THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 17, 1995 TAG: 9512160371
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY GREG WEATHERFORD, LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long : 121 lines
It may not look like it, but there's a war going on in the heart of Richmond's best-known city neighborhood, the Fan.
The antagonists are a father and son, each with competing Chanello's Pizza operations. Both sides allege filial irresponsibility, pizza espionage and downright meanness.
``I guess my son's told you all about what a rotten guy I am,'' says Jerry Channell.
As a matter of fact, yes.
``I'm fighting an evil man here,'' Shannon Channell says of his father.
The two are warring over which of them will win the hearts and wallets of the city's pizza-buying residents. The battleground: doorknobs.
``It's enough to drive you insane,'' says Catherine Curran, a frazzled resident of the 2200 block of Stuart Avenue. ``It's incredible.''
Curran is talking about the never-ending flood of Chanello's Pizza advertisements hanging on her door. She's ripped at least 100 from her knob in the past few months, she says. When she calls to complain, ``They always are very, very apologetic about it.''
Still, they don't stop, and they won't until the war is won, says Shannon Channell, the 28-year-old president of one of Richmond's two Chanello's companies.
``The unfortunate thing is, we're pissing people off,'' Channell says. ``But if we stop couponing, our sales will drop majorly because they won't stop couponing. And if they stop, we won't stop, and our sales will go up.''
Channell isn't talking about Pizza Hut or Domino's. He's talking about the company run by his father: Jerry Channell of Virginia Beach, the 45-year-old pizza mogul. In eight years he built a prosperous empire of 27 stores primarily in Hampton Roads. He hopes to add Richmond to his territory. The problem is, his son got there first.
Now the younger Channell has three stores in Richmond and is opening three more. That clearly galls Jerry Channell, who several months ago opened his first Richmond Chanello's on Broad Street near Boulevard.
``He's doing it just to piss me off, if you want to know the truth,'' says the older Channell of his son's appropriation of the business name. ``He's piggy-backing because it's a good name. I've offered him ungodly amounts to move away or change the name.''
Shannon Channell says his father just won't let him be successful.
``Out of all the areas in the United States he could go to,'' he says, ``why did he come to Broad and Boulevard? Because of his son. To snuff his son out. He can't stand having me be successful''
Both say their respective Richmond operations do well. But the battle is intense because the pizza industry runs on a relatively low profit margin, especially for those trying to undercut Pizza Hut and Domino's. Jerry Channell says his company makes about 5 cents profit on every dollar in sales.
To make money, the Channells have to sell lots of pizza. That leads to a doubled advertising blitz of shocking proportions.
Teams of ``coupon crews'' head into the neighborhoods, papering doorknobs, sometimes pulling down the competition's advertisements on the way.
It wasn't always like this. There was a time when the two Channells worked together, although each concedes the relationship was tense.
For about a year, Shannon Channell ran some Virginia Beach pizza stores for his father. He says he did very well, increasing their profits. He then borrowed money from his father to start two other stores, which also did well, and he soon paid his father back.
His success made his father jealous, Shannon Channell says.
Jerry Channell says his son was arrogant and incompetent, using Chanello's money to open stores in poor locations without his father's permission.
``He thinks because he's my son he's ready to be the No. 2 guy. He wasn't ready to be the No. 2 guy,'' the father says.
Whatever the reason, in July 1994 things came to a head over a store Shannon Channell opened in Williamsburg.
Jerry Channell wanted to take over the stores his son had run. The son refused, saying that he'd paid his father back. The stores, however, remained in the father's name.
So Jerry Channell called the police and had his son thrown out in handcuffs for trespassing. The father and son haven't talked since that day, July 29, 1994.
``My son decided not to be honest with me about a lot of money,'' says Jerry Channell when asked about that day. He refuses to elaborate.
His son tells it differently.
``That's when I realized that my father had taken advantage of me for a lot of money,'' Shannon Channell says.
Shannon Channell moved to Richmond. With the help of his wife's grandfather and his mother - his parents divorced in 1988 - Shannon Channell opened a store at Third and Grace streets, midway between Virginia Commonwealth University's undergraduate and medical campuses.
Since then, the son has opened up two other Richmond stores and plans at least seven more. A few months ago, the father opened up a shop at Broad and Boulevard, spending about $150,000 to make it the jewel in his company's crown, and plans to open at least nine more in Richmond.
The two will go head-to-head at the Willow Place Shopping Center on West Broad Street, just down the street from Willow Lawn. Each plans to have a store there, on opposite sides of the street.
The split has torn the family apart, said both in separate telephone interviews.
``All my life, I worked and I worked real hard,'' says Jerry Channell. ``I gave my son everything. . . . I don't know why he's doing all this.''
The son sees it differently: ``My whole life, he wasn't really good to me.''
Jerry Channell says that one of the hardest things is that he has never seen his grandson, born since the split. He never will, says Shannon Channell.
``I wouldn't ever let him near my son,'' he says.
The battle continues, at least for now.
Shannon Channell says his mother owns the national trademark for the Chanello's name, while his father owns the state trademark. As soon as he can, the younger Channell says, he's going to buy the national trademark from his mother and stop his father from using the name.
For his part, Jerry Channell says he's considering suing his son to prevent him from using the Chanello's name. He's only held back this long, he says, because the person violating the trademark is his son.
``It's my name he's using,'' says the father.
``The name is valuable because it's my name,'' says the son. by CNB