Volume 17 Issue 7 November 2011
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14 TOP 5 TRENDS IN WINE
Here are five noteworthy trends in homegrown wine.
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16 DAILY DEALS: PROFIT OR POORHOUSE?
Taking an in-depth look at the daily deals industry and why it matters to you.
20 AN OPEN SIGN OF THE TIMES
How a pizza shop is building itself into a franchise in one of the country’s worst economies.
24 TWO GUYS
AND A PIZZA PLACE There’s one common thread among the long list of reasons that have made this pizzeria a hometown staple.
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DIVVYING UP PEST PREVENTION Getting your staff on board with keeping the rodents out.
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DEPARTMENTS 6
editor’s desk
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pizza bites
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canadian pizza online
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the pizza chef
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marketing insights
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making dough
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NOVEMBER 2011 pizza 3
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from the editor’s desk
Discounting to death his issue of Canadian Pizza focuses heavily on daily deal companies such as Groupon. Our cover story looks at the industry, how it’s evolving and who may or may not benefit from participating in a group offer. Diana Coutu shares her experience with Groupon in her column for this edition. And I will tackle it here as well. Why cover it so intensely now? It’s been a hot-button issue all year and spring saw a real bonanza of daily deal companies. The last six-month period has shown continual growth. I think the daily deal industry has had a big year and as we head towards the end of it, it seems a good time to look at what’s shaken out of the storm. Why such a big issue? I can’t think of another marketing tool with this growth rate that has had the ability to completely cripple a business to closure. I also can’t think of another marketing medium that can bring such a tsunami of customers to your door. If you can, let me know, but this group buying scheme seems novel in its power. At best, most tools will get you a good wave. A daily deal could flood you with business like nothing you’ve ever seen. If you are prepared and can handle it, a lot of new people will have been introduced to your pizza. And it’s common to make little or no money on a promotion to get new customers, but there are many ways to go about this. It may be that giving your pies away for free at a charity event would have less risk to you and still introduce people to your food. At the end of the day and all the research, it’s not the daily deal that’s bad itself, it’s that a steep discount is inherently bad for businesses with tight profit margins. As a pizza operator, you’re probably going to have trouble making the math make
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sense and it will only get worse without a lot of control over the terms of the arrangement. However, much of the point in covering the daily deal industry in depth is to better understand this new product because it’s probably not going away and may even evolve itself into a really useful thing for pizza operators. But deep discounting has never sat right with me when you have such a high cost associated with selling every product. Pizza is not a hotel room already there and needing to be filled. It’s made fresh to order every time and wouldn’t cost anything if no one ordered it (labour and overhead aside). But as I said, it’s how this new industry is evolving that we want to consider. There are good and bad stories to be heard from pizzeria owners, and Coutu’s tale highlights a lot of things you should be aware of if you want to try out an offer on your market. Daily deals involving foodservice vendors are a great bargain for subscribers but seem to be a poor fit fundamentally for restaurants who would find it difficult to swallow a discount of 50 per cent or more plus fork over the commission to the company plus pay the extra staff costs needed to cover the influx of business. Plus, there is the question of devaluing the product. We know it can be tough to get people to pay more once they’ve paid less. However, you will see measurable, tangible results with a daily deal offer in terms of people coming through your door. And, there are the benefits of new customers potentially turning into loyal ones. Just be aware of the dangers and know your objectives > `ÊiÝ«iVÌ>Ì ÃÊLiv ÀiÊà } }Ê °ÊU
November 2011, Vol. 17, No. 7 Editor Laura Aiken laiken@annexweb.com 416-522-1595 Assistant Editor Brandi Cowen bcowen@annexweb.com 888-599-2228 ext.278 Publisher Christine Livingstone clivingstone@annexweb.com 519-429-5173 888-599-2228 ext. 239 Sales Assistant Pauline O’Neill poneill@annexweb.com 519-429-5183 888-599-2228 ext. 219 Production Artist Kelli Kramer Group Publisher Martin McAnulty mmcanulty@annexweb.com President Mike Fredericks mfredericks@annexweb.com Mailing Address P.O. Box 530, 105 Donly Dr. S., Simcoe, ON N3Y 4N5 PUBLICATION MAIL AGREEMENT #40065710 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESS TO CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT, P.O. Box 530, Simcoe, ON N3Y 4N5 e-mail: cnowe@annexweb.com Published eight times per year (Jan/Feb, Mar, Apr/May, Jun, Jul/Aug, Sept/Oct, Nov, Dec), by Annex Business Media Printed in Canada ISSN 1203-6838 Circulation e-mail: cnowe@annexweb.com Tel: 866-790-6070 ext. 207 Fax: 877-624-1940 Mail: P.O. Box 530, Simcoe, ON N3Y 4N5 Subscription Rates Canada – 1 Year $ 19.26 (includes GST - #867172652RT0001) USA – 1 Year $ 40.00 Occasionally, Canadian Pizza Magazine will mail information on behalf of industry-related groups whose products and services we believe may be of interest to you. If you prefer not to receive this information, please contact our circulation department in any of the four ways listed above.. No part of the editorial content of this publication may be reprinted without the publisher’s written permission. ©2011 Annex Business Media. All rights reserved. Opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the editor or the publisher. No liability is assumed for errors or omissions. All advertising is subject to the publisher’s approval. Such approval does not imply any endorsement of the products or services advertised. Publisher reserves the right to refuse advertising that does not meet the standards of the publication. www.canadianpizzamag.com
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pizzabites Millennials ‘it’ generation for food service
Boston Pizza names Michael Gray executive chef Boston Pizza has hired Michael Gray as director of culinary and executive chef. Gray brings more than 20 years of experience to the role and will oversee culinary strategy and menu development for the company’s 340 locations across Canada. Gray is a certified professional chef and his culinary career has spanned 20 years with leading Canadian organizations like Fairmont Hotels, Marriott, and, most recently, as the corporate executive chef and manager of research and development for a major Canadian restaurant chain. Gray received his formal training in Dublin, Ireland, and moved to Canada in 1991. In addition to working for some of the leading restaurant brands in Canada, he was also one of the executive chefs at the XV Commonwealth games in Victoria. Dedicated to learning and further developing his skills, Gray is a member of the Research Chefs Association and is also one of only a handful of Canadian chefs that is currently pursuing a Masters in Product Development and Culinary Entrepreneurship.
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To meet Millenials’ needs, operators need to offer menu variety.
he number of Millennials and their propensity to eat out make them the “it” generation for the foodservice industry, but their diversity calls for a broader range of options, NPD reports. Millennials range between the ages of 18 and 29. This generation’s clout is largely due to its size, and unlike some other adult generations, its number will increase over the next 10 years, driven by immigration. Much of the buzz about this generation focuses on its collective behaviours, but a recently released NPD foodservice market research report examines the diversity among this age group. The report also found that to meet Millennials’ interests and needs, foodservice operators will need to offer greater menu variety. “Millennials will overtake Baby Boomers as the most sought-after target for restaurateurs in the coming years,” said Bonnie Riggs, NPD restaurant industry
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analyst and author of the report in a news release. “In order to attract this generation, foodservice operators and manufacturers will need to understand both the similarities and differences among Millennials.” One of the collective behaviours among Millennials the report identifies is that they spend over half of their foodservice dollars on ordering food for takeout. As a group, they spend a higher percentage of their total foodservice dollars than other generations on snacks, and have a higher order incidence of snack food items like ice cream, nuggets and mini sandwiches. “Millennials are moving into their heavy foodservice using years, and this is the time to reach them to build their loyalty,” says Riggs. “In reaching out to them, it’s important to understand that Millennials are not a one-size-fits-all generation and their needs and wants are varied.”
