Our Story

A detailed look
Our story begins with a single Taco Bell location in the desert town of Kingman Arizona. Mark Peterson and Krystal Burge ran their first store as a duo, taking turns preparing food, running the registers, and working the night shift. The entrepreneurial siblings worked side-by-side until their one store grew into two. Over the next 40 years the siblings took off with the brand: two stores expanded into eight, eight stores expanded into 26, and now today DDO Foods has grown to four brands and over 300 stores.

1 Location

1 Location

1982: Mark Peterson and his sister Krystal Burge, then 20 and 21 years old respectively, used money saved for college along with a loan from their grandparents to buy the rights to develop a single Taco Bell restaurant in the tiny desert town of Kingman in northwest Arizona. For the next three years, they worked side-by-side in the restaurant personally overseeing all facets of the business.

11 Locations

11 Locations

1985: Krystal started to run the Kingman site on her own while Mark opened and operated their second restaurant in nearby Bullhead City. Over the next 10 years, the brother and sister team acquired or developed eight additional Taco Bell restaurants in western Arizona and two in south eastern California.

33 Locations

33 Locations

1997: Mark and Krystal landed their biggest deal yet, acquiring 26 restaurants in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Recognizing the potential of the market they kept expanding and two years later an additional seven units were acquired in central Arizona.

30 Locations

30 Locations

2008: DDO Foods ventured into the beehive state with an acquisition of 14 Taco Bell restaurants in central and southern Utah. Along with acquisitions, DDO started building the first new Taco Bells the state had seen in 10 years! Since then, the company has acquired two additional restaurants and opened 14 new restaurants, bringing its store count in Utah to a total of 30 restaurants.

10 Locations

10 Locations

2009: DDO Foods acquires five more Taco Bell restaurants in Yuma, AZ (2 stores) and El Centro, CA (3 stores) from the franchisor.

40 Locations

40 Locations

2010: DDO Foods ventures into the Pizza Hut franchise, finalizing an important deal to acquire 40 Pizza Hut restaurants in and around Phoenix, AZ from Pizza Hut Corporate

17 Locations

17 Locations

2013: DDO acquired an additional seven Pizza Hut restaurants in Arizona and in combination with new store development bringing its PH store count to 57.

54 Locations

54 Locations

2015: DDO expanded into the lone star state, Texas, and acquired 34 Taco Bell and Taco Bell co-branded restaurants in San Antonio from a retiring franchisee. As of 2014 there had been no net new units added there in more than a decade. Since then, DDO in Texas has developed 20 new restaurants in the San Antonio DMA.

10 Locations

10 Locations

2016: DDO diversified its portfolio, adding barbecue to the menu with Dickey’s. Following Mark and Krystal’s example, siblings Tiffany and Chad Burge acquired one Dickey’s BBQ restaurant and ran it themselves. DDO now operates 10 Dickey’s BBQ in AZ.

25 Locations

25 Locations

2018: DDO acquired 25 Pizza Hut restaurants in Arizona from an existing franchisee bringing the PH store count to 89.