PZ - December 2013

The Muntains of TJ’s Pizza PM40065710 PM40065710

Winners of the Saputo Foodservice Pizza with Purpose award

Volume 19 Issue 7 December 2013

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12 Meet the Muntains

COVER: Tara, Lloyd, Daytona and Rachael Muntain of TJ’s Pizza in Melfort, Sask.

Photo by Rachel Enge.

Here’s a holiday story of inspiration from the winners of the Saputo Foodservice Pizza with Purpose award

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16 Fresh ideas FroM the

Canadian Pizza show The second annual Canadian Pizza Show brought the industry together in October for a day of idea exchange and vendor visits.

25 healing relationshiPs 12

Healing a broken relationship at work is perhaps harder than healing a broken leg, but it can be done.

27 Managing exPeCtations One business leader’s tips and tricks for managing the people in your business

DEPARTMENTS 6

editor’s desk

8

pizza bites

10

the pizza chef

14

marketing insights

22

guest column

24

making dough

26

the pizza dude

30

pizza on fire

30

www.canadianpizzamag.com DECEMBER 2013 pizza 3

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from the editor’s desk december, Vol. 19, no. 7

Getting into the spirit i

had a blast on Oct. 29. A lot of days are a hoot, but this one was a rarer type of fun. It is not often that I get to see so many members of the Canadian pizza industry gathered in one place to exchange ideas and hear the wonderful sound of a buzzing room.

It got me right into the Christmas spirit of camaraderie before Halloween had even passed.

Canadian Pizza magazine hosted the Canadian Pizza Show at the International Centre this year, and I would be remiss not to pause here and extend a heartfelt thanks to all those who helped make it a great day for the 106 attendees and 38 exhibitors. We appreciate the continued support of our sponsors: PizzaMaster distributed by Alfa Cappuccino (platinum), Stanislaus (gold), Saputo Foodservice (gold) and Santa Lucia (bronze). Thank you for being a big part of making the largest networking opportunity dedicated to pizzerias in Canada possible. Thank you to all our exhibitors!

Thank you also to Diana Coutu, Rocco Agostino and Dr. JoAnne Bennett Mirsky for their time and insights on the stage. It wouldn’t have been quite the same event without our special guest, Diana’s 10-month old son Sebastian, who undoubtedly charmed his way into many hearts that day.

And, thank you to all our attendees, to whom this event was dedicated. We hope you found value in the Canadian Pizza Show and look forward to seeing what the third year of this event’s

evolution may hold. As a business operator, it’s really important to find yourself amongst likeminded people for a day. Running a business can feel like working on a remote island. You may wonder whether what you are doing is really best practices, or perhaps just the best solution you could come up with at the time. It’s easy to get burned out or to hole up on that private beach with your head down and lose sight of larger things happening in the restaurant industry. Fighting day-to-day fires can make you wonder when the blazes you are going to get time to work on your business. These are all reasons we are excited to offer the pizza industry an opportunity to get together, share the Canadian perspective, and hopefully share a few laughs too!

This edition, we share the story of your fellow operators, the Muntain family of TJ’s Pizza in Melfort, Sask., who are this year’s Saputo Foodservice Pizza with Purpose award winners. The Muntains are an inspiration because of the way they genuinely bring their community together. They make it look effortless, but we suspect it is most definitely not so! We hope you enjoy reading about all the unique things they are up to in the Prairie province and find some ideas to take back to your own pizzeria.

As the holiday season draws near, I hope you find yourself refreshed, reflective and ready for 2014. Canadian Pizza magazine would like to wish you and yours a wonderfully merry season and offer a toast to a Happy New Year. •

editor Laura Aiken laiken@annexweb.com 416-522-1595 assistant editor Karly O’Brien kobrien@annexweb.com 905-713-4358 Publisher Christine Livingstone clivingstone@annexweb.com 519-429-5173 888-599-2228 ext. 239 sales assistant Jarah Stefek jstefek@annexweb.com 888-599-2228, ext. 219 Media designer Chris Springle 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: subscribe@canadianpizzamag.com Published seven times per year (Jan/Feb, Apr/May, Jun, Jul/Aug, Sept/Oct, Nov, Dec),

by Annex Publishing & Printing Inc. Printed in Canada ISSN 1203-6838 Circulation e-mail: subscribe@canadianpizzamag.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 $ 19.00 (+ applicable tax) Best pricing (Can/uSA/foreign) available online at www.canadianpizzamag.com 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. ©2013 Annex Publishing and Printing Inc. 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

@CdnPizzaMag

6 pizza DECEMBER 2013

Arrive Early for Pizza Expo 2014 And Take A Giant Step to Higher Profits Workshops: March 23-24, 2014 • Exhibit Hall: March 25-27, 2014 Las Vegas Convention Center

Choose Among 8 Advance-Track Workshops That Will Arm You With The Tools and Skills to: • Grab Control of Your Finances • Increase Overall Efficiency • Grow Into a Market Leader • Hire and Train the Ideal Staff • Reduce Your Days and Hours on the Job

For details visit www.pizzaexpo.com/schoolofpizzeriamanagement.cfm

pizzabites Non-soya vegan cheese iotros is offering a dairy, lactose, soya, palm oil and gluten-free cheese product called Violife for Pizza. Made up of vegetable oils, this vegan cheese product has 99.42 per cent less cholesterol than traditional cheese, reports the company. The product is registered by the Vegan Society.

According to company literature, this product melts and stretches like dairy cheese, and should be cooked at 570 F to 660 F to achieve the best results. Violife for Pizza cheese is available in 2.5 kg blocks. www.viotros.gr

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What are Canadians’ favourite toppings? recent survey by Pizza Pizza found that women love cheese on their pizza while men get most excited about meat toppings.

Fifty-three per cent of women named cheese as their favourite topping on a pizza, while 51 per cent of men listed pepperoni as their preferred pizza topping.

Pizza Pizza and Pizza 73’s annual Canadian Pizza Month survey also found that the two sexes agree on a few things when it comes to their pizza. Both prefer ordering by phone (57 per cent of men/61 per cent of women) and both like their crust thin (46 percent of men/56 per cent of women). As well, both sexes indulge in pizza leftovers, with 41 per cent eating it cold and 30 per cent having it for breakfast every now and then.

The survey also suggested that chicken wings are what Canadians prefer to pair with their pizza. Thirty-four per cent of

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8 pizza DECEMBER 2013

Ontarians go for dipping sauce and 53 per cent of Quebecers order French fries.

Western Canadians particularly like their bread sticks and 24 per cent of Albertans add them to their orders.

Only six per cent of Quebec residents will go for dipping sauce with their slice and 73 per cent say they have never eaten it for breakfast. They’re also the least likely in Canada to order a Hawaiian pizza, with six per cent going for pineapple and seven per cent going for ham on their pizza.

Pizza lovers in the Prairie provinces are most likely to indulge in a cold pizza; 62 per cent to be exact. Of all provinces, those in Atlantic Canada enjoy ground beef on their pizza the most. Thirty-three per cent listed it as their favourite topping.

