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When Pizza Hut bought out Straw Hat Pizza nearly 10 years ago,Straw Hat franchisees faced a dilemma: Either convert or goindependent. For a number of franchisees, neither option wasappealing, so they came up with another alternative. They opted outof the Pizza Hut franchise and established a cooperative to retainownership of the Straw Hat name, operating systems, recipes andlogo.

Today, Dublin, California-based Straw Hat Cooperative Corp. isgoing strong, with 50 members and 65 locations throughoutCalifornia, Nevada and Washington. An average of six new stores areadded each year. All decisions guiding the company are made by anelected board of directors.

"It's a shared strength," says Joshua Richman,president and CEO of the cooperative. "The idea is that thesepizza restaurants will be stronger as part of a group than on theirown."