pizzabites
Diners joining anti-noise campaign here’s a rising racket as more and more restaurant-goers complain about the noise they must endure when dining out. About two years ago, Toronto restaurant critic Gina Mallet was receiving e-mails and calls from her readers complaining about the cacophony in eateries. For a time, she mentioned noise levels in her weekly column but lately has dropped the service. “I think . . . a restaurant reviewer going on and on about it becomes troublesome because half the people who go to these restaurants don’t care about the noise,” Mallet says. However, Moses Znaimer cares very much about the noise. The Toronto-based internationally known broadcaster and media pioneer has launched a national campaign to put the brakes on restaurants and their noise. The Anti-Noise Pollution League, sponsored by his radio station, The New Classical 96.3.1 FM, has received hundreds of e-mails and phone calls from listeners across Canada either complaining about the racket in restaurants or recommending those that are more peaceful. One listener from Vaughan, Ont., e-mailed to say the noise levels everywhere are “getting intolerable and needlessly dangerous.” Another from Peterborough, Ont., wrote, “It was so noisy I couldn’t hear myself think, let alone my family.” Garth Whyte, president and CEO of the Canadian Restaurant and Food Services Association (CRFA), says that with the noise issue “we are heading into a territory where there is a demographic conflict. “And although the association hasn’t had complaints about noise, our members are so hypersensitive to so many different variables that they are working hard to
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Gino’s Pizza partners with MADD Canada in schools ino’s Pizza recently teamed up with Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) Canada to support the fight against impaired driving as a new national sponsor of the association’s School Assembly Program. On Sept. 22, in-store customers got one free slice of Gino’s pizza for every minimum $1 donation made to MADD Canada between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. Gino’s is also the newest national sponsor of MADD Canada’s School Assembly Program. The 2011-2012 program, a presentation called Damages, kicked off its national tour earlier this month. Damages and the French version, Dommages, will be seen by more than one million students across the country over the course of this school year.
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meet the needs of their customers.” But Moses Znaimer’s sister, Libby, vice-president of news for the station, believes that if restaurants wish to cater to people who want needless noise they will lose other clients. “Sometimes in these places that are so noisy to begin with, the music just adds to the noise and you can’t even hear it.” Noisy music isn’t the only reason for the din in restaurants, she says. “Often the design and décor of a restaurant really exacerbates the noise because there are bare floors, bare walls, no tablecloths and tables placed too close together,” she says. Whyte of the CRFA says that diners should ask to have the level of musical noise turned down. “There is an assumption that the message of dissatisfaction gets to the restaurant owner or manager,” he says. “Times are a-changing and those businesses have to be responsive to their customers.” – The Canadian Press
Compliance at Topper’s healthy choice can still be a delicious one. That’s the message from Topper’s Pizza, in response to Ontario’s new provincial standards for healthy eating in schools. “Schools across Ontario can be assured that a typical lunch size slice of Topper’s cheese or cheese and pepperoni pizza either meets or exceeds the new nutrition standards for Ontario schools in all categories, including protein, fibre, sodium, saturated fat and overall fat,” said Emaan Toppazzini, director of product development for Topper’s Pizza. After submitting a nutritional chart of pizza choices and slice sizes for review by the Ontario government dietitian, Topper’s Pizza was determined to be 100 per cent compliant with the new standards. The company’s recently expanded menu also offers many healthier options.
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pizzabites
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feature
Top 5 trends in wine BY BRANDI COWEN
W
e Canadians sure do love wine – we spent $5.8 billion on it last year alone. That’s a 3.1 per cent jump over the previous year, reports Statistics Canada. The wine market in Canada is poised to become even bigger in the years to come. A study conducted for Vinexpo, the largest wine trade show in the world, forecasted that wine sales in Canada will experience further growth. The study predicts that Canada will post a 19 per cent increase in sales through 2014, versus only a 3.18 per cent anticipated increase in worldwide sales. Although Statistics Canada figures show that imports trumped domestic wine sales in terms of growth last year (up 3.8 per cent versus 2.9 per cent, respectively), there’s no denying that we’re pretty fond of the fruits of our homegrown vines. In total, 39 per cent of all white wines and 25 per cent of all red wines purchased by Canadians last year were made right here at home. To help your operation capture its share of these sales, Canadian Pizza has assembled a list of the top 5 trends shaping consumption of Canadian wines from coast to coast. 1. DRINK LOCAL “Local must be stressed,” says Torontobased sommelier Zoltan Szabo. “Everyone now seems to be into locally inspired gastronomy,” he adds, noting that this is as true for wine as it is for produce. Local sourcing isn’t just an option for restaurateurs lucky enough to operate on Ontario’s Niagara Peninsula, or in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley. A little research can uncover wineries operating in your region. And, as Szabo found out during a recent tasting, the tipples on offer outside Canada’s traditional wine-producing regions may surprise you. “I just tasted some sparkling wine from Nova Scotia that blew my socks off,” he says. “It was a sparkling wine made from a
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clone of the Marechal Foch grape.” 2. ADAPTED ITALIAN VARIETIES As wineries across the country experiment with different species of grapes, and consumers demand more local options, homegrown versions of favourite Italian varieties are gaining ground. “Some wineries are experimenting with Italian red varieties such as Sangiovese and Barbera,” says Rhys Pender, a Master of Wine from Cawston, B.C. He points to Sandhill Small Lots’ varieties as good examples of Canadian twists on Italian classics. 3. POPULAR PINOT GRIGIO This long-popular white wine is still in high demand these days, according to Astrid Brummer, product manager for Ontario wines at the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO). “This continues to be the hottest grape variety, because it is typically light, approachable and refreshing,” says Brummer. She points to Henry of Pelham Pinot Grigio as a good example of the “fruity-fresh” characteristics sustaining the ongoing demand for Canadian-made Pinot Grigio. 4. BLENDED BOTTLES As they seek out new taste experiences, Canadian wine drinkers are turning to bottles that blend wines made from different varieties of grape. Blummer says white wine blends of Riesling, Chardonnay and Gewürztraminer are gaining ground. She credits the emergence
of this trend to the fact that “the wines please consumers and restaurateurs; they are exceptionally food-friendly, and versatile, with a variety of dishes.” She notes that they “really sing with ‘lighter, fresher’ cuisines,” as the blends “combine a bright crispness that cuts through oils.”In the realm of reds, Blummer points to a trend toward “friendly, ripe and rounded” blends. There are three categories of red blends: Baco Noir based, Gamay based, and Shiraz based. Pender adds that Meritage red wine blends are also poised to be big business on the west coast. 5. GOING ORGANIC Whether they’re labelled “100 per cent organic” or just plain “organic,” wines bearing the words are gaining ground. At the moment, there is no internationally accepted standard for organic wine; different countries have established different criteria wine must meet to be considered organic. In Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has developed an optional label to identify wines that meet its standards for certified organic status. If you’re interested in offering organic wines, be sure to ask around. There may be wineries offering organic options that, for whatever reason, have chosen not to be certified under the CFIA’s regime. We don’t need a crystal ball to see that wine drinking in Canada is in no danger of slowing down. Uncork a few trendy bottles and watch customers embrace Þ ÕÀÊÃi iVÌ Ã°ÊU
feature
Daily deals: profit or poorhouse? BY LAURA AIKEN
With more than 500 daily deal companies calling Canada home, there are plenty of players to knock on your door.
