with M.H. Alshaya Co. Blaze also is looking to expand to Mexico, Asia and Europe, Chief Executive Jim Mizes said.

The company is angling to lead the market for socalled fast-casual pizza, a category known for fresh ingredients and the use of a Chipotle-style assembly line. Blaze Pizza’s system sales — a metric that includes money generated by franchisees — jumped 51% last year.

James, who has won three NBA championships, has helped market Blaze Pizza, including an ad where he portrayed a worker. James invested in the company in 2012 and walked away from an endorsement deal with McDonald’s Corp. in 2015 to become Blaze’s “brand ambassador.”

The company also sold a significant noncontrolling stake last year to Brentwood Associates, giving it an enterprise value of more than $100 million. Blaze has set a goal to reach 1,000 stores and go public as soon as 2022.

“We’d like to go public when we can achieve a billiondollar valuation,” Mizes said. “We think that’s sometime in the next four to seven years.”

In the meantime, Blaze — which has 248 outlets in the U.S. and Canada, including more than three dozen in Southern California — is introducing delivery options and recently starting offering the service through Caviar in about 18 of its locations. It’s also working with Postmates Inc., DoorDash Inc. and Uber Eats to bring pizzas to customers’ homes and offices.