Austintown-based pizza shop expands into Tennessee

The operator of the shop had worked at Delphi Packard Electric for 17 years.

By DON SHILLING

VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR

AUSTINTOWN — A Wedgewood Pizza shop has opened in Tennessee, the first one to be located outside the Mahoning Valley.

Rick Marsh, a 1980 Ursuline High School graduate, opened the store this week in Cooksville, Tenn.

Philomena Riccioni, daughter of Wedgewood’s founder, said she and her father, Fernando, aren’t promoting franchises but are open to anyone who wants to consider it.

Marsh was so excited about the concept that he had the store open in about four months after meeting with the owners, she said.

A family member, Anthony Pellegrini, operates a franchised location in Boardman, and four local women own a Howland location.

Marsh worked as an accountant at Delphi Packard Electric in Warren from 1985 to 2002, when he was transferred to a Delphi plant in Alabama to work as a controller.

Marsh told the Herald-Citizen in Cooksville that he left Delphi earlier this year because he had had enough of working in a corporate environment and thought Wedgewood Pizza would do well in the area. His wife is a native of the small town.

Philomena Riccioni said her father just returned from Cooksville and said the area has national pizza chains, but no ethnic pizza shops.

Her father, a native of Italy, opened his shop in Austintown in 1968.