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tough economy is a great place to grow a discount. Just look at the explosion of offers in excess of 50 per cent off available through daily deal companies such as Living Social. Just in case you aren’t familiar with the daily deal group buying model, here’s the gist: The deal site creates an offer by first doing a deal with a merchant who will provide the steep discount to its subscriber base. Offers are then redeemed through the merchant, with a commission from each voucher going to the daily deal site. Subscribers to these sites receive a new offer in their e-mail every day for services or products offered at usually 50 to 90 per cent off their regular price. Merchant tales of their “offer” experience range from extreme enthusiasm to
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downright horror show. The deals can bring in new customers and grow brand awareness, but also cripple a company into closure. Love them or hate them, you need to understand them. If a sales rep from one hasn’t called you yet, it’s probably only a matter of time before one or 10 will. Let’s look at the lay of the land: how it’s shaped, where it’s headed, what it means for you as a pizzeria operator and, of course, what to consider before participating. Boyan Josic, founder and CEO of Michigan-based Daily Deal Media, which provides news, data and intelligence for the social commerce and daily deal industry, says there are between 1,200 and 1,500 daily deal companies in North America, with just over 500 calling Canada home. In the first
six months of this year, big guns such as Groupon, Living Social and Gilt Group attracted more than $1.69 billion in venture capital and other investments, reported the 2011 Daily Deal Investment Index released in July by Daily Deal Media. The number of launches has doubled in the last 12 months and then really picked up steam in about the last six months, says Josic. This has left the landscape with some big players and a whole bunch of copycat offspring running around trying to compete; some legit, some not-so-much. The top three products for deals are restaurant/ bar, spas and health care (teeth whitening, etc.), says Josic, so your pizzeria is high on a daily deal company’s directory list of merchants to call on.
feature At the Daily Deal Media conference in Chicago this September, Canada was highlighted by an expert panel as an exceptional market for the daily deal business, with the city of Toronto second only to Chicago in the North American daily deal market. As you can see, this industry is hot and Canada’s a gold nugget. But is this industry going to go from trailblazing startup to sustainable? Groupon, perhaps the most well known of the daily deal behemoths, shelved its planned initial public offering (IPO) when revised accounting showed the company to be, apparently, unprofitable after showing huge losses in customer acquisition, reported the Globe and Mail in August. The Globe also reported that Groupon was working on a plan to get its financial house in order and get its IPO back on track. They need to raise money, no questions there. In the meantime, Facebook and Yelp have backed out of the daily deals space while Google has jumped in with Google Offers. “’Daily deals’ is a hot phrase now,” says Josic. “Do I think it will be three to four years from now? No. But do I see it going away? No. . . . We see it evolving and being integrated into the greater good of social commerce [e-commerce through social media] and local commerce.” So we’ve established that we’ve got an infant industry growing fast. If history rewrites itself, as it tends to do, we’ve got changes on the way. When I ask Josic if he thinks the industry is a little like the Wild West right now, he says yes, and he hears that all the time. “There’s lots of stuff going on with class actions, fraud incidents and potential government legislation. We’re headed towards regulation of some sort and at the end of the day that’s probably a good thing.” Industry rules and standards are a natural evolution of industry maturation. The Wild West is not sustainable but we know it can be domesticated into a suburb, which may be less thrilling but far more harmonious for all involved. Somebody getting the shaft is an inevitable consequence of a Wild West landscape. Right now, it’s the slim-margin merchant feeling the big squeeze of the steep discount, the commission and the potential for attracting scavengers in customer clothing.
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“Eventually you’ve got to start treating the merchant a little better, says Josic. “One of the things we hear is a lot of talk of how we can make this a value proposition for the merchants.” It’s comforting to know the industry is not oblivious to the pitfalls it carries for the livelihoods of the very people it relies on to do its deals. No suppliers, no deals. It’s simply not sustainable to ignore the complaints of those you depend on to exist. Another evolutionary step is the incorporation of location-based marketing technology: How can the retailers reach you when you’re near their store? “Pop-up deals in the area when you are looking to have lunch – that’s what we’re all talking about,” says Josic. Canada has home grown a step in this very direction Josic points to. Toronto-based Mobile Fringe launched Push a Deal in September, billed as the “first mobile service that pushes offers to consumers as they cross the ‘geo-fence’ and enter a participating store’s immediate vicinity.” Starting in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, Push a Deal plans to roll out to Canadian cities and universities in the ensuing months. Mobile Fringe is the company behind retail shopping initiatives such as the Toronto Eaton Centre and Yorkdale Shopping Centre apps. Mobile Fringe CEO Steve Sorge says the market research done to launch Push a Deal brought to light flaws in the sustainability of daily deal companies as a business model. “The business model is not sustainable conceptually because it’s not a tool you can use more than once, as it can cripple your business,” says Sorge. Sorge launched a beta release of Push a Deal last spring, when the daily deal environment was going bananas (beta is the stage in the software release cycle when the program is available for testing to prospective customers and users). Sorge is setting an example of having a fair spin for merchants by providing access to a mobile marketing channel and the opportunity to do a deal that’s not a 50 per cent discount. Mobile Fringe takes 25 per cent of the deal amount, which is paid by performance, or when an offer is redeemed. Sorge says he doesn’t see how food service can survive on a ton of steep discounts when they operate with such tight margins.
“Let the market dictate if it’s a good offer or not. Don’t put a threshold on what the discount is. Fifteen per cent could be enough of a tipping point for a person that is 500 metres from your store. . . . These characteristics make the platform something you can use consistently.” Another evolutionary step going on in the daily deals space is consolidation, says Sorge. He notes that when the players get big they start to buy up the smaller ones, and he hears of consolidation going on in the daily deal industry. He says the same will happen for the Push a Deals of the world, but the platform is too novel to be there yet: “We are location-based marketing, they are group deal marketing,” he says of their differentiation as offer makers. Through sheer need for efficiency, smaller players will get eaten up and you will get fewer, but probably more powerful, deal companies knocking on your door. We may see a shift in what’s a popular deal. The high discounts are better suited to capital-intensive companies that need to fill space: golf courses, gyms, hotels. These exist with staffing as more of a variable cost than the use itself. But when you have a high cost of goods sold, says Sorge, it’s not a sustainable marketing channel and many merchants aren’t savvy enough yet about the daily deal industry to put the right terms on it. “These are well-trained companies calling directory listings and they do know how to sell independents when it can be very injurious to their [independents’] business,” says Sorge. DEAL OR NO DEAL One of the biggest hopes, THE big hope, for a pizzeria running a daily deal offer would be gaining new customers. Getting people in the door is definitely the name of the game. Turning people into loyal customers is critical to giving your pizzeria a long life. These coupon clippers of 2011 are a tribe that has many members who just go from deal to deal with no intention of ever returning. Not all are like that, but as Diana Coutu writes in her column about her experience with Groupon, the offer buyers may not necessarily be your preferred species of customer.