Forty-nine per cent of Ontarians order quick-serve pizza at least once a month, the highest percentage in Canada.

pizzabites

Survey finds institutions buying into local foods new report suggests that activity dedicated to and change bring to bringing to bring healthy, local and sustainable foods into public agencies is gearing up in almost every province and territory.

The study, titled Local Foods: Canadian schools, campuses, and health care facilities speak up, is a Canada-wide survey. In all, 239 food and nutrition specialists working within schools, campuses and healthcare facilities, answered questions about efforts to bring local food into their institutions. The responses show that a significant number of public agencies in Canada are working along multiple fronts to put more local foods on patient and student plates.

“I was surprised to discover that institutional food system transformation is occurring in urban, rural and remote communities right across the country,” said Joanne Bays, national manager of Farm to Cafeteria Canada, in a news release. “Greenhouses, gardens and farms are sprouting up in schoolyards and on campus and hospital grounds.”

The survey also indicated that there is significant variation in the type of activity undertaken by public agencies. The schools and campuses represented in the survey are more likely to provide local food than their health-care counterparts (76 per cent and 92 per cent, respectively, versus 66 per cent for health-care facilities).

The survey says that a key motivational factor is “improved quality, freshness, taste or nutrition of the food.” The top barriers for largerscale operations are “lack of policies that address local food” and “existing contracts that prevent use of local food.”

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Canadians love going cashless anada is leading the way towards cashless societies, to says a new report from MasterCard.

MasterCard’s report, The Cashless Journey, identified Canada as one of the countries closest to being nearly cashless, along with Belgium and France. This places Canada among the most advanced countries in the world for cashless payments.

Much of this can be attributed to early adoption of payment innovations like PayPass Tap & Go technology, EMV Chip migration, a modern payments infrastructure, and the rapid emergence in Canada of NFC payment ready terminals. The report tracked how 33 major economies are progressing from cash-based to cashless societies, and identified new technologies, government programs and consumer preferences as key factors that are driving this shift.

Of the $63 trillion that consumers spent globally in 2011, $21 trillion was spent in cash while cashless payments accounted for $42 trillion. Countries, including the U.S. (where an estimated 80 per cent of what consumers’ spent was cashless) and Singapore (69 per cent), are considered to be approaching a “tipping point” to becoming nearly cashless by the credit card company.

Emerging economies such as India (32 per cent), Russia (31 per cent) and Nigeria (10 per cent), are just emerging in the cashless segment. In many cases, they are shifting cash share at a faster pace than their more developed peers thanks to factors such as a growing middle class.

However, in countries such as Germany (where an estimated 76 per cent of the value of consumer spend was cashless), Japan (62 per cent), Spain (54 per cent) and Taiwan (43 per cent), cultural behaviour appears to be keeping cash usage higher than market conditions would suggest.

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For expanded industry news and daily updates, visit www.canadianpizzamag.com

DECEMBER 2013 pizza 9

the pizza chef

Diana Coutu

ow do you get your staff to do a better job and to care about the job they’re doing? This is a common question discussed among pizzeria owners. It all begins with your training program. Your staff should see themselves as ambassadors of your brand.

Maybe you think of your pizzeria less like a brand and more like the “neighbourhood pizza place.” However, it is a brand and your employees represent its image in store, on the road and at the customer’s door. As the owner, you need to give your staff every reason and opportunity to see themselves as ambassadors of your pizzeria. These days, it’s not enough just to tell them they are (although I’m a big believer that repetition is important). You need to convince them that even though it may only be a part-time job for them, it’s much more than that, and the livelihood of the company depends on them.

Your employees need to become invested in the story of your brand. Tell, don’t sell, the story of how you opened the business. What made you decide to open a pizzeria instead of a clothing shop? Or a burger place? What drives your passion for the business? What makes your pizzeria unique over the other pizza places in the neighbourhood? Most succinctly, what is your pizzeria’s reason to exist? Until you can define what makes you stand apart from other pizza places, it will be difficult to convince your staff that they are important to your operation.

What kind of skills can your staff learn while they work with you that will carry them everywhere later in life? There are things like sales, communication, dealing with the public, managing complaints, dealing with co-workers, handling money, training other staff members and

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10 pizza DECEMBER 2013

Training your ambassadors Here are my tips for helping your staff become better representatives of your brand delegating. These skills are too often overlooked as essential fundamentals for every successful human being at every stage of life. Let your staff know that their time invested with you will serve them well down the road.

Here are some policies that I share with my staff to help train them to become the best ambassadors of my brand: • Lead by example. If it’s important to your brand that your staff look their best, wear a clean uniform and show up on time, then you should do these things as well.

• SMILE and be friendly.

• Treat everyone with the utmost respect and courtesy.

• Leave your personal problems and baggage at the door. Everyone has challenges, but your pizzeria shouldn’t be a place to vent. When you identify a staff member who always has a negative story to tell, pull them aside and ask them to save that story for a coffee date with a friend.

• Engage the customer in polite conversation. For example, let the customer know what a nice house he or she has or what a cute dog, or make small talk about the weather. These are good ways to build relationships with the pizzeria’s customers.

• Delivery specialists need to drive safely and courteously.

• Drivers should always have a map or GPS in their car and know the route before they leave the store.

Be diligent about order accuracy. Ensure the order is complete, whether in store or for a delivery. In store, ambassadors should remind customers to take their drinks before they leave the store. It is your responsi-

Let your staff know that the skills they will learn with you, such as managing complaints and communication, will help them with any job they have in their life.

bility to ensure the customer gets everything they asked for all at once, whether at the door or before they leave the store.

On a very important note, emphasize to your staff that they watch their language.

Your pizzeria is not the place for locker room chatter. A good rule of thumb is “if you wouldn’t say it standing next to your grandmother, you shouldn’t say it here.” • 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 was a director on the CRFA board from 2009-2013. In addition to creating awardwinning recipes, Diana is 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.

feature

Meet the Muntains Here’s a holiday story from the winners of this year’s Saputo Foodservice Pizza with Purpose award

I

t is rare that we get the incidental opportunity to share a Christmas story with you so fittingly in our December edition, but this year the Muntain family has given us one that could warm even the most bah-humbug of hearts.

The sound of jingle bells starts in Melfort, Sask., a community of around 6,000 people that is nicknamed the “City of Northern Lights” for how frequently the aurora borealis can be seen in its sky. It’s a neighbourly place, one where “you walk down the street and you don’t pass two people without saying ‘hello’, or ‘hey, how’s your Mum,’ ” described Tara Muntain, matriarch of the local family-run TJ’s Pizza franchise. The Port Hope, Ont., native said she loves this about her adopted hometown.

Tara and her husband Lloyd haven’t always been Melfort’s prized pizza family. Prior to buying a TJ’s Pizza franchise in 2009, Tara was a restaurant manager and Lloyd drove a truck. Before that, and long before they built a reputation as a business the community could count on, the Muntains were a local couple with a very sick little girl, and in need of Melfort’s help.

