Ex-delivery boy making tons of dough by stretching pizza chain across Los Angeles.

Culver City-based L.A. Pizza Inc. will sell its 5 millionth pizza within a month, projected Richard T. (Rick) Swisher, founder-president of the 11-year-old company he has built to one of the largest pizza operations here.

Swisher, now 36, has had a love of pizzas since 1975 when he transferred as a sophomore to the University of Texas in Austin. Swisher arrived two weeks before classes were to start and found he could get a part-time job at $1.75 an hour by using his car to deliver pizzas.

While that was a dime an hour more than he could have earned working inside the

pizza store, Swisher soon concluded it was not a good deal after paying his car expenses. Thus, he jumped at the chance a few months later to move inside and learn how to make pizzas.

By the time he was to be graduated in business administration, Swisher recalled, he had improved his skill so he could fashion a cheese pizza in 15 seconds, from dough ball to oven. The owner of the business offered Swisher the opportunity to be the manager of another pizza unit in a nearby community, but he instead accepted an offer to work with a former fellow pizza worker who had come into some money.

Wanting to start his own pizza business, the friend asked Swisher to come along to anyplace Swisher picked where he would share in the profits. Looking at travel pictures after Swisher accepted, the pair opted to open the first Pizza Express store in Carmel.

Tiring of working inside the store, Swisher followed the lead of Domino's Pizza by opening eight Pizza Express stores in five states. By 1980, he said, Domino's wanted to buy out Pizza Express and offered his friend a deal too good to refuse.

When the friend asked Swisher what he wanted out of the deal, he replied: "Some cash." Declining to share the capital gain, the friend instead negotiated a Domino's franchise territory for Swisher: from the University of Southern California campus to the ocean.

Using his savings and an equity investment by his friend, Swisher opened his first Domino's franchised unit Feb. 24, 1981, near USC. His second was near UCLA in Westwood after which followed Venice, West Hollywood, Culver City, Los Angeles, Granada Hills, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, etc.

Deciding he had just about saturated his franchised territory with Domino's stores, Swisher bought three other Domino's stores and currently operates 14 units. His game plan now is to continue buying other Domino's units but not to branch into other activities, for Domino's Pizza stores are what he knows best. "I don't want to be like Donald Trump."

Swisher projected his revenues will be close to $12 million this year -- up from $11.6 million last year.