Watching fellow college students working for $7.50 (€5.74) an hour after graduation, Tana Walther, a fashion-design major at Kent State University in Ohio, snapped up an alternative offered by her father - to run a Pita Pit restaurant franchise he would buy.

"I guess I bought her a job," said her father, Jan Walther, of North Canton, Ohio. Prospects of a career in fashion seemed remote, and Tana, a college athlete, loved eating at Pita Pit restaurants while travelling with her track team. Her first new restaurant opened last year near campus in Kent, and the 25-year-old hopes to open several more.