Their eldest child, Daytona, was 18 months old when younger sibling Rachael came into the world. When Rachael was just hours old, she was airlifted from Melfort

12 pizza DECEMBER 2013

hospital to the Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon. Doctors discovered that Rachael had transposition of the great arteries, a rare but serious congenital heart defect that required open-heart surgery. As soon as the baby was helicoptered away, the Muntains got in their car and headed for Saskatoon.

“It’s about a two-hour drive and I don’t think we breathed the whole way there,” recalled Tara, the stress of the event still present in her voice. “We were in Saskatoon for six weeks.”

Tara’s mother was able to help with the care of Daytona, but in the meantime the Muntains were not working because they were at the hospital full time. Household bills and the costs of staying in Saskatoon were far from top of mind, but still a stark reality. When a few of their friends who owned businesses did something as simple as put a jar on the their counters with a note describing the family’s situation, the community responded with donations. One good friend who was part of the Melfort Kinsmen submitted an application to the TeleMiracle Kinsmen Foundation, which is an organization that strives to serve the greatest needs of residents in Saskatchewan communities. TeleMiracle answered the call for help, and ended up covering the cost of the Muntains’ stay at Ronald McDonald

Photos by Rachel Enge

BY LAurA AIKeN

Daytona, Lloyd, Tara and Rachael Muntain inside their TJ’s Pizza franchise in Melfort, Sask.

House and providing assistance with daily meals.

“TeleMiracle is near and dear to our hearts and it’s one of the reasons I’m a Kinette now, and have been for several years,” said Tara. “It’s nice to be able to give back to that.”

TJ’s Pizza was a major sponsor of the Kinette/Kinsmen TeleMiracle Cabaret held last January that raised over $16,000. The family donated a portion of their February sales to TeleMiracle and for the first time were able to rally the other TJ’s franchisees to do so as well, resulting in a $6,000 donation from the whole franchise.

The pizzeria held its second annual pizza-eating contest this year, which raised over $1,700 in 25 minutes for TeleMiracle.

The first competition was inspired by a hot dog-eating contest Tara and Lloyd had seen. They surfed the web to find rules and regulations, added some of their own, and hit the town looking for businesses willing to sponsor an employee. The couple were crossing their fingers, since the idea was a first for Melfort and their timing was January, when the post-Christmas wallets tend to snap shut. As it turned out, the worry was for naught, as the community response was great enough that at least one business ran an internal competition to see who among its employees would be sponsored for the event. The first winner was a very slender accountant who “totally blew the other guys out of the water,” said Tara.

“It was so much fun! I don’t think I’ve laughed so hard in my life.”

The Melfort legion donated its hall to this year’s event, which brought out cheering spectators and added competitors from places as diverse as the RCMP and the local high school. “It’s just a community minded thing,” said Tara. “It was really cool; the cat’s meow.”

Perhaps the Muntains needn’t have worried about getting support for their pizzaeating contest after Christmas, considering they were such an integral part of bringing the community’s first Christmas play to life (I bet you were wondering when I was going to get to the Christmas story).

Tara and two friends from the congregation at her small church started batting around the idea of approaching the other small

churches in Melfort to join together in putting on a nativity Christmas program.

To get everyone on board, the play needed to be interdenominational (not belonging to any one particular church), said Tara.

In the first year (this will be the third), the organizers found a play and divided it into eight different parts that the various groups could take away and practice. A full dress rehearsal was organized the day before and each group was responsible for its own props. Tara was one of four people on the organizing committee who went around visiting participants to make sure everyone was learning their lines and going to be ready for show time.

“I had no idea that it would be as good as it was!” exclaimed Tara. “It was phenomenal.”

The play, held on a Sunday afternoon, filled a nearly 400-seat drama theatre and then some, so there was “less than standing room only,” she said. The second year drew an even bigger crowd and organizations beyond the churches. It also brought some creative talent out of the woodwork that Tara said she is particularly excited about. Just after last year’s play, a local playwright came to the organizers in June and said she was inspired to write an original story for them to use, done in the sectional style needed for the various groups. On top of now having an original community written play in hand, the production has five songs after another resident stepped in and offered to write music. The introduction of an original score prompted the need to start a community choir that also bridged the social gaps between churches and nonreligious individuals and schools. The proceeds from the $3 per ticket sales go the Salvation Army’s Christmas food program.

This year the committee decided to do two performances (and stop breaking fire codes, Tara joked). There will even be a brass band playing outside as patrons come in.

While the Christmas play is what had Tara animated during our interview, it’s just one cause among many the Muntains support year round and what makes them such deserving winners of this year’s Saputo Foodservice Pizza with Purpose award. In Continued on page 23

DECEMBER 2013 pizza 13

marketing insights

By Michelle Brisebois

I

n the film Moneyball, statistical analysis of the Oakland Athletics’ baseball team performance suggested that onbase and slugging percentages were better indicators of offensive success than other traditional indicators such as speed and contact. It’s a fabulous examination of the power contained in data.

In Moneyball, leveraging the data properly allowed the Oakland team to make the playoffs in the 2002 and 2003 seasons even though their budgets didn’t allow them to attract the athletic talent wealthier teams were able to. Sound familiar? Do you feel like a small, frugal team competing against bigger, richer competitors in the big leagues? Your path to victory most likely also lies in knowing the numbers that link to any given business problem.

There are two ways to increase your revenue: serve more people and/or serve your current clientele more. Restaurants live and die by their average cheque, so it’s important you examine the dollar value and what makes up that figure. Are there areas that seem to be underdeveloped?

Food sales may be healthy but perhaps you could sell more wine? Look at each of your servers as a general manager would a baseball team. Is somebody lagging with certain segments? If a server has a strong average cheque but is not selling as much alcohol as other servers, just increasing his or her average cheque by $1.50 could have a very positive effect on revenue over time.

Think of how many customers this team member serves in a year. Now multiply that by your whole team and you can see the impact.

CAPACiTy Is your ability to serve more people constrained by how quickly you can turn

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Know your customers Manage your database to learn how to get your customers to spend more tables or get deliveries to customers during peak times? In a perfect world, your customer counts would be the same at five o’clock as they are at seven. We know that doesn’t happen, but a little data analysis may allow you to coax a few into a more desirable time period. First you need to profile (yes, just like the FBI) those people who do come during slower time periods.

Have those customers fill out ballots to win a free month of pizza. Ask a few questions such as gender, postal code and age range.

Ask them to fill in the blank to answer the question: “Why do you like to order at this time of day?” You may learn that parents of kids who play sports within one kilometre of your business have a propensity to grab dinner before they run out to the field or arena. With this knowledge, deciding whether or not to sponsor a little league team next year may be an easier process.

MENu DEVELOPMENT If you see shifts in customer ordering patterns, it could indicate a trend that suggests an unmet need. If you notice that patrons are ordering several appetizers instead of an entrée, it could hint that customers desire a wider selection of menu items. A four or five course tasting menu would allow your fans to try smaller portions of a wider selection of the menu.

