What Is Crust Club? The Pie Franchise Owned By Crumbl's Co-Founder, Explained

Cookie behemoth Crumbl was recently in the news as it announced that it had purchased the popular Utah-based pie shop Crust Club. It might be interpreted as an unusual business decision by Crust Club's new owner, Crumbl's co-founder, Sawyer Hemsley, but he had already been planning to expand Crumbl's offerings to include savory items. Earlier in the year, Crumbl got rid of its recognizable chef-head logo and changed its name from Crumbl Cookies to the simpler Crumbl but retained its pink box. What appeared to be a substantial rebranding was, according to Hemsley — also Crumbl's Chief Branding Officer — instead an "enhancement" to refresh the company's image, and Crust Club fit ideally into his vision. When the Crust Club purchase was made known, a Crumbl spokesperson explained that it made sense because both companies shared a mission statement of bringing people together at the table. 

Crust Club doesn't have national recognition yet, but it has many fans who have enjoyed the small company's sweet and savory pies for years. Crust Club was started in 2016 in Pleasant Grove, Utah by Valerie and Tyler Kukahiko as a home-baking business. As Valerie shared with Utah Business, finding the perfect chicken pot pie became an obsession and she resolved to make her own ultimate version. She continued to experiment with different types of pies, posting each new recipe on her blog, and got the itch to create a pie company. She also set up an Instagram account and was soon baking and selling pies from her kitchen. 

At the time that Valerie decided to turn her attention to pie, her husband, Tyler, was working in real estate, and he also wanted to start up a business. Valerie was building her client base with repeat customers, and they decided to pull together their resources and create Crust Club. The couple sold and delivered pies throughout Utah, but they had dreams of expanding their business to reach customers outside the state. Kukahiko was particularly worried about maintaining quality control on such a large scale, and when business boomed during the pandemic, they decided to streamline Crust Club to be more efficient by franchising.

Their first drive-through in 2022 proved a success, and the Kukahikos planned to open two more. And that's when Hemsley knocked at their door. In 2023, Crumbl had 750 locations across the U.S. (it now boasts more than 1,000), and the company's genius for marketing on social media was (and still is) unparalleled. Crust Club didn't have much of an online presence, and the Kukahikos wanted to explore other culinary opportunities, so the baking duo decided to sell.

In March 2024, Hemsley refashioned a Crumbl location in Logan, Utah, into a Crust Club franchise that now offers pies, soups, and ready-to-bake meals, adapting Crumbl's rotating menu for Crust Club with monthly featured specials. There are currently four Crust Club locations in Utah, but now with the Crumbl powerhouse running the show, more are certainly on the way.