Oshel Craigo, a former state senator from Putnam County, owns and operates two successful food franchise chains in West Virginia and surrounding states — Gino’s Pizza and Tudor’s Biscuit World.
How did you get into the food franchising business in West Virginia?
Craigo: I owned Gino’s Pizza and Spaghetti House, and operated it as a pizza chain. We did business primarily from lunch until end of evening hours, and we were missing the breakfast part, and so I bought the franchise from Bill Tudor, who owned Tudor’s Biscuit World at the time. We would sell a breakfast menu with our lunch and dinner menu. We did that for a period of time, and then I bought into the business. So now I am one of the owners of the Gino’s franchise and one of the owners of the Tudor’s Biscuit World franchise. We are franchisors, and I manage both of them.
How did you first get connected with Gino’s Pizza?
Craigo: I’ve been in the real estate business for years. I would buy property and refurbish it and sell it or manage it. I bought a piece of property in Nitro, and it was a commercial piece of property. At that time — this was years ago — there was no pizza shop in Nitro, and so I wanted something to put in the building I had purchased, and so I got a franchise and put a pizza shop in. I loved the food business, went and bought another piece of property in South Charleston, put another store in, and I’ve been doing it ever since.
Diana on December 31st, 2006 at 11:09 pm
Dear Mr. Craigo,
I just wanted to let you know that Jeno’s is the greatest I use to live in West Virgina and ate there alot. and one more thing are you related to the craigo’s from around cedar grove? I was just wondering cause my real mother was a craigo. she passed away when I was a baby.