Pair wines or beers with each course and see the cheque averages soar. It would be easy to assume this behaviour is motivated by a desire on the part of the customer to spend less, but if you’re wrong you’ll just end up lowering your prices and eroding your margin. Have your servers probe a bit to see if guests will tell you why they’re ordering several appetizers or add a question to your comment card or ballot. The data will lead you down the

right path as long as you understand what the consumer behaviour is driving.

PROSPECTiNg All businesses strive to attract new customers. The most effective way to accomplish this, generally, is to profile those customers who are your most devoted and then go out and find more like them. If you have a database of delivery information, then you have addresses and postal codes.

You may notice that certain “postal walks” have a higher propensity to buy from you regularly. A wise use of this information would be to invest in a direct mail piece that you could target towards thousands of houses in those areas represented by your best customers. Birds of a feather tend to flock together, so your chances of resonating with neighbours of your most devoted brand advocates are greater when you target carefully rather than spend more money to blanket the whole city with an advertisement.

Above all, dedicate time and effort towards collecting and organizing your data. Your point-of-sale system likely has some kind of business intelligence reporting tool, and if you contact the companies who created or distributed the software, they can help you figure out how to pull reports. File your reports according to their appropriate themes – time of day, average cheque, postal code, age, etc. Monitor the changes in customer behaviour over time to identify trends as they develop. Learn how to coax the real story from the data you collect. If you are able to read the signs correctly, you’ll be able to fiscally knock it out of the park. • Michelle Brisebois is a marketing professional with experience in the food, pharmaceutical and financial services industries. She specializes in brand strategies.

feature

Fresh ideas from the Canadian Pizza Show

BY KArLY O’BrIeN

T

he second-annual Canadian Pizza Show brought the industry together by welcoming more than 100 attendees and 38 exhibitors on Oct. 29.

The one-day event, which was held at the International Centre and brought to the industry by Canadian Pizza magazine, started at 9:30 a.m. featured a mix of exhibitors and educational seminars with a focus on gluten-free, a hot topic this year.

The Canadian Pizza Show’s lineup of speakers included Diana Coutu of Diana’s Gourmet Pizzeria, gluten-free consultant Dr. JoAnne Bennett Mirsky and Pizzeria Libretto’s Rocco Agostino. This year’s event was sponsored

by PizzaMaster distributed by Alfa Cappuccino (platinum); Stanislaus

(gold), Saputo Foodservice (gold); and Santa Lucia of Canada (bronze). XLT Ovens sponsored the lunch buffet.

This year’s draw prize winner was Mandy Donn, who won a copy of Diana Coutu’s book, Passionate about Pizza.

The show welcomed members and two certified chefs of Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (True Neapolitan Pizza Association), who flew in from Italy.

“I’m very happy to be here and to demonstrate how to create true Neapolitan pizza,” said Paolo Spadaro of Le 5 Stagioni.

TOP TAkEAwAy TiPS Here are some takeaway tips from the speakers at this year’s Canadian Pizza

Show. Speakers shared how to maintain a high-quality product, get more mileage out of your marketing dollar and introduce gluten-free items to your operation.

FuLL OF FLAVOuR: ROCCO AgOSTiNO, PizzERiA LibRETTO Simple flavours: Agostino advised the audience to be calculated with seasoning to avoid overwhelming the dish with too much of one spice because you end up tasting only one flavour instead of a variety. He said one of his favourite ways to season pizza is simply with sea salt.

Quality control: He said he taste tests his pizza on a daily basis to see how it is reacting in the oven. If temperature, ingredients or thickness of

The show floor is bustling with delegates going from booth to booth and taking in the educational speakers.

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PLatinum

GOLD

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Thank you To our sponsors contact Chris Livingstone at clivingstone@annexweb.com for more details

brOnze

feature the dough changes, your pizza can be either negatively or positively affected. When it comes down to it, if you don’t find out what’s wrong with your pizza, your customers will always let you know.

Partner up : Agostino is a big fan of the pork sandwich at Porchetta & Co. He decided to partner up with the company and offer a pizza that uses the restaurant’s porchetta. The pizza ended up winning this year’s Canadian Pizza magazine Chef of the Year contest. In the end, he said he believes the partnership of the two restaurants sharing a neighbourhood, both of which have strong presence, helped drive sales of the pizza.

From left to right, Roberto Di Massa and Paolo Spadaro of italy’s Le 5 Stagioni spare a moment for the camera while preparing for a demonstration of authentic Napoletana pizza making.

MASTERiNg MARkETiNg: DiANA COuTu, DiANA’S gOuRMET PizzERiA Everybody is not your customer: Who is your prime target audience? Don’t say “everyone.” If you haven’t already, you need to define who your target audience is, said Coutu. As Coutu puts it in her presentation: Is it the guy who calls at 2 a.m. and is probably more concerned with price, or is it the executive who is ordering for his family and cares more about quality? Once you have that figured out, create the menu to cater to their taste and price point.

Romance your menu: Make your ingredients sound unique, tasty and descriptive. Is your cheese just cheese or is it 100 per cent mozzarella cheese? Is your pepperoni just pepperoni or is it thick-slice seasoned pepperoni?

Show customers the value of your product and explain why patrons should choose you for quality versus a lower cost elsewhere, said Coutu. Educate visitors on why you choose specific products, how the product is grown and where it comes from. Romance your menu to get a customer’s mouth watering.

Money-back guarantee: Do you refund money to patrons who are disappointed in the quality and taste of the pizza you serve? Coutu said she has found success in offering a money-back guarantee to her customers. “Announcing it to the public is like getting brownie points for breathing.”

Claim your place online: If you’re still using the YellowPages, it is probably a good idea to stop, she said. Not only is it pricey for operators to advertise in, but also many people don’t pick it up anymore, she added. If a potential customer is looking for your business, he or she is most likely searching online for your business name or service. If you search your own business name, there will be a Google Places listing that will show up. “Claim the business as your own and link your website, Twitter and Facebook to it.”

MAkiNg A gLuTEN-FREE CRuST FROM SCRATCh: COuTu’S TiPS Keep it thin: When creating in-house gluten-free dough, make sure to focus on thin-crust pizza because dough without gluten is heavier and filling. While Coutu was researching and developing a recipe, she had various friends and family test the trial batches. “People were telling me that

18 pizza DECEMBER 2013

Contact your local repesentative to arrange a demonstration British Columbia Castle Agencies North Vancouver, BC, Canada Tel/Cell: (604) 904-7681 Contact: David Terretta Email: king@castleagencies.ca

Alberta MAC Sales & Marketing Calgary, AB, Canada Phone: 403-281-8540 Contact: Steve MacKell Email: mackell@telusplanet.net

Manitoba/Saskatchewan Dennis Braun Agencies Winnipeg, MB Canada Tel: 204-663-8077 Cell: 204-229-4613 Email: denbraun@mts.net

Ontario Distex M.&M. Inc. Mississauga, Ont Tel: 905 565-5990 Toll Free: 1 888 645-7324 Email:info@distex.ca

www.wowoven.com

Quebec Distex M.&M. Inc. St-Laurent (Quebec) Tel.: (514) 382-3620 Toll free : 1-800-567-3620 Web: www.distex.ca

Atlantic Provinces/Maritimes Flanagan Agencies Inc Moncton, New Brunswick Tel: (506) 387-8757 Contact Mike Flanagan Email: mike@fai.ca

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the dough was just too much for them to eat – they just couldn’t finish off the pizza. That was one mistake I made in the beginning.”

