Blue Devil alum Pierce's career takes a delicious turn

MENOMONIE (June 19, 2019) - Eric Pierce has had a wild ride through the business world, a ride that includes interacting with the likes of Greg Norman, Michael Jordan, Dick Leinenkugel and now Craig Culver as the Menomonie native and UW-Stout graduate prepares to open a Culver's Restaurant in the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., area.

Throughout his career since graduating from UW-Stout with a business administration degree in hand and a four-year career playing for his father/coach Sten Pierce on the Blue Devil golf team, Pierce has been involved in businesses in Chicago, Minneapolis, Menomonie and a couple of stints in Florida.
 

A 1987 Stout graduate, Pierce worked a Tanglewood Golf Club and the Bolo Country Inn in Menomonie throughout his college days. It was at the Bolo that Pierce met Lynn Leinenkugel, who connected him with Dick Leinenkugel. Dick was working with Kemper Sports Management in Chicago and Pierce was able to parlay his golf background into a position with the company where he helped to run the organization's golf tournaments such as the 1989 PGA Championship, the Women's Kemper Open and the Grand Slam of 

" I was basically part of a team that traveled the country putting on professional golf tournaments," Pierce said. 

During that time Kemper became involved with Epson, a management business, and one of the company's clients was Greg Norman, who at that time was on top of the world of professional golf. Norman's caddie was Steve Williams, who would go on to gain additional fame as Tiger Woods' caddie.

"So I got to hang out with Greg Norman, among other top PGA and LPGA professionals," Pierce said. It was during his time with Kemper that Pierce played a round with NBA superstar Michael Jordan.

"Back then, it just seemed so ordinary because it was every day," Pierce said. "Now, looking back, it was something."

Pierce stayed with Kemper for five years, moved on to E-Z Go Golf Cart, where he was a factory representative in the Chicago area for three years. He moved on to Minneapolis where he worked in the commercial financial industry for 10 years. About five years into his time in Minneapolis, he bought Collection Resources in Menomonie, which his mother, Jan, managed. He owned the company for about 10 years and returned to Menomonie for about five years before selling the company.

It was while he was in Menomonie that Pierce began getting involved in real estate in Florida, but the recession of 2008 did him in for a while.

"I lost everything in the 2008 crash," Pierce said.

Pierce connected with The First Tee in Miami, becoming it's development director. First Tee is a youth development organization introducing the game of golf and its inherent values to children and teens. First Tee has programs in all 50 states. 

"It was fun to be back into golf," Pierce said about his four years with the program. "My primary job was fund raising, but I was also able to assist with instruction."

Pierce stayed active in the business community where he was involved in the distribution of an organic septic system treatment. He sold his share of the investment to a partner and started to look around and see what would be next in his career.

"I was doing some soul searching," Pierce said. "I had lost money in the crash and there was not a lot of money in First Tee. I realized I needed to sink my teeth into something financially. I started to see some Culver's popping up (in the Florida area)."

Coming from the Midwest seeing the success of local Culver's owner and family friend Gary Theelke, Pierce remembered back to his financial days in Minneapolis where some of his clients were involved with Culver's and knew that Culver's was a good investment. While Culver's were appearing in Florida, the Wisconsin-based company had not yet moved into the Fort Lauderdale and Miami areas where Pierce was located. 

"I had to wait until Culver's opened up the southeast Florida market to new franchisees," Pierce said.

Culver's puts prospective owner/operators through what they call Discovery Week.

"For a solid week, 10 hours a day, seven days a week, before we signed anything, we worked in a corporate store," Pierce said. "We had to buy uniforms and we had to work in the front of the house and and in the back of the house. II pressed butter burgers, made desserts. Culver's was evaluating me, and I were evaluating them."

"After that week, Culver's would tell you if you were selected," Pierce said. "After that week Culver's would inform you if had been selected to become a new franchisee. They decided I was up to it."

Pierce was then able to begin working on his future plans. Ground was recently broken in a suburb of Fort Lauderdale, an area that Pierce described as a "redeveloped area with a lot of traffic."

""It's in an established community where we don't anticipate the seasonality of more tourist oriented Florida locations," Pierce said.

Pierce's training with Culver's was far from over. He spent 16 weeks of franchisee training - or Butter Burger University. Pierce's class of franchisees spent 12 weeks at the Baraboo restaurant learning the ins and outs of the company and what goes into running a Culver's. Following that, he spent two weeks with a new opening in Orlando, Fla., and two more weeks with a new opening in a Palm Beach County location. 

Following completion of the course, the new franchisees had a graduation party at Craig Culver's home. Culver's has between 40 to 50 new restaurants a year opening across the country across 27 states. 

"This is  an amazing company," Pierce said. "They will pay incredible attention to detail. They have a commitment to service, to customers and to franchisees."

"Their franchise model is attractive to me," Pierce said. "I have been in business and from a business perspective, it's great. I believe in this brand. Culver's has been around for 35 years with over 700 restaurants and they allow us to focus on team members and guests."

Pierce expects the restaurant to open in early 2020. While the store is being completed, Pierce and his management team will go through an eight week training period at a restaurant in Jupiter, Fla. 

The company is a "pay it forward" company, Pierce said. While his restaurant is getting underway, he expects that a new franchisee will be placed in his restaurant to learn the ropes.

What's next?

Pierce said Culver's philosophy has the franchisee concentrating on the first restaurant before thinking about opening a second or a third. Ideally, Pierce and his two financial partners would be interested in more restaurants. 

"It's our goal to build maybe a handful over the next several years," Pierce said.

UW-Stout Background

As a Menomonie native whose father was a coach and teacher at Stout, Pierce did not initially plan to attend Stout, but rather the University of Minnesota. He knew he wouldn't be able to play competitive golf with the Gophers so looking back perhaps the lure of continuing to play competitive golf kept Pierce in Menomonie.

"There were a bunch of Menomonie High School guys who were going to Stout," Pierce said. "I lived at home and played on the golf team. After the first year I thought, that wasn't so bad. When it came to my second year, I decided to stay. We had a great experience and I am close to a lot of the guys today."

Pierce stayed at Stout, lived off campus with several of his hometown friends and helped to set the stage for one of the strongest eras of UW-Stout men's golf.

"I didn't know what to expect, playing for my father," Pierce said. "While he was always teaching and coaching us growing up it was never in a formal setting.He didn't have a chance to see many of our games or matches because he was busy coaching."

The elder Pierce, throughout his 30-plus years at Stout, was the head coach for three sports - football, wrestling and golf. He also was an assistant coach for several sports and was an instructor in the Physical Education Department.

Pierce grew up with three brothers and being coached by his father was a unique experience that only he was able to enjoy. 

"Of the four, I was the only one that he coached on the varsity level," Pierce said.

And Pierce was able to be part of the teams that set the groundwork for upcoming men's golf teams.

"My dad was just starting to put the men's golf program on the map," Pierce said. "We were always competitive."

The Blue Devils would go on to win conference titles in 1987, 1988, and 1989.