[
>>
never heard of. Banks wouldn’t lend me money. I had trouble trying to convince a landlord to lease me space for that first Subway. After getting past that obstacle, I had to get a food line set up. I met with a gentleman from Pearce, Young and Angel (PYA Monarch), a U.S. Foods distributor, and said, “If you help me get to where I can afford to make it in this business, I will stick with you.”
My Advice
ALI SAIFI, President/CEO, Subway Development Corporation of S.C. Owner, Pomegranate on Main TEST YOUR ENTREPRENEURIAL INTEREST. “Go out and work in the business you want to be in and find out what that environment is like.”
Did you come from a food background before Subway? Yes, but not in the way you mean. I worked in a restaurant in North Carolina with my in-laws and they lost a lot of money in it. And I told myself “I’ll never get in the restaurant business again.”
What changed your mind?
But Subway now has a non-sandwich item called a Flatizza that you invented. What is a Flatizza, and how the idea came about? A Flatizza is six inches by six inches in size, made fresh to order with the same ingredients we use in our sandwiches. The way it came about was that several years ago, I was conducting studies to analyze consumer habits, preferences, what they liked about Subway, and where we needed to improve. The results showed interest in a healthy, non-sandwich product. We used to sell a small, round pizza that didn’t fit in with our business model. I figured if I could
replace the pizza with an item made from scratch, like our sandwiches, it might be great. So I took the flat bread that we already used, and kept trying to prepare it different ways.
honeymoon period, but this one didn’t. It began as a steady seller, and continued to steadily build. Right now, Flatizzas make up about 5 percent of our sales.
Was this effort an example of what Edison called “99 percent perspiration”?
Did you intend the Flatizza just for S.C.?
Oh, yes. It took four years of experimenting and testing in our Greenville kitchens until we rolled out the first one on Augusta Road in 2011-12.
Were you ever tempted in those four years to stop and say, “Forget it”? Absolutely. But it was a passion, something I really wanted to do. So I persisted until I found a way that worked.
Has the effort paid off? Well, let me answer this way. Most new products have a
Originally, yes. But about a year after we introduced it, we started getting calls from other franchise owners asking us about it because they had customers requesting it. A couple of other markets tested the Flatizza and it did well – and then it went across all of the U.S. and Canada. I think it’s eventually going to go international.
How did the Flatizza get its name? At first, we called it Flat Bread Pizza. But we did a round of studies with consumers who had tried it and they kept asking why we called it pizza. So we asked them to help name it. At one point I had about 80 names that I narrowed down until finally settling on Flatizza.
Is the Flatizza your biggest business success so far? No. My biggest success is making this state into one of the most successful submarine sandwich markets
HAVE PASSION AND PATIENCE. “If you want to be an entrepreneur, do not plan on having any income for a number of years. Plan for a lot of sweat-equity before it works for you.”
]
It was the Subway setup. There were no burgers, deep fryers or temperamental chefs. It was just a place with bread and ingredients to make sandwiches.
GREG BECKNER/STAFF
Saifi with a map showing the more than 400 Subway restaurants in South Carolina.
STAY WITH BASICS. “Regardless of the changes that have happened in the last 20, 50 or 100 years, the fundamentals of business are always the same: hard work, producing something the consumer wants, and consistently delivering it.”
in the country. And it took me 10-15 years – until 1995 – before I began to see any success.
What’s the biggest gamechanger in the last 25 years in your line of business? I would say it’s how you reach customers. How they make decisions on where they’re going to eat has a lot to do with the new age of computers and mobile apps and if they can order by their cellphone and get it custom-ordered by their phone. [Consumers are] less patient, more in a hurry, they want a product faster, and they’re not willing to travel as far to get it.
What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned so far in business? Trying to figure out how to succeed. You have to have a goal and continue striving at it. You have to have the passion and personality to stay with your business. You have to keep repeating the process, and sometimes you have to throw it out and re-do it.
You have to have the passion and personality to stay with your business. July 11, 2014
UPSTATE BUSINESS JOURNAL
17