She uses xanthan gum: Xanthan gum is a great binding agent that is easily digestible, even for customers who have

sensitive stomachs, she shared. “When I was talking to people who have celiac disease, I found that some secondary issues were eggs and soy,” said Coutu.

“Xanthan gum is better than guar gum because it is more digestible for people with any sensitivities.”

Editor Laura Aiken sits next to Rocco Agostino of Pizzeria Libretto in a Q&A presentation on how to make fresh a success.

Owner and operator of S.P. Sales, Stephen Phippen, and sales representative for Somerset, Chaz Phippen, share their product knowledge with an attendee.

20 pizza DECEMBER 2013

ADDiNg gLuTEN-FREE TO yOuR MENu: DR. JOANNE bENNETT MiRSky Do it right: Mirsky emphasized that operators should avoid adding glutenfree products to the menu without doing plenty of research on safety and cross-contamination prevention. “The gluten-free crowd is a chatty bunch. If they don’t think you’re doing it right, if you can’t guarantee that the glutenfree made product is still gluten-free when served, or if it tastes bad then you’ve lost them.”

Use separate equipment: By using separate equipment, plates and utensils you are ensuring that it will never be used on products containing gluten.

“Make it a different colour to have it stand out from the other equipment.”

Mirsky added that some restaurants will use different sized plates to identify what is used for gluten-free items.

Freeze it: Both Coutu and Mirsky said frozen gluten-free dough tastes significantly better. “We always freeze our dough before we serve it to our customers because the taste is enhanced when it comes out of the freezer,” says Coutu.

She added that it needs to be placed in the freezer quickly otherwise the yeast will die and it will not rise when it is defrosted.

Be in the know: Mirsky said that if a pizzaiolo decides to offer gluten-free options, he or she should educate all staff members about how the food is prepared, what the ingredients are and what is done to prevent cross contamination. “People with celiac are going to ask a lot of questions about the food before they eat it, which makes sense because they don’t want to get sick.”

PRODuCT buzz From top sellers to new products, exhibitors brought plenty of items to learn about. Here’s some of what attendees found on the show floor.

Toronto-based Flax Energy was showcasing its omega-3 flax flour.

The flax seeds are grown in Canada and then turned into three different non-genetically modified products:

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flax flour, animal feed and biodiesel.

The company was founded in 2008 by 29-year-old Jon Dwyer. He is the brainchild of flax fuel, which is used to power Toronto’s transit buses.

Dough company Mimi Foods released three new products: Focaccia Napoletana (tomato and herbs) as well as specialty items Panouzzo Mini and Panouzzo Long Foldover.

The foldover is 18 by 5 inches with a case count of 14. The mini is 4 by 6 inches with a case count of 64 and the napoletana is 12 by 9 inches with a case count of 16. These products are made using purified water and natural ingredients with HACCP- and BRCcertifications.

Horizon Milling showcased its Robin Hood Italian Style Flour as an alternative to 00 flour. This product features a high mixing tolerance and water absorption. It is also designed to perform well in either thick

or thin crust pizzas with no treatments and additives.

The dough can be used for a variety of pizza crusts, Italian flat breads and European-style hearth and pan breads.

Whole and strip pickles are two new products that were showcased by Dacon International. These two products come in pouches instead of jars.

Ubbelea tabled its sautéed mushrooms in a pouch. Produced in a certified SQF plant, this product can be used for for pizza, poutine, stir fry, omelettes and burgers. The mushrooms have a shelf life of up to one year and are locally grown and kosher.

The Thornloe Cheese Factory offered samples of its Devil’s Rock Creamy Blue Cheese. Made from 100 per cent Canadian milk, this product has a shelf life of six months. Thornloe’s is a more mellow blue cheese that can work well in soups, salads, sauce and pastas.

T

Family-owned Fontanini Italian Meats introduced its “Mamma Ranne” Gourmet Italian Meatballs, which are made with beef, pork and Romano and Ricotta cheese. The product is oven roasted.

Expresco Foods introduced its new fully cooked Halal Chicken Breast Strips. These fire-grilled strips carry the ISNA Halal certification. The Montreal-based company also unveiled its new Chicken Wings. These rotisserie-style wings are fully cooked and fire grilled. Individual packages contain 1014 wings.

Canadian Pizza magazine would like to thank all of the attendees, sponsors and exhibitors for supporting the second annual Canadian Pizza Show. The third edition of the Canadian Pizza Show will be held in October of 2014. •

For more on what’s hot, visit www.canadianpizzamag.com

he taste of

Tradition

Manufacturers and Distributors of Italian Specialty Cheeses and Food Products

T. 905.544.6281 F. 905.549.1196 20 Morley Street, Hamilton, Ontario, L8H 3R7

DECEMBER 2013 pizza 21

guest column

How to keep pests out

By Alice Sinia, PhD

ny way you slice it, pests are an unwanted topping in the foodservice industry. Unfortunately, the bountiful food, water and shelter available in restaurants and other food facilities provide an ideal environment for pests like flies and rodents.

Your team of staff is the front line of defence against pests and should be trained to protect your business from these unwelcomed customers. Few experiences will cause a restaurant to lose a customer faster than the presence of pests. Aside from insinuating filth, pests can transmit diseases, cause illness and result in health violations and possible litigation.

Recognizing pest problems early on and being proactive is crucial to maintaining a clean, safe and pest-free atmosphere.

Staff can help prevent pest infestations by learning how to recognize signs of pest activity and how to keep them from getting into and contaminating your facility.

Certain pests can be stealthy, but knowing what to look for will give your employees a better chance of catching them early on. Cracks, crevices, and holes in the baseboards and walls of your facility are a few signs. Crumbs and spills left on surfaces are an open invitation to pests.

Many bugs prefer to make their appearance at night when your facility is quiet; regardless, they often leave behind signs of their presence, including droppings, frass body fragments, trails, gnaw marks and greasy rub marks on floorboards. Staff should be trained to look for these signs and to notify management if they come across them or if they see any of the below pests common to the foodservice industry.

a

22 pizza DECEMBER 2013

Train your staff to recognize the signs of pests

Flies plague every part of the world tation and facility maintenance. Taking except the polar ice caps. They have the small steps to increase sanitation, such potential to leave behind bacteria every as cleaning up spills immediately and time they land and transmit more than keeping trash where it belongs, goes a 100 pathogens, including e. coli, sal- long way in pest prevention. Create a monella, staphylococcus and shingles. sanitation plan if you don’t already have For every fly seen, there are an estimat- one and assign roles to staff so everyed 19 more hidden one knows what they’re from view. responsible for. Inspect Rodents’ instincts your facility regularly aside from make them difficult for potential pest entry insinuating filth, to control. Rodents points and exterior attraccan transmit more tions such as overgrown pests can transmit than 35 diseases and lawns or flowerbeds. diseases, cause carry salmonella bacClose entry points found teria in their intestinal and maintain a well-manillness and result tracts. Bacteria passed aged landscape. As part of in health violations an IPM approach, a pest in their droppings or body fluids can conmanagement professional and possible taminate food. will also come to your litigation.