Continued on page 27
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feature
An open sign of the times How a pizza shop is building itself into a franchise in one of the country’s worst economies BY JOHN MCNEIL
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Photo credit: John McNeil
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ver the past two decades, many pizza shops on Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton Island have served their last slice and flipped the sign in their window to “Closed” for the last time. It would be easy to see the closure of these and other businesses as the result of a poor local economy that has never recovered from the collapse of its three biggest industries – fishing, coal mining and steel production in the 1980s and ’90s. But in an area with an unemployment rate more than twice the national average, one local businessman has forged ahead, turning his single pizza shop into a chain with seven locations – more than Domino’s, Little Caesars, Pizza Pizza, Vanellis or Panago in Nova Scotia. “In university, I opened a convenience store near what’s now Cape Breton University,” says Michael Kenny, owner of Kenny’s Pizza in Sydney, N.S. “The guy who owned the building used to be in the pizza business and he offered to teach me how it worked.” In 1986, the Kenny family opened the pizza shop as part of their convenience store and ran it there for five years, before purchasing a building in Sydney’s Whitney Pier neighbourhood and opening Kenny’s Pizza as a stand-alone pizza shop in 1991. After two years of increased sales at the new location, the Kennys had been thinking about how to attract business from outside the neighbourhood. They opened a second shop on Sheriff Avenue in the residential neighbourhood of Ashby, next to the city’s largest high school and one block from a main commercial street. “We just felt there was an opportunity,” Kenny said. “We knew we were missing out on some of the business available in the city.” Kenny operated the two pizza shops with increasing sales numbers for six years. Then he was offered the chance to purchase a building in the neighbouring community of Sydney River. “I said to myself, can I really put three locations in the area? We’re in a small city, but on the other hand, our sales continued to grow each year and we were gaining more market share. It was a big decision,” Kenny said. But he went for it, and opening a third store became a real turning point for his business. Since firing up its oven in 1999, the Sydney River store has been Kenny’s busiest location and has shown an increase in sales every year. In fact, the expansion went so well, it was an easier decision to open a fourth location in North Sydney in 2002. Kenny said even by that point, the business had come a long way from the days when he cooked the pizzas himself in a section of his convenience store. “As we opened new locations, we began creating our own brand, and that has its challenges,” he said. Vibe Creative Group, a local
Micheal Kenny says owners considering opening a second or third location should be ready to move from pizza sauce to spreadsheets.
marketing agency, was brought in to create a cohesive design of everything from pizza box artwork to store layout. In the kitchen, Kenny had to ensure staff could cook a pizza that would look and taste exactly the same at each location, which required organization and attention to detail. He realized having multiple locations put him in a better bargaining position with equipment manufacturers and food suppliers, which enables him to ensure each of his kitchens looks and runs exactly the same. Achieving quality control and brand consistency are directly tied to the uniformity of equipment and supplies at each location, he says. “In the early days, we would sometimes buy used equipment, but we realized using brand new equipment gives us a better finished product,” he said. “Years ago, with our old pizza ovens, you’d have a pizza in for 15 to 20 minutes, and you’d have to really be careful with it. The new conveyor belt ovens take out the margin of error.” After his fourth location opened, Kenny and his staff worked hard to develop and refine their internal systems to have each location and the overall business running as smoothly as possible. Over the next six years, pizzas flew out of the oven at each restaurant as business continued to grow. Then, between 2008 and 2011, Kenny’s opened three more locations in two and a half years – one
in the core of downtown Sydney, one in the neighbouring community of Glace Bay, and one in Antigonish, the chain’s first location on mainland Nova Scotia. Kenny said each time he opens a new store, he carefully examines the business case for that location. He said he hasn’t pursued an aggressive expansion plan; he just considers every opportunity and proceeds only if he knows it will work. “Before you consider opening even a second store, you need to have the first one running properly,” Kenny said. “Have a model that’s going to work. If you don’t know your first operation, it’s hard to run a second or third. When I do a business plan, I know every line of the operation.” Kenny said owners considering opening a second or third location should be ready to move from pizza sauce to spreadsheets. “Once you expand, in a real hurry you’re going from head pizza cook to running a business, and that’s a big change,” he said. “The one thing that helped the most in our growth was understanding the financial side of the business. Being able to set costs – food costs, labour, controllables – for every store, and understanding how to rely on that information to make decisions. You can’t fix it if you don’t know what the problem is.” Kenny said learning to run the business while staff runs the kitchen has been essential to his success. He relies on a dedicated core of loyal employees, which includes general manager Darryl MacMullin,
who oversees day-to-day operations and has been with the business for over 20 years. “If you spend most of your time working in the kitchen, you won’t have the time or energy to run the business properly, and you won’t be able to consider new ways to grow and expand,” he says. Kenny’s recent expansion from four stores to seven more than doubled the number of employees from 50 to 110. It takes three hours to drive one way between the Glace Bay and Antigonish locations. Kenny said that with a staff that size and such a large area to cover he is faced with the challenge of how to handle future expansion. “Over the next couple of years, we’re looking at doing some franchising,” he said. “It will have to be a part of the business if we’re going to continue to expand.” Kenny said he has already been considering several spaces in Halifax and is just waiting for the right opportunity to arise. “I get calls from Cape Bretoners who have moved away, asking why I don’t open a store in Alberta or somewhere else, or interested in buying a franchise and opening the store themselves,” Kenny said. “I like to explore every opportunity, so I never rule anything out.” It appears the “Open” sign will hang in Kenny’s windows in Cape ÀiÌ ÊqÊ> `ÊLiÞ `ÊqÊv ÀÊÞi>ÀÃÊÌ ÊV i°ÊU John McNeil is a freelance writer and editor living in Fredericton, N.B. His work has appeared in the Globe and Mail, the National Post and publications across the country.
Around the world Here’s a look at what’s making headlines in pizza around the globe. San Diego, Calif.: A pizza delivery woman helped end a counterfeit money ring after she noticed the $10 bills she was handed at her last address were fake. The savvy Papa John’s employee was so certain the money was fake that she called the police. “Investigators say inside the apartment was a printer, sheets of fake money and some $1,600 in phony bills,” reported KGTV/CNN. Taipei: “A little girl thanked social workers at Taiwan Fund for Children and Families (TFCF) for fulfilling her dream of eating pizza for the first time in her life. “So this is how good pizza tastes. I am happy to be finally eating my dream food,” said the six-year-old girl, surnamed Chang.” – Focus Taiwan News Channel Ireland: “The holders of the master franchise for Pizza Hut’s delivery services throughout Ireland have secured High Court orders preventing Pizza Hut’s U.S.-based parent terminating the franchise agreement. The orders apply pending the outcome of full legal proceedings. Q Co Franchising Ireland Ltd, owned and operated by brothers John and Patrick Cronin, secured the injunctions yesterday from Mr. Justice Michael Hanna against Pizza Hut International LLC, with an address in Texas.” – Irishtimes.com
Brisbane, Australia: Domino’s is launching an outdoor digital campaign in Brisbane, where billboards will show current store delivery times, reports Franchising. The national average for Domino’s in Australia is 24 minutes. Yuma, Ariz.: A real pizza craving can stop a bank robber in his tracks. Such is the case of a man who robbed an Arizona bank and proceeded to stop for pizza and a beer on the very same street as his hold-up. Needless to say, cops were on the scene shortly thereafter. U.S.: A former pizza boss is turning into a darling of the right wing in the Republican presidential nomination, reports The Guardian. Herman Cain, 65, is perhaps best known for his stint as chief executive of the fast food chain Godfather’s Pizza but is a fast rising star of the right. China: The allure of China has shown a darker side for Yum Brands Inc., parent company of Pizza Hut. “Yum Brands Inc. said it expects food inflation in the mid-teens and labor inflation of 20 per cent in China for the current quarter. The result is that Yum, whose KFC and Pizza Hut casual-dining chains are booming in the country, must struggle to balance low-price appeal with the need to offset the chain’s higher costs. Yum said Wednesday that it didn’t anticipate the inflation, when the company began promoting its low prices,” reported the Wall Street Journal on Oct. 6.
NOVEMBER 2011 pizza 21
the pizza chef
A sour deal story Diana Coutu feel the need to write an update about Groupon and similar deal sites since my article earlier this year because I wouldn’t give the same advice today. In the past, we’ve done many new customer acquisition strategies with which we’d make little or no money on the first order. However, when we entered these new customers into our marketing funnel, many became regulars. Initially, we thought that Groupon was a good way to expose ourselves to a bunch of high-end, new customers, and with our ongoing marketing efforts, that some would turn into regulars. But, what we found with our experience was that the Groupon, and similar deal sites, customer is a different breed altogether. A pizzeria’s typical cost of product is 30 to 33 per cent. The cost of labour is 33 per cent. Add in fixed expenses (rent, utilities, etc.) and the profit margin is driven down to the single digits, five to eight per cent. I have found that Groupon and similar deal sites sell $20 gift certificates for $10 and give the pizzeria $5. This means the pizzeria is receiving just 25 per cent of the menu price, which falls far below even covering the cost of the product. When you consider that the pizzeria has to increase staffing to cover the surge in sales that the ‘deal’ creates, costs increase even more. I was sold on the claim that my Groupon deal would bring in ‘high-end’ customers, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Many customers ignored the terms on the certificate. It clearly stated only one Groupon could be redeemed per household, per day. Some threatened to post negative reviews online while they were still placing their order – they hadn’t even tried our pizzas yet – but because we insisted they honour the terms of the deal
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they became irate and unreasonable. Some refused to give us any information to allow us to follow up and invite them back again, citing: “I’m only here for the deal.” This made extra work to track the redeemed ones. Some attempted to redeem the same one multiple times. Some didn’t even buy the deal, but tried to redeem the e-mail advertising the deal. Several acted like dictators: “You will do this or else!” And, to salt the wound, almost all new Groupon customers spent only the value of the Groupon and not a penny more. Some of our regular customers also took advantage of the deal, although all spent more than the value of the Groupon. The deal was valid for six months and we tracked it down to the last one redeemed on the last day. Of course, plenty were redeemed on the last day by what should have been “happy-I-got-a-deal” customers, but instead, my staff dealt with begrudging comments that their Groupon expiration date wasn’t long enough. Ironically, printed on each Groupon voucher were the words: “Our customers are big tippers, that’s why we’re the best!” You can ask my drivers about that one. In the end, we couldn’t wait for this promotion to be over. It was like we’d invited the worst of the worst of humanity to come on down, treat our staff poorly and act as if they were entitled to dictate whatever terms they wanted because they had a piece of paper from a deal site. Since our experience I’ve seen several reports about other small business owners in different industries who participated in a deal site promotion with the same good intentions of receiving exposure to a bunch of new, qualified customers, but ended up with a similar experience to ours. A local nursery owner had to shut down six weeks early because a deal site didn’t cap the
number of vouchers offered and everyone who came in with a voucher spent only the face value and stated they weren’t coming back. She was picked clean. This deal site promised to help to build her business, but instead destroyed it. You may not have heard that the Alberta government has been talking about passing legislation forcing the issuing business of a daily deal site to buy back the voucher at full face value after the expiration date. That means that technically people could just sit at home and buy these vouchers for half price, wait until the expiration date has passed and show up demanding cash for the full face value. Let’s hope most people wouldn’t do such a thing, but it’s a slippery slope and we’ve all seen bad behaviour from our customers. These legislators are oblivious to the number of those who will be attracted to easy money at the high cost of destroying small businesses and the jobs they create. Just one more example of how out of touch so many legislators are with small business owners. Needless to say, we will never sign up for any type of deal site promotion again. We will, however, continue to run our own new-customer acquisition strategies, Ü V Ê> Ü>ÞÃÊÜ À ÊÜi Êv ÀÊÕðÊU
Diana Coutu is a two-time Canadian Pizza magazine chef of the year champion, internationally recognized gourmet pizzaiolo, co-owner of Diana’s Gourmet Pizzeria in Winnipeg, Man., and a member of the board of directors for the CRFA. In addition to creating awardwinning recipes, Diana is also a consultant to other pizzeria owner/operators in menu development, creating systems to run a pizzeria on autopilot, along with marketing and positioning to help operators grow their business effectively and strategically. She is available for consulting on a limited basis, for more information contact her at Diana@dianasgourmetpizzeria.ca.
Photo credit: Two Guys and a Pizza Place
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Two Guys and a Pizza Place BY JULIE FITZ-GERALD
T
he long list of reasons that have made Two Guys and a Pizza Place a hometown staple are all intertwined with one common thread: owner Cory Medd’s high attention to detail. You would be hard-pressed to find a single aspect of Medd’s bustling pizzeria in Lethbridge, Alta., that hasn’t been reviewed and analyzed to ensure that it fits perfectly with his vision for the business. Like a proud patriarch, Medd is quick to attribute success to his staff, who share his care and attention to the business. “I have great staff and I really try to treat them well so that they treat our customers well. I have some longtime staff here that have a sense of ownership and they’re great. I’ve got guys that have been here for four, six and eight years. My staff is so important to this place and to me. They’re well educated and I think they are fantastic. They make me better than my competitors,” he gushes. After coming across a belly-up pizza place in 2002, Medd and his good friend Scott Brennan began brainstorming a business idea, as adventurous men in their early 20s often do. Their only experience with pizza was Brennan’s past job at a Pizza Hut. With Medd’s background in business and marketing and Brennan’s basic pizzamaking skills, the pair took a huge leap of faith. “We just stumbled upon it and ran with it. We got lucky I guess,” Medd says, laughing at just how big a leap it really was. “I had just turned 23; I was young and foolish for sure! There was definitely a learning curve at the start, but we knew we wanted to
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make good pizza and we thought it would work. We felt pretty confident.” A year and half after opening their doors, Brennan went on to pursue film school in Vancouver, while Medd bought his share of the business and forged ahead. Sales began to pick up and Medd realized that his vision for the pizzeria was actually going to work. Nine years later, Medd can safely celebrate his brazen leap of faith into the pizza industry. In 2008, he was named Chef of the Year by Canadian Pizza magazine. He has competed in Las Vegas at the International Pizza Challenge (IPC) with pizzaiolos from around the world, earning strong finishes over the last three years. Back at home, his sales have grown consistently from 2002 to 2009, allowing him to reach a high level of success that he has since maintained. Medd’s concept for the business was lofty for a 23-year-old, but not out of the realm of possibility. “I don’t think I ever dreamed of being a franchise or being the biggest pizza chain in the world, but we wanted to be busy and we wanted to be the best in town and the best in Alberta,” he says. Being named the top pizza chef in Canada surpassed Medd’s goal altogether. Loyal regulars and lovers of The Roadhouse, the recipe that garnered him the honour from Canadian Pizza, would Above: Cory Medd took a brazen leap into the pizzeria industry and hasn’t looked back.
