After climbing through the voters’ brackets, Sven & Ole’s ended up in second place to Heggies Pizza in the Minneapolis Star & Tribune online frozen pizza contest.
The vote total was announced on Monday, April 6 and Heggies was the clear winner as judged by Twin Cities pizza aficionados.
All in all, it was a good showing for our local pizza maker. At the start of the contest Sven’s was ranked 12th out of 16 varieties of frozen pizzas. There were four rounds of voting and to come in second is something to take pride in.
Heggies has been sold from grocery store freezers and in bars since 1989 and is a well-known, much-loved Minnesota made pizza. While Sven & Ole’s is an iconic business on the North Shore, it is relatively new to gas stations and grocery stores in the Twin Cities and states surrounding Minnesota.
Much like Sven & Ole’s, Heggies started in small town. In 1989 Don and Polly Hegedus began making frozen pizzas in their Onamia, Minnesota garage and sold them to nearby bars and resorts. The couple sold their business in 2004 to Shawn Dockter and a group of investors. Today Heggies frozen pizzas are sold in five states.
Sven & Ole’s began in 1982, started by Sid and Terry Backlund. The two brothers built their enterprise on restaurant sales in downtown Grand Marais. Terry left the business in 1989 but Sid has continued on. He began making and selling frozen pizzas to grocery stores and gas stations in the last couple of years. Today Sven & Ole’s pizzas can be purchased in several Midwest states. What the contest proved, however, is that even though Sven & Ole’s is the new kid on the block when it comes to frozen pizza sales, it might not be too long before they are the “big cheese” in this fast growing, very competitive market.
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