Cockroaches are business to educate and nocturnal, so if you’ve train your staff on how seen one, you probto keep pests out of your ably haven’t seen them all. They pick hair and off of your dough. up micro-organisms from contaminated You are in the business of serving environments and spread them to people, not pests: implementing an other areas. The pathogens they trans- IPM approach and training your staff to mit can cause food poisoning, diarrhea identify and communicate potential pest wand dysentery. problems as soon as they are spotted will In an industry that’s appetizing to pests ensure it stays that way. • and people, preventing pest problems rather than reacting to them saves time Alice Sinia, PhD is the quality assurance manager of regulatory and lab services for Orkin Canada. Sinia and money, and protects your brand. focuses on government regulations pertaining to the pest Implementing an integrated pest man- control industry. With more than 10 years of experience, agement (IPM) approach is the most eco- she performs analytical entomology as well as provides technical support in pest/insect identification to branch nomical way to protect your facility from offices and clients. For more information, e-mail Sinia at pests. This process uses only chemical asinia@orkincanada.com or visit www.orkincanada.com. treatments to handle pest problems as a last resort, which is better for your comFor more on the prep table, visit pany, customers and the environment. www.canadianpizzamag.com An IPM program focuses on proactive measures to prevent pests, such as sani-

feature Continued from page 13 fact, as Tara let Canadian Pizza know in her entry, it was another TJ’s franchisee in Moose Jaw that called her up and encouraged her to enter the Pizza with Purpose contest. The Muntains’ corporate goal is to give between one and two per cent gross sales back to their city, but it is hard to put a price on the time they lavish on their community.

Sports are often a big part of the food industry’s charitable efforts, and in this regard TJ’s Pizza is no exception. The Muntains have assisted the local Saskatchewan junior hockey league team and sponsored a young and talented individual in pre-teen Zac Somers.

The Melfort indoor/outdoor soccer league, dance club, MUCC football team, the Star City Archers, softball team and Marlins swim meet have all been recipients of their help. They also host men’s and women’s golf league evenings and a junior golf weekend.

Schools are touched by their gen-

erosity when the Muntains assist with food for Grad Night and help with fundraisers through events like PJ/TJ day, where kids come to school in their PJs and get TJ’s for lunch.

Numerous Melfort causes and associations are better off for the time and effort given by the Muntain family, who help with volunteer hours and monetary donations/advertising for the “Walk a Mile In Her Shoes” campaign for the North East Outreach Group.

TJ’s is a gold sponsor of the Melfort Multi-K Run. This year, TJ’s received a call from the Melfort Cancer Society, which was in need of someone to organize the food needed for its Relay for Life event.

This responsibility, which Tara took on, went beyond food provided by TJ’s to include organizing all the beverages, food, food booths, free barbecues, public booths and supervision of it all.

The event raised more than $140,000 for the Canadian Cancer Society.

The Muntains have helped the

North East SPCA with both time and money. At press time, the pizzeria had paws on a thermometer painted on its window to raise awareness of the money needed for an animal shelter.

Tara and Lloyd’s daughters, now 18 and 16 years old, are active in the pizzeria and the community, as are the 18 staff that the Muntains encourage to volunteer, even covering a small part of paid hours for employees who have helped out. It seems as though in a small community of 6,000 there are probably few who have been left untouched by the Muntains, who plan to use their $2,500 prize from Saputo towards a worthy cause. “We’re working every day, we’re doing our best every day, and when you see other people doing the same thing and maybe they need a little hand and we can do that, then absolutely we’ll help.” • For more profiles on pizzerias, read our past editions on www.canadianpizzamag.com

pizzabites

Pizza Pizza helping to deliver anti-bullying message izza Pizza has partnered with relationship and parenting expert Dr. Karyn Gordon to talk about bullying in Ontario schools.

“Kids are our future and we support many children’s and community initiatives across the country,” said Pat Finelli, chief marketing officer and vicepresident of marketing at Pizza Pizza, in a press release. “We are dedicated to helping children and teens in Canada develop healthy relationships and tackle the issue of bullying.”

Gordon delivered a presentation to six elementary schools. The speaking tour began on Nov. 19 with the first in-school presentation at Bogart Public School in Newmarket. There is also a dedicated

P

site, www.pizzapizza.ca/antibullying, which allows Canadian students to share their healthy friendship stories and be rewarded with pizza.

The interactive talk touched on various topics, including the three traits of a healthy friendship, how teasing is different than bullying (and how kids should respond differently), effective ways for kids to deal with conflict and differences among friends, and the importance of empathy in friendships and dealing with bullying. Students will also receive motivational coaching with advice on how to handle difficult situations.

“Bullying has become a prominent issue not just in Canada, but around

the world,” said Gordon.

The tour continued on to the five more public schools public schools, touching down in Markham, Scarborough, Toronto, Innisfil and Cookstown.

The Canadian Institute of Health Research indicates that at least one in three adolescent students in Canada have reported being bullied, and 47 per cent of Canadian parents report having a child who is a victim of bullying.

Bullying Awareness and Prevention Week, which ran from Nov. 17 to 23, is part of an integrated campaign by the Ontario Ministry of Education to help promote safe schools and a positive learning environment through a broad discourse on bullying.

DECEMBER 2013 pizza 23

making dough with Diane

Earning loyalty

By Diane Chiasson

n this age of online deals, coupons and specials that flood our inboxes on a daily basis, it can be a challenge to get customers to remain loyal to your pizza operation or attract new business.

Signing up for a daily deal offer can be costly and does not necessarily mean that the coupon buyers will return to your store without another deal. In fact, 80/20 rule of business says that 80 per cent of your sales comes from 20 per cent of your customers, so your pizza operation should be focusing on building relationships with your core repeat clients through incentives and rewards.

A loyalty rewards program is an ideal way to reward your customers and also an attractive selling tool for new customers.

Remember to ensure that the benefits are easily attainable and uncomplicated to use.

Here are a few ways to create loyalty programs that will help retain customers and keep them coming back for more.

i

1. RETAiN CuSTOMERS A customer loyalty program will help you retain customers, which is the key to growing your business. Statistics show that more than 25 per cent of customers say they are much more likely to shop at a business where they have a loyalty rewards card. Use a points system to sell slow-moving products. A points system also will attract customers to your pizzeria on off-peak days and encourage increased traffic and spending.

2. gET MORE TRAFFiC TO yOuR wEbSiTE Encourage customers to visit your website to sign up for your loyalty program.