Take-away tips t Stay competitive by changing your menu every couple of years, replacing less popular menu items with new ideas. t Participate in industry trade shows, seminars and competitions to stay up on current trends in the industry, gain new insights into improving your business and see how you stack up against the best pizzaiolos in the world. t Always monitor and analyze the day-to-day details of the business, staying on top of sales and customer feedback.
agree. The Roadhouse is smothered in a ranch base and topped with chicken, bacon, red peppers, mozzarella and cheddar. Three years later, this winning pizza is now one of the simpler selections of pie offered at Two Guys and a Pizza Place. Medd stays competitive by overhauling his menu every two to three years, exchanging half a dozen slow-selling pizzas with six to eight new creations inspired by current trends in the industry. “New pizzas are based on trends that I’m seeing at the International Pizza Challenge, on the Food Network or from research that I’ve done on the Internet.” New additions to the menu stay true to Medd’s formula for great-tasting pizza. “When we first got into this we said we wanted to do everything better; that was our goal. We make our own dough daily and none of our products or ingredients are based on price, they’re all based on quality and taste. We try not to cut corners ever,” Medd says, going on to note, “I constantly ask GFS [Gordon Food Service Canada] who else is using these products and I try to find unique products that are not being used by other pizza places.” “Old –school” best describes his kitchen. Dough is mixed in a 70-year-old Hobart mixer and then left to rise for two to three hours before it is hand cut each day. The old Bakers Pride brick oven burns at 550 F and requires a staff member manning it at all times. “Our smaller pizzas take eight to 10 minutes to cook and our bigger ones take 14 minutes, so it’s pretty old school and, I would say, slow in our industry. But I like the fact that we have a guy manning the ovens at all times, keeping an eye on every pizza. I’m allowed a little more creativity on my menu because of that,” Medd says. One thing on the contemporary side is Medd’s POS system that he picked up in Las Vegas at the International Pizza Expo. It allows him to analyze sales to determine the number of repeat customers the pizzeria has, how many times they are ordering and what particular slices are selling on a given day. “I’m constantly researching and looking to see how things are going and analyzing our sales and our customers’ views. Now that I have such great staff I can work more on the business than in the business and it’s nice to be able to constantly do research on your own business to stay on top of what’s going on.” If sales are slow for any period of time, Medd quickly jumps into action, implementing his marketing and advertising skills. Past promotions include handing out free pizza at various events
that he sponsors, making gift card donations and putting coupons in event programs rather than a simple ad. “That way I can get the customer into our door and serve them pizza. Feeding customers and word of mouth is my first priority,” he says. Sponsoring local teams and events is also important to Medd as a simple act of reciprocating kindness to his community. “I’ve always believed in the old saying ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’ Why not help out people and give back to the community that has given so much to me. Our sales have grown from 2002 to 2009 and now we’re just maintaining and I can’t forget who got me to this point. Really I just feel good about it.” The future looks bright for Medd and his pizzeria, with expansion plans in the works. In early June, Medd bought a mobile pizza kitchen that he will use as a test kitchen where he can try new ideas and offer new toppings, all the while gathering customer feedback. As for his current digs, he is open to possibilities. “The trailer is definitely immediate and will be great. It will probably lead to bigger and better things. As far as this store here, I think the next step in the next five years would be a bigger, better location or perhaps two locations.” Medd’s excitement about the future is evident as he talks about an upcoming menu change to celebrate Two Guys’ 10-year anniversary in May 2012 and his ideas for next year’s IPC in Las Vegas. “My next idea will be revolutionary to the pizza industry. I’m going Ì Ê i>ÛiÊ ÌÊ>ÌÊÌ >Ì°»ÊU
NOVEMBER 2011 pizza 25
marketing insights
Michelle Brisebois avid Ogilvy is famous for saying, “I know half of my advertising works. . . . I just don’t know which half.” When it comes to measuring the value social media marketing has on your brand, it can be tough to be sure if tweets and “friends” are valuable marketing assets or simply trendy accessories. First you need to establish your business objectives and then determine how social media can support them. Now that social marketing is finding its groove, many businesses are looking for ways to measure its impact. It really isn’t difficult and it doesn’t require a large expenditure but there are certain areas you should focus on to gauge your social marketing strategy’s success.
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CONVERSION RATES: DO SHOPPERS BECOME BUYERS? The moment someone who’s considering a purchase decides to make the purchase is called the moment of conversion. Fewer followers who regularly purchase are much more valuable than a large group who never check in. You’ll need to have a way to measure when a lead comes from social media. Hootsuite has integrated Google Analytics into their URL shortener to make it easier for tweeters to trace their conversions to purchase from the Twitter feed. Try sending a special offer to your Twitter followers that invites them to come in and show the tweet on their mobile device to get the offer. The number will likely be fairly low in the beginning but by looking at conversions divided by leads, you can get your conversion rate for social media leads. Compare this against other marketing channels to see if it’s higher or lower. GROWTH RATE A steady growth rate is good because it indicates that new people are finding your
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The measure of a friend messaging. Anytime your business name gets flashed in front of someone’s eyes is a chance to develop awareness of your brand. It takes time to build a sustainable social media channel so establish realistic goals. NEW CUSTOMER ACQUISITION New customers are the fresh oxygen that keeps businesses healthy. Existing customers will move away or change their eating habits so you must always be replacing them and growing on top of that. During pre-shifts, direct your team to ask the customer with each order if they are new or have dined with you before. If they’re new, ask how they heard about you and track how many mention one of your social marketing tactics as the primary source. Survey Monkey is a great low-cost tool that allows you to create online surveys. Place a sticker on your pizza boxes that invites customers to take the survey online for a chance at a prize. The prize could be free pizza every Friday for a month. On the survey, ask how they heard about you to see if your social marketing efforts are driving the growth. RETENTION RATES If new customers are the oxygen that feeds your growth, then existing customers are the lifeblood of your business. Common sense would suggest that a customer who engages in your brand messaging is “stickier” – in other words, more loyal. You can compare customers who follow you on Facebook or Twitter with those who simply interact with you when they place their order every so often. Keep a list of all the new customers you’ve recruited via social media and track them over time. Measure recency and frequency of purchase, then compare this against the control group of those who didn’t interact with social media. Is there a difference in behaviour?
CUSTOMER SATISFACTION Many businesses are using social media tools to address customer feedback online and this often includes managing complaints. Measure how many times your team addresses a customer concern. Maybe someone tweets that he or she has been waiting too long for delivery? Your team could tweet back that the car is “just five minutes away” and then you could tell the driver to give the customer a free soft drink or other reward. It’s easy to set up a search for your business name on Twitter, so if someone complains online you can see it quickly, respond and correct the negative impression. Customers aren’t complaining any more or less than they always were. Social media simply allows us to know about it and deal with it effectively. UP-SELLING Measure the average sale for a customer obtained through traditional marketing tactics and one captured via social marketing efforts. Is the average sale greater for the social media group? Are they responding to bundled offers or enticing descriptions of your latest upscale pizza? If you place a traditional advertisement for the same offer, you’ll be able to see the difference. In the final analysis, social media allows us to talk about pizza more often, think about pizza more often and, one would hypothesize, purchase pizza more often. It’s also a lot of fun and messages delivered with a side order of humour are more easily recalled, such as this memorable pizza-related tweet: “There should be a meat-liker’s pizza for those of us afraid of V Ì i Ì°»ÊU Michelle Brisebois is a marketing professional with experience in the food, pharmaceutical, financial services and wine industries. She specializes in retail brand strategies.
