Franchise Focus

The 'people-first' philosophy that turned a broke delivery driver into Domino’s largest U.S. franchisee

Former delivery driver Brian Bailey scaled his Domino’s franchise from a single New Mexico location into a massive 160-store empire by maintaining a strict, full-circle philosophy of investing in his people and helping them succeed.

Brian Bailey, Domino’s franchisee and CEO of Team Bailey, sits inside his 100th store, which opened in 2021 in Carlsbad, New Mexico. Bailey opened both his first and 100th store in Carlsbad. Photo: Team Bailey

May 21, 2026 by Mandy Wolf Detwiler — Editor, Connect Media

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If you ask Brian Bailey the secret to scaling a pizza franchise from one location in New Mexico to a staggering 160-store operation, he won't point to algorithms or balance sheets. He'll tell you it comes down to three words: people, people, people. It's a philosophy rooted in his own origin story.

In 1985, Bailey was a delivery driver taking matters into his own hands by writing his own weekly performance reviews to force his manager's attention.

Brian Bailey, Domino's franchisee and CEO of Team Bailey, makes a pizza at his Domino's store in Roswell, New Mexico. Photo: Team Bailey

Now, as a seasoned Domino's Pizza franchisee, who has choked back tears watching his own former drivers become independent franchise owners, Bailey is living proof of his favorite Zig Ziglar maxim: you can get anything you want in life, as long as you help enough other people get what they want.

From delivery driver to owner

Bailey got his start in pizza "totally by accident, 100%," he recalled in a phone interview. He had gone to college to study electronic engineering hoping to help people get to the moon. A rocket scientist, if you will. But he didn't get a job right away and instead moved back into his parents' house in Alamogordo, New Mexico, for free rent.

He was flat broke and came across an ad for Domino's Pizza in the newspaper. He went in to apply, not planning to make a career out of it. It would be something to do until he got a "real" job.

The manager of the Domino's franchise he ended up working for told Bailey he wanted to become an owner someday. Bailey, with his background, said "if he can do it, I can do it."

And from day one as a delivery driver, Bailey was inspired to become a Domino's Pizza owner somehow. He worked his way up at that store from the bottom, learning how to make pizzas and eventually doing scheduling and even ordering. Within 58 days, he was a manager.

He turned that store around and worked his way up the corporate ladder, being promoted to higher-volume store after store, then into an area supervisor role and a director position. Over the course of three years, he'd scraped together enough money for a down payment to buy his own store, located in the small town of Carlsbad, New Mexico, back in 1988.

"Over those three years working my way up and fixing all of these other stores on somebody else's dime, it gave me the confidence I could do this," Bailey said. "And all the money I'd been saving for a down payment on a store, I absolutely had 100% confidence that I could do what I'd been trained to do and had been successful in time and time again."

It was more of an opportunity than a challenge, Bailey said. It wasn't a big mental shift going from employee to owner because he had moved up the ranks and it taught him step by step what it takes to be an owner. "Domino's is pretty good about taking you along on the journey and learning every step along the way," Bailey added.

Moving on and up

One of his biggest passions as an owner is architecture and design. With a background in engineering, it helped him to design his own restaurants in terms of efficiency, how the footprint of a store flows and he has built some "incredibly beautiful, high-volume stores that's run very well," Bailey said, with hallmarks that include maximizing space.

He reached a debt-free milestone with 12 stores in the late 1990s. Most people would have coasted from there, but today Bailey is Domino's largest franchisee with 160 stores.

Bailey attributes that to then CEO Patrick Doyle, who came into the brand with what is now called the Pizza Theater image, which is what all the stores look like today. Doyle also came with the vision to make Domino's the No. 1 pizza brand in the world. Suddenly, Bailey had a new vision for his own company and had the corporate brand behind him.

He set a goal of 50 stores in five years when he had 12 at the time. To reach his goal, he needed some spectacular talent. Instead of five years, he reached 50 stores in three.

"So what do you do when you reach a goal? You set another goal. So, we set a goal of 100 stores in five years, and I think we did that in three and a half," Bailey said. Who does he attribute that to? His people, he said, a great team, including his executives and senior leaders who are all aligned with the same passion and hunger.

He looks for people who have experience but are not "yes men." They have their own opinions, are a diverse bunch and everyone brings something different to the table. Bailey said they get together often — he loves the creative input.

The Bailey Team footprint now covers five states: New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.

When he started in 1985 as a restaurant manager, he said he was afraid to get up in front of a single restaurant crew and hold a meeting. Now he's spoken to more than 10,000 people at one of Domino's rallies.

"As a CEO across an organization this size, my job is to really help inspire the leaders, and I aim to inspire them (and) give them guardrails so they've got direction but have them come up with the ideas and goals to help lead our business forward."

Seeing his employees opening their own chains of Domino's Pizza has been rewarding as well.

Mission possible

His company's mission is to guarantee that every customer is wowed. In a high-volume pizza environment, how does he make that authentic to a teenager working their own shift?

Bailey said they talk about that mission statement during the interview, "so, before they ever come to work for us, they know why we get up and put the uniform on every day," he said. "It's to wow our customers. They are taught that in new team member orientation, so before they ever take their first delivery, they know what our mission statement is."

The company nickname is "BAM," which is an acronym for Bailey, Chief Restaurant Officer Anthony Fish and Bailey's wife, Michelle.

Bailey recently invested back in his hometown. He's now the largest employer in the same place where he used to delivery pizzas, and he now owns his hometown store. The Alamogordo, New Mexico store was the fourth he bought. He relocated it, and it's now a free-standing building with a drive-thru on the busiest intersection of town.

"Forty years later, it's kind of full circle," Bailey said. "We are now building another store, our second store in the same town. It's very rewarding to be able to give back and help employ more people in my hometown and make a difference."

About Mandy Wolf Detwiler

Mandy Wolf Detwiler is the Pizzamarketplace.com and QSRweb.com editor for Connect Media. An award-winning journalist, Mandy brings more than 20 years’ experience covering food, people and places. Mandy has been featured on the Food Network and has won numerous awards for her coverage of the restaurant industry. She has an insatiable appetite for learning, and, yes, she can tell you where to find the best pizza slices in the country.

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