Pizza Ranch began in Hull, Iowa, in 1981, as an idea of Adrie Groeneweg, who was just 19 years old. As of February 2017, Pizza Ranch has 200 locations across 13 States, that feature legendary pizzas, Crispy Ranch Chicken, salads and desserts, all of which can be delivered right to your door. Two and a half years after the Hull Pizza Ranch opened Adrie received an inquiry from a businessman in Mountain Lake, Minnesota, wanting to know if Adrie was interested in franchising his concept. As it turns out, the answer was yes and the first Pizza Ranch franchise was born in 1984. Today, with more than 200 franchised locations in thirteen states, Pizza Ranch is the largest, most recognized pizza chain in the Midwest—and showing no signs of slowing any time soon. In addition to the legendary buffet and customer first mindset, much of the credit for success of Pizza Ranch can be traced to a rock-solid foundation built upon Adrie’s father’s original “pay it forward” attitude.

"Instead of relying on inaccurate test strips or team members’ opinions regarding when to discard and change oil, the Testo 270 provides an instant and accurate reading of remaining oil life."

Chris Anderson, Profitibility Product Manager Pizza Ranch

Pizza Ranch was seeking to ensure consistency and quality of finished product of some of the fried foods they sell and decided to incorporate precision testing equipment into their quality assurance system. The investigation quickly revealed that there was wide variability of when cooking oil was being changed in stores, as well as how stores were deciding when to replace their cooking oil. With a goal of identifying a better way to manage cooking oil the Quality Team at Pizza Ranch sought out to identify a sustainable solution that was in alignment with their mission of giving every customer a legendary experience.

Given the large number of locations spread over many states, it was not realistic to have a quality manager visit every location on a regular basis to verify correct cooking oil replacement or monitor oil quality. The solution needed to be easy to use, easy to train employees on and able to provide a consistent reading that would not be misinterpreted. The testo 270 oil quality measurement instrument was selected to meet all specified requirements. The instrument measures the Total Polar Materials (TPM) and temperature of cooking oil. TPM is a combination of degradative substances produced over time by using cooking oil. The testo 270 measures the amount of TPM present in cooking oil and converts it into an easy-to-read numerical percentage that is displayed on its large, LED display. A traffic light color system on the display adds to the unit’s ease of use and ability to provide consistent readings.