24 pizza DECEMBER 2013

Here are six things loyalty programs can do for your business

Allow your customers to track their sent out with a coupon for a free slice points on your website, as well as or 10 per cent discount. Constant comdownload coupons, get rewards and munication will help keep your busiread about your weekly specials and ness in the minds of your customers promotions. By making your website and keep them coming back. an interactive place where your customers can monitor their rewards, you 5. iNCREASE wORD-OF-MOuTh will boost traffic to your website and ACTiViTy enhance your search enThe best advertising for gine optimization (SEO) any business is strong at the same time. Make word of mouth. Your use a points sure that your website is loyal customers are sure easy to navigate and that to refer your pizzeria to system to sell your rewards are easily their family and friends. slow-moving attainable.

Give your loyal customers an incentive to products 3. LEARN AbOuT make referrals by offeryOuR LOyAL ing them bonus points CuSTOMERS when they refer a friend A loyalty program also will help you to your pizza operation. keep track of who your customers are and what they like. You will be able 6. MAkE LOyAL MEMbERS FEEL to track the frequency of your custom- LikE ViPS ers’ visits, how much they spend and Make your loyal customers feel extra what they are buying. Armed with this special by offering them exclusive intype of information, your pizzeria will vitations to special events held at your be able to put together a much more business like the opportunity to taste targeted marketing plan and also es- new menu items, pizza-making lessons tablish a better relationship with your from your chef, special recipes or the customers. chance to enter various contests. By making your customers feel like VIPs, 4. iNCREASE COMMuNiCATiON you are also getting them to believe in By increasing communication with and become involved in your brand. • your most loyal customers, you can drive repeat visits. Set up your loyalty Diane Chiasson, FCSI, president of Chiasson Consultants Inc., has been helping restaurant, foodservice, program so that each and every time a hospitality and retail operators increase sales for customer visits your store, e-mail is au- over 25 years. Her company provides innovative and tomatically sent to thank them for their revenue-increasing foodservice and retail merchandising programs, interior design, branding, menu engivisit. If a loyal customer has not visited neering, marketing and promotional campaigns, and your pizza operation in more than two much more. Contact her at 416-926-1338, toll-free at weeks, an e-mail will automatically get 1-888-926-6655 or chiasson@chiassonconsultants. com, or visit www.chiassonconsultants.com.

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Healing relationships BY erICK LAuBer aybe you have a broken leg at work.

I don’t mean the physical kind; the type where you see a doctor and try to stay off of it for a while. I mean the broken relationship kind; the type that’s much harder to heal, keeps you awake at night and can end up making you unproductive for years if it isn’t fixed.

Unfortunately, the risks of not treating your broken relationship are also like having a broken leg. It can become an ever-increasing problem or infection. It might change how you act in the future, making you a bit gun-shy and eager to avoid another broken leg. The broken relationship might even wear you out emotionally and physically, so much so that you just want to escape.

You might think that it makes sense to go back and examine how your leg or relationship became so broken. But how it broke isn’t nearly as important as how you respond.

So, what can you do about your broken relationship at work? Is there a way to avoid being one of those martyrs who in some weird way seems to enjoy having a broken relationship? Fortunately, there is.

But, like a broken leg, it will take some uncomfortable work.

The first thing that must be done is to approach the situation correctly. You have to make a choice: is this thing going to heal and get better or is it going to be a pain forever? This choice is completely under your control and it really matters which option you choose.

For example, martyrs won’t listen to any advice, even from professionals. They don’t believe the relationship will get any better so they won’t try anything. They stick to complaining as their only “therapy”. But healers work toward a solution. They try things, they ask for advice.

For example, those who don’t believe a relationship will get any better start to work around it. In medicine, such activities are called compensatory behaviors because the patient is compensating for the deficient limb

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or process. This can be a problem; first, because it puts extra strain on the other parts of someone’s life. Long-term problems can develop in those relationships that have to bear the extra weight. Second, compensating behaviors don’t allow the original broken relationship to fully heal. They simply hide it.

On the other hand, doctors do prescribe crutches and other aids when damage initially occurs. It is not unreasonable to keep weight off a relationship for a bit while the anger subsides. Importantly, doctors prescribe crutches so you can still function normally – not so you can avoid putting any and all weight on the foot. In real life, we still have to function even with a broken relationship. The proper temporary aids, like having a third co-worker present, or alerting a boss to keep things operating smoothly, is allowable - but only temporarily, and only in extreme situations.

Many a close friend and spouse have wished a loved one would put a broken relationship out of mind. Stop picking at the wound. If you wish, think of it as allowing your subconscious to work on the problem while your conscious self gets some time off. Either way, put it up at night. It will actually heal better if you don’t obsess and worry it constantly.

Eventually, every broken relationship, like a broken leg, demands exercise and real use.

This is the part that most people are afraid of.

What if it hurts? What if it doesn’t feel exactly like it did before it was broken?

Go slow and gentle at first, listening for when you might be pushing too hard and then easing up a little. Every doctor knows waiting too long is a much more common mistake than jumping in too early. Avoiding pain is a built-in characteristic of all humans.

There’s a reason the phrase “going outside our comfort zone” is such a common expression in management and business. The difference between success and failure is sometimes just the difference between those who succumb to our natural human tendencies and those

who climb above them.

Did you know that a healed broken bone is often stronger than the original bone? It’s true! The biological processes that stitch bone back together produce stronger bones than the originals. Is that possible with your broken relationship? Actually, it is.

Consider that in our life, accidents will happen. There will be miscommunications and misinterpretations. Sometimes people will misbehave around us for reasons we could not possibly fathom because we are truly not inside their heads, so bumped and bruised relationships are inevitable. Fundamentally, people are to some degree a little bit scared and insecure. They are worried other people won’t like them or will somehow be out to get them. They are also very, very worried that they can’t predict what other people will do. Somehow bad things will come their way, unexpectedly.

The best human relationships eliminate these two fears. A good friend is fundamentally someone you know will not purposefully do things that damage you and someone who will act in ways that you can predict. We call this trust in our normal, social lives. Our relationships at work require the same thing. And a healed relationship is one where there is trust.

Healing a broken relationship at work is perhaps harder than healing a broken leg, but it can be done. All broken relationships will require us to go outside our comfort zone and “put some weight” on the relationship, perhaps while we are still afraid and even when we know it might be painful. In the end, a healed relationship, perhaps one so healed it is even stronger than before, is better than a broken relationship. • Erick Lauber, Ph.D., is an applied psychologist and faculty at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He speaks and consults on leadership, personal growth and development, and taking charge of our own life stories. He has won 19 educational TV/film awards and has published in numerous psychology journals and book chapters. His video log is located at www.

LifeFraming.org. Contact www.ErickLauber.com or call 724-464-7460.

DECEMBER 2013 pizza 25

the pizza dude

Observations from the front lines

By Roberto “The Pizza Dude” Vergalito f you are reading this, don’t clean your glasses. Your eyesight is just fine, and you’ve read it right – The Pizza Dude is back! It has been almost five years, but here I am and boy have I missed this industry. In September, I reopened my pizzeria and named it Roberto’s Pizza Passion, since my passion for pizza is in my blood.

