John Aun

Franchisee/Operating Principal
Territory: South Carolina

John’s career in the food business actually began when he was fifteen years old.  He helped his father build from scratch a local “western style” deli located in Lexington, South Carolina.  This family owned operation became a local icon not only in the newspaper but also in the South Carolina State Museum.  John grew to love the business and eventually became the assistant manager for Aun’s Feed Stable.  In 1982, John left the family business and took on the fast food industry when he became employed with Bojangles Chicken n Biscuits. 

John worked for the South Carolina franchise known as Carabo, Inc where he sharpened his restaurant skills.  John became well decorated while at Bojangles winning Unit Director of the Year as well as numerous Area Supervisor awards.  In 1997, John received the company’s Career Development Award for his outstanding contribution to management development.  For more than six years, every manager certified in South Carolina went through John’s Career Development Seminars that included topics such as Motivation, Food Cost, Labor Control, Sexual Harassment, ect.  In 1998 after sixteen years with Bojangles, John found CiCi’s Pizza. 

As a frequent guest in the new CiCi’s Pizza, John could feel the excitement and desired to be a part of the team.  His career with CiCi’s began with Bill Spacek in April 1998.  John brought all of his years experience, his many talents, and his desire to serve the guests with a “whatever it takes” mentality to CiCi’s from day one.  After only nine months with CiCi’s on St. Andrews Road, John opened a new location at Woodhill Mall near I-77 in Columbia.  Immediately, he and his team got into the community and created a school night program second to none.  Local sports leagues have hopped onto the ban wagon making our Super Star Athletic Program a great success.  Next, John went after local churches to involve the youth departments and such with a $5.00 pizza.  He denoted pizzas to almost every cause that came his way and created a goodwill within the local community.  Woodhill Mall ran a series of secret shoppers that scored 100% for 7 out of 9 months while under John’s supervision. 

John has served as area manager for the last several years working mainly from the St Andrews Road location.  He has sourced, trained, and developed every manager in the Columbia market.  John’s stores have some of the lowest management turnovers in the company.  After seven years with the Columbia area CiCi’s, John partnered with the Marwin Group in March of 2005.  As the operating principal for Pizza Partners of SC, John plans to develop three more locations in the Columbia area within the next five years.