Page 32 - Flathead Beacon // 5.11.16

BUSINESS IS PERSONAL 33 TRANSACTIONS 33 Business
CONTINUED GROWTH
AT GLACIER RESTAURANT GROUP
EXPANSION INCLUDES PURCHASE OF MIDWEST RESTAURANT CHAIN, BUILDING NEW CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS IN WHITEFISH
BY MOLLY PRIDDY OF THE BEACON
Brad Ridgeway, president of Glacier Restaurant Group.
GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
WHITEFISH – When Brad Ridgeway started with MacK- enzie River Pizza Company in 1995, he was a dishwasher and a deliv- ery driver on the front lines of the piz- za-slinging business.
The company was a edgling chain, started in Bozeman in 1993, and its sec- ond location popped up in Missoula, where Ridgeway began what would become his career.
PRESENTS
WARRIOR WOMAN
“We’ve just outgrown this space,” he said in an interview last week.
A recent spate of expansions and the addition of a restaurant chain in the Midwest has prompted GRG to build a new headquarters building in White sh, which will provide o ce space for double the number of corporate employees.
The natural growth of the business is not unlike Ridgeway’s rise up the ladder – it’s taken years, and it’s all happened at
a sustainable pace after learning lessons along the way.
“We have a lot of pride in the fact that we’re growing this company organically,” he said.
The company that started with MacK- enzie River is now home to ve other busi- nesses, including Craggy Range Bar and Grill in White sh; Ciao Mambo in White- sh, Missoula, and Billings; Latitude 48 in White sh; Chalkboard, located in
His o ce these days as the president of the Glacier Restaurant Group – the par- ent company that owns MacKenzie River along with several other restaurants and chains – is full of light and framed pieces of the company’s successes over the years, but there are growing pains.
GRG takes up two oors of an o ce park here, and Ridgeway and the other 12 corporate employees there are ready for a change.
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MAY 11, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM