Lucia’s Pizza has achieved a major milestone by selling its 50-millionth pizza.
Photo of Jim Kozeny with Golden Slice Winner signage
For Immediate Release
ST. LOUIS (April 1, 2024) – Today is Pizza Day for Lucia’s Nation. Let throughout the land know that Lucia’s Pizza – St. Louis’ Original St. Louis Style Frozen Pizza – has broken through the proverbial glass ceiling and has reached a major milestone by selling its 50-millionth pizza. In anticipation of this, last summer, it launched its Golden Slice Giveaway, a Willy-Wonka-type contest. Lucia’s placed 217 instant-winner tickets into all Lucia’s pizzas sold for 5 months at area Schnuck’s and Dierbergs Markets.
Winners could redeem their instant-win tickets online at luciaspizza.com/ for select prizes. They were automatically entered in the giveaway for the grand prize, a golden ticket – A trip to Italy, the birthplace of the delicious food loved by millions. Even without picking an in-store, instant winner ticket, participants could enter online for the chance at the trip. Today celebrates the fact that a whopping 50 million Lucia’s — the St. Louis iconic brand of pizzas – have been brought home.
St. Louis County resident, Jim Kozeny went to the website and was selected at random to become the grand prize winner of the Golden Slice Giveaway. He gets a glimmering trip abroad.
Kozeny, age 59, has never even been out of the country. He even needs to first get his passport before boarding the plane. He plans on sharing the trip with his partner Marsha Hutson, 62. As a longtime consumer of Lucia’s Pizza (and the original Mama Lucia’s pizzas), Kozeny said he rarely has entered a sweepstakes and couldn’t believe he was selected randomly out of 1,044 other entries. “I just figured no one ever won these things, so I was thrilled to hear from Lucia’s with the good news.”
Kozeny is planning his trip now and will likely go this summer or fall, depending on his time off from work. Lucias’ travel agent will assist Kozeny and Hutson with their trip including booking flights, transfers, and hotel stays valued at $5,000.
Lucia’s president Scott Ashby said “We have always wanted to do a ‘Golden Ticket’ type of promotion and the time seemed right with the release of the new Willy Wonka film. The chocolate icing on the cake is reaching the 50-million sold mark.
Since our launch in 1981, we have offered quality, delicious pizzas to our customers, and now we are excited to take the brand to the next level. As competition in the frozen pizza category continues to increase, we want to ensure we are staying ahead of the other local and national brands and rewarding our customers for their continued support and feedback. So, every one of you that patronize us, we wish to extend 50 million thanks to you!”
Founded in 1981 by Lucia Tumminello, Lucia’s Pizza (aka Mama Lucia’s Pizza) got its start as a word-of-mouth Hill neighborhood staple before becoming the first St. Louis-style frozen pizza available in grocery stores. Over the years, the brand has grown to include both its namesake frozen thin-crust pizzas and a line of 4-Hands Brewery-inspired pizzas, both of which have endeared themselves to the St. Louis community as a source of edible civic pride. Lucia’s has sold more than 50 million pizzas since 1981, is privately owned, and employs 70 St. Louisans in its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility where it also produces frozen pizzas for other national brands.
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