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Continued from page 18 There is market research to support the theory that your deal could create converts. As noted earlier, merchant experiences have been quite good and quite bad. Food industry research firm Technomic published a Daily Deal Watch on restaurant-goers’ attitudes and usage of couponing sites. The Chicago-based firm found that 67 per cent of the people polled claim they have returned to the restaurant without a daily deal and 83 per cent recommended it to family and friends. “Consumers at all income levels appear to be very engaged in and satisfied with online daily restaurant deals,” notes Bob Goldin, executive vice-president of Technomic, in a news release. “They are subscribing to multiple services and purchasing multiple deals. The fact that 85 per cent of consumers plan to continue to purchase online restaurant deals and 79 per cent look forward to receiving them is a strong indication of the impact the online daily deal business is having and of its potential within the restaurant space.” Lineups out the door can get a pizza operator excited too, and that’s a very real possibility should you sign up with a daily deal company and offer 50 per cent or more off to a huge subscriber base. The temptations to partake are chocolate sweet: new customers and big exposure. But can you handle the extra weight? If you don’t set a cap on the number that can be sold you could find yourself sinking. You’ll need extra staff and preparation. Take the case of The Butchers in Toronto. Unprepared for the onslaught of business their offers drew, the business was crippled into temporary closure and suffered a lot of bad publicity. Different daily deal companies have different terms. You really need to find one that lets you protect your business, then take a microscope to your agreement about 10 times. Entreprenuer Rocky Agrawal wrote a guest post on Tech Crunch called “Why I want Google Offers and the Entire Daily Deals business to Die” that effectively outlines the potential hazards of daily deals for merchants. His most scathing line is especially articulate: “We have a brand new, overpriced, aggressively hyped, hard to understand product. We have no data on how
it will perform over time. It is being sold to people with limited disclosures of important details. Sound familiar? It should. Daily deal providers are the moral equivalent of predatory lenders selling subprime liars loans to people they knew couldn’t afford it.” Ouch. On the other hand, I recently spoke with Keren Hadad, co-owner of The Canadian Pie Company in Toronto, and she relayed that she did two deals – Living Social and TeamBuy – shortly after launching the bakery. She said she was really happy with the results and found it helped grow awareness of the new store. There are many factors that come into play in determining whether your story is positive or negative in result, or perhaps even some varying shades of grey. One thing seems to arise from my research: new businesses often have a different outlook and satisfaction level with their deal than established, successful restaurants. Jeff Bembridge of Bambino’s Pizza, established in 1986 in Nova Scotia, just couldn’t get the math to make sense. “I was recently approached by what looked like a great deal, but the math boiled down to this: I’m not going to spend $35 to get $10. We’re not down in sales, we’ve been up for 25 years.” Marina Rondinelli, our 2011 Pizza Chef of the Year runner-up and owner of Rondo’s/Pizza Plus, which just celebrated 25 years in business, says the deal companies have yet to touch down in Sarnia, Ont. But she is familiar with the format and buys the occasional deal herself from DealFind, available in nearby London. “Personally, I think it’s a great idea for someone starting out,” she says. “My best thing I ever used was welcome wagon.” Rondinelli included a coupon for a small pizza with welcome wagon. People always ordered more with that small a coupon, she points out, and they are still coming back 10 years later. “It’s all about getting them in the door, whether it’s DealFind or anything else. It all depends on the cost, but you do have to spend money to make money.” The question this leaves us with: Just how much are you willing to spend and what do you expect to make? The daily deal is a dotted line to be signed only after looking at not only their fine print but also yours°ÊU
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NOVEMBER 2011 pizza 27
making dough with Diane
Diane Chiasson t’s a known fact that the more time and effort a business spends on recruiting, the more successful the business will be. In the restaurant and foodservice industry, the difference between great and poor customer service can quite often be the single factor that drives customers away for good. There are several things to consider before your next hire. You need to ensure that everything on your end is in order before you even begin the interview process.
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1. DETERMINE THE RIGHT FIT In order to find the right person for your business, you need to make sure you know what type of person you are looking for. Define what type of pizza operation you run. Is it high-end, targeted at families, sophisticated or fun? Create a list of all the qualities you want in this person and keep a checklist of these qualities handy during the interview.
6 ways to hire the best staff be promoted to the position? Do they have any family or friends who would be qualified, and whom they could vouch for? The economic downturn has created a deep pool of experienced and welltrained workers who were recently laid off from struggling restaurant companies. Advertise your position in churches or colleges, as churches usually host networking functions, while colleges attract people who go back to school after being laid off. Another advantage of hiring recently laid-off workers is that they are able to start immediately. You can also advertise your position online. If you think this might be too difficult to manage in the way of filtering responses, you could also hire a staffing company to recruit and vet potential employees first.
2. WRITE A GOOD AD When you are ready to search for your new employee, it’s time to put together a job posting. Don’t just put a “Help Wanted” sign in your window. You need to include a list of all the qualities your potential employee should possess. You also need to be as specific as possible about the job description itself. Potential applicants should know what to expect from the getgo, thereby eliminating the time and effort spent interviewing unqualified applicants. You also want to attract the best workers, so writing a concise and detailed ad also speaks well of your own operation.
4. PREPARE FOR THE INTERVIEW Conducting a good interview requires learning and skill. As an owner or operator of a business, it might be worthwhile to take a course on interviewing tips. You should have a set of guidelines to follow for every interview you conduct, including questions about the applicant’s past experiences, and how he/she took initiatives and made a positive impact, as well as situational-based questions to evaluate the applicant’s ability to make decisions and handle stress. You should have at least 30 good questions. You also need to factor in your own intuition about the person, as well as his/her physical appearance and body language.
3. ADVERTISE YOUR AD There are several different ways to advertise your position, but the best way to start is by looking at the people around you. Is there anyone you currently employ that could
5. ASK FOR REFERENCES Asking for references is crucial to ensure that the person you want to hire is honest and a good fit for your company. Ask for references of not only former employers,
28 pizza NOVEMBER 2011
Conducting a good interview requires learning and skill.
but former colleagues as well. Find out if the potential applicant is a team player, is dependable and possesses a good attitude. 6. BE PREPARED FOR YOUR NEW EMPLOYEE’S ARRIVAL Your pizza operation should have some sort of training manual, as well as a list of goals and standards that you expect from all your employees to follow and respect. There must also be a formal document that lists all the duties of the job itself so there is no discrepancy as to what your new employee is responsible for. It is also handy for the new employee to take home the training manual and study it, so that he/she has a better understanding of your ÀiÃÌ>ÕÀ> Ì]Ê> `Ê ÃÊLiÌÌiÀÊ«Ài«>Ài`°ÊU Diane Chiasson, FCSI, president of Chiasson Consultants Inc., has been helping restaurant, foodservice, hospitality and retail operators increase sales for over 25 years. Her company provides innovative and revenue-increasing foodservice and retail merchandising programs, interior design, branding, menu engineering, marketing and promotional campaigns, and much more. Contact her at 416-926-1338, toll-free at 1-888-926-6655 or chiasson@chiassonconsultants.com, or visit www.chiassonconsultants.com.
feature
Divvying up pest prevention BY BILL MELVILLE
30 pizza NOVEMBER 2011
Photo credit: Orkin PCO Services
Y
our staff are the front line of your business in the foodservice industry. From customer interactions to food preparation and everything in-between, they are highly involved with protecting the reputation of your pizzeria. As the front line, your staff are not only responsible for ensuring a positive experience for your customers, but also for protecting your business from unwanted guests, namely, insects and rodents. Foodservice environments are naturally prone to pest pressures. Just as paying guests come to your facility to enjoy food, drinks and comfortable surroundings, so do pests. But unlike your patrons, pests don’t pay their bills and certainly don’t tip. In fact, they can be a major expense to your business. For example, rodents can cause property damage by gnawing through walls, or start an electrical fire by chewing through wires inside your facility. What’s more, pests are a health hazard and can result in health violations, illnesses and even litigation, not to mention negative word of mouth. While regular inspections help identify and treat existing pest problems, your staff should serve as the front line of defence against possible pest infestations before they occur. Before you engage your staff, you should lead by example. If you haven’t already, work with your pest management provider to establish an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program at your establishment. Instead of relying on reactive measures to control pests, which often utilize chemical treatments, IPM focuses on proactive measures to prevent pests. It relies on a combination of common-sense practices, is the most economical means of pest management and uses chemicals only as a last resort, making it the most responsible method for people, property and our environment. Once you have implemented an IPM program, education and training are essential first steps to engage your staff and help keep pests at bay. A reputable pest control provider can provide onsite IPM training to your staff, giving them the tools and knowledge they need to keep pests out. Your pest management professional should work with you to identify pest “hot spots” within your facility and can provide tips on making those areas less attractive to pests. Ask your provider to share additional resources on pest prevention with you and your staff, including information on seasonal pests. By managing the elements that draw specific pests to your restaurant, you can ultimately reduce pest presence. That’s the simplicity of an IPM program.
Utilize an organic cleaner made with naturally occurring bacteria and enzymes to help eliminate grease and grime in drains where pests breed and find food.
Keep dumpsters covered at all times and position them as far away from your building as possible to keep pests at a distance.
As the front line, your staff can take these steps to help keep pests out of your pizzeria. CLEANING IS KEY Don’t wait until closing to start your cleaning routine. Have your staff clean their work areas throughout the day to reduce
the amount of food or water sources that can attract pests. This will also reduce the amount of cleaning needed after a long day’s work. Be sure to wipe down tables and chairs after each guest. It is also important to clean up spills immediately, even if it is just water, as pests only need small amounts to survive. Organic cleaners made with naturally occurring bacteria and enzymes discourage pests by eliminating the grease and grime they feed on and breed in, especially in drains. Once the day ends, have staff mop floors with a focus on the kitchen area. Making small improvements to your cleaning routine and assigning specific duties to your staff can make a big difference. TAKE OUT THE TRASH Pests don’t see trash as garbage; they see a gourmet meal. Empty trash receptacles within your restaurant frequently, and, if necessary, create a waste-removal schedule for your staff. Make sure that the dumpsters are covered at all times, and placed as far away from your building as possible. Clean and rotate dumpsters regularly to eliminate pests or residue that might attract them. Although taking out the trash seems like an obvious step to help reduce the pest presence, it is easy to overlook this task during the day-to-day rush. Have employees dispose of trash during slow periods of the day to make sure you aren’t unwillingly inviting pests into your business.
STAY VIGILANT Your staff should be the eyes and ears of your facility. However, many pests tend to come out at night when your restaurant is quiet and they are free to roam, but that doesn’t mean they don’t leave signs of their presence. Potential evidence includes gnaw marks, droppings, exoskeletons, greasy run marks on floorboards or infested product. Ask staff to notify you immediately if they notice any of these signs so you can work with your pest control provider to take the necessary actions before the problem becomes more serious. Educating your staff is only half of the battle. You need to make sure your staff is engaged in the plan to keep your restaurant free of pests. You can help out by creating a written sanitation program for your pizzeria that includes daily, weekly and monthly benchmarks for your staff. By educating and engaging your employees, and by partnering with your pest control provider to implement an IPM program, you can increase monitoring and decrease pest activity. As the front line, an educated and engaged staff can help protect your relationship with your customers and your restaurant’s repuÌ>Ì ÊLÞÊ«ÀiÛi Ì }ÊÕ Ü> Ìi`Ê}ÕiÃÌðÊU Bill Melville is quality assurance director for Orkin PCO Services who has 35 years of experience in the industry and is an acknowledged leader in the field of pest management. For more information, e-mail him at bmelville@pcocanada.com or visit www.orkincanada.com.
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pizza on fire
The bust-up of Blockbuster Tom Stankiewicz ne of the bigger recent news stories of the fall is the closure of all Blockbuster stores in Canada. This development doesn’t come as a total surprise. We have been witnessing the slow decline of in-store movie rentals for a while. We live in a digital world where almost everything is now tied to the Internet. The convenience of renting movies online simply became the next best thing and there is no turning back. The closure of a video giant like Blockbuster will probably affect our pizza businesses in some ways. Bondi’s has a Blockbuster store for a neighbour and I am anxious to see how their demise will play out for my pizzeria. Gone will be the days of “let’s pick up a pizza and a movie.” It will sound more like: “Let’s have pizza delivered and search the Internet for a good movie.” There is nothing wrong with that as long as our phone lines (or online ordering systems, naturally) stay busy. Many pizzeria stores are in close proximity to a video rental store. I have always felt this gives customers a good excuse to pick up their pizza rather than have it delivered. A lot of the pick-up traffic is driven by the video store. It’s quite possible that my pick-up volume will decrease when the video store is no longer there. But that is not necessarily the case because there are many pizzerias out there that have a huge number of loyal customers and no connection to the video store at all. My guess is that we will need a few months to know exactly how this will affect the pizza sales. Those of us who thought that a video rental store formed the basis of our high pick-up volume will be able to determine if that was in fact the case. Many times we just assume that another operation’s location is closely correlated with our pizza sales. However, we
O
34 pizza NOVEMBER 2011
don’t know the true numbers until that business closes its doors. It’s true that a fair number of our customers would pick up their pizza order with a DVD in hand. But the opposite could be true as well. That is, that they would rent a movie because they ordered a pizza nearby. For those who worry about Blockbuster’s closure, I would say, wait a bit before you make decisions you might regret later. After all, people don’t eat pizza only when they rent a movie. For some of us, this could be a perfect opportunity to spend some time revamping our advertising campaigns. Do all of us use the Internet as a marketing tool? Are we reaching all of our potential clients if we don’t use the Internet? Whether we like it or not, the Internet is here to stay. It is up to us as business owners to decide how we can use it to our advantage. Some ideas that I have come across are sending monthly specials to your customers via e-mail and posting your specials and promotions on your website. Most customers are more than happy to receive a personalized e-mail about upcoming promotions because, in their eyes, it means that you value their business. It means that you took the time to make them feel like a special customer, and not just another pizza order on the line. It’s this kind of extra attention that will make them less likely to switch to a competitor. As pizzeria owners we need to concentrate on how to market and sell our product so our customers don’t walk away. I believe that if you provide great value for the money they pay, then they will keep
coming back for more. I’m sure all of us have clients who come from the other end of the city, simply because they love our pizza. They don’t care what other businesses are near you because they have a craving for your pizza. On a busy night, if you have to tell them that there is a minimum wait of 45 minutes for pickup and they happily answer, “OK,” then you know your pizza is one of the best out there. My advice to all pizzeria owners out there is not to fear the constant change, but to stay on top of it. You need to educate yourself about what’s working well for others and what business initiatives have failed. The Internet might not sound at first like a great fit for a pizzeria business, but in the end if that’s what makes your customers happy, then youw need to figure out a way to stay connected with them. It might be as simple as creating a website for your pizzeria store. One of the main advantages of the Internet is convenience and, for sure, more customers are demanding that ordering a pizza LiV iÊV Ûi i ÌÊÌ °ÊU Tom Stankiewicz has been in the pizza business for more than 15 years. He has been the proprietor of Bondi’s Pizza in London, Ont., since 2000 and is president of the Canadian Pizza Team.
Burke offers more than 1,200 ways to create your pizza with fully cooked meat toppings. And we’ll personally help you find just the right ones. Ask us for a sample. For Canada, Chase Global Foods www.BurkeCorp.com/CP or 800.263.1964
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