Even though I’ve been out of the pizza business for a while, I still kept up with the industry. Some things do not seem to change like our beloved mozzarella price increase every February. However, I have also seen many changes among products, pizzeria chains and independents alike.

Recently, for example, several trends have been strengthening in the pizza industry such as gluten-free and vegan options, and a generally healthier pizza.

One tip I would like to give to all pizzeria operators, is that while customers may be asking for these options, don’t rush adding them to the menu. Take your time and find out how to create the best gluten-free crust and find the best alternatives to cheese and sugar, etc. I’ve gone to many different operations and while they’ve made the adjustments to their menu, the trendy options were bland and flavourless, among other things. Let’s be honest, if you’re complaining that no one wants the options because no one is buying it, maybe it’s just not that good at your pizzeria. Don’t take this to heart.

Instead recognize the need to go back, and recreate your product. In the end, customers will love you for being honest with yourself and changing the product to become an even better one than before. Start over, and this time around take your time.

I have also noticed that more pizzerias are using a cheaper product that is a mix of real and a synthetic mozzarella. I

Here are the first changes I noticed when I returned to the industry after a five-year absence

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26 pizza DECEMBER 2013

by telling the truth about your products and business and highlighting your strengths instead of covering up your weaknesses, you will encourage customers to trust you and become more loyal to your operation.

still fail to see the logic behind independent pizzerias trying to compete with the larger commercial chains.

You need to pride yourself on what you’re good at, and what your target audience is looking for in a pizzeria. If you are going to try to compete with a chain then don’t follow suit. Don’t try to beat them at their own game. Why not try and do it differently by starting a new trend, and setting yourself apart from the competition instead of trying to do what they do, but better? Be honest with your customers, and do pizza the way you think it should be made.

Since I started in this industry one thing has remained constant: pizza is the No. 1 favourite food. For instance, Americans eat about 350 slices of pizza per second. That is a lot of pizza! The point is almost everyone eats pizza and if you target your market correctly, you will be very successful. The vast majority of pizza eaters really do want

a good pizza pie and will go out of their way for it.

All in all, when you do something from the heart, success is sure to follow… eventually. Perseverance, passion and love for it will see you through. If you’re in it because you think it is easy money and you’re going to make millions selling dirt for gold, I have news for you, it won’t work.

Be honest with your customers, and they will trust you. No amount of advertising will ever make your customers as loyal to you than if you just tell the truth about your business and your product. Highlight your strengths. To all of my fellow pizzaiolos, make pizza and not war. Remember to keep spinning those pies with love! It’s great to be back. • Roberto Vergalito is “the Pizza Dude” owns and operates Roberto’s Pizza Passion in St. Catharines, Ont. Comments and questions for Roberto can be sent to him c/o Canadian Pizza magazine, P.O. Box 530, 105 Donly Dr. S., Simcoe, ON, N3Y 4N5 or fax 1-888-404-1129.

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Managing expectations There is no good way to manage people, but we have to try anyway, shares one leader in business management BY trON JOrDheIM

“P

eople are people” the old saying goes. That means everyone brings their own personal baggage with them to work. People make poor choices, act rashly and defend their own comfort zones. People have agendas all their own that often have nothing to do with the work agenda that you, as the manager, are promoting.

Sometimes the selfish and petty things people do are no surprise. Some employ-

ees repeat a behavior that has been seen before many times if you let them. Infighting, jealousy, jockeying for position and defending turf are pretty normal behaviors. Sometimes the selfish and petty behavior is quite a surprise.

In contrast, every workplace has people who perform well, take care of themselves, are supportive of others on the team when needed and keep below the radar.

The best managers try hard to motivate

and guide their people to meet agreed-upon goals. Procedures, protocols and guidelines are put in place to help keep things fair and organized. Feedback, motivation and direction are given. But at the end of the day, good managers realize that there is no good way to manage people.

But since managing people is the key to any business success, you have to try anyway.

There are many books on people management, and you may have practiced all

DECEMBER 2013 pizza 27

the different styles. If you boil down all the great people management advice as much as you can, there are really only two things to do. One is to make sure your staff is getting ongoing training, feedback, correction and motivation for all their work-related behaviors. The other thing you can do is to leave your people alone and let them work.

The trick is to know when to do which with each person. bEST PRACTiCES Try to create models of best performance and best practices for employees to learn, to copy and to aspire to. You can create goals, requirements and performance thresholds to use as measurement tools.

Be fair and consistent in enforcing performance requirements and work rules and be honest with them in your assessment of business conditions, in your communication of company policies and your feelings about their performance. kNOw yOuR PEOPLE Try to get to know each of your people so you can find the right way to approach them, motivate and correct each of them.

Spend a little time with each of your direct reports and encourage them to spend time with each of their direct reports. Spending time together helps solidify team-work, helps clarify any issues and helps to make sure you and your people are being accountable to each other.

COMMuNiCATE Stop relying on email and memos; have personal conversations with the people in your group. Allow your people to be honest with you. Spend at least a little personal time with each person every month if you can. Learn to be a good listener. Your will learn a lot about how to deal with your people if you hear what they say.

LEAVE wELL ENOugh ALONE Sometimes managers feel that people can perform better and can produce more, but if employees have found a comfortable and satisfactory balance it is best not to disturb.

Resist the temptation to over mange them.

There are times when your people just need to be left alone to do their jobs. Some days you will work hard to mold people’s behavior and performance when what they

really needed was to be left alone to do their jobs. Some days you will leave people alone when what they really needed was to be working with someone. Try to ask yourself each day, who needs time from me today? And who needs to be left alone?

If you allow yourself to admit that there is no good way to manage people, you can do your company a lot of good by trying to be a better manager every day. Work on best practices, get to know your people, communicate personally, and above all leave well enough alone. If you try too hard to manage people or if you go too far in attempting to manage behavior, you’ll end up throwing your hands up in the air and declaring there is no good way to manage people! • Tron Jordheim is the CMO of StorageMart, one of the world’s largest privately held self-storage companies with locations across the U.S. and Canada. He has helped lead the company to double-digit revenue growth for the last four years by embracing digital marketing and call center support. Jordheim has consulted for companies and spoken at trade events in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Spain and Mexico. Prior to StorageMart, Jordheim managed one of Culligan Water’s top U.S. bottled water franchises. With 40+ years of experience in sales, marketing and training, he continues to be sought after as a public speaker, sales trainer and consultant. For more information, please visit www.storage-mart.com/blog/author/tron-jordheim.

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Advertisers Index Company .................................................................. Page # Annex Bookstore ................................................... 28 Burke ...................................................................... 11 Canadian Pizza Show ............................................ 17 Middleby Escan ..................................................... 19 Pizza Expo ............................................................... 7 Pizza Power Pages ................................................ 29 Pizza With Purpose ............................................... 15 Ricco Food Distributor........................................... 21 Salerno ................................................................... 21 Saputo .................................................................... 32 Springer’s Meats Inc. ............................................. 18 Stanislaus ............................................................. 4-5 Thunderbird............................................................ 27 Viau .......................................................................... 2 XLT Ovens ............................................................. 31 Use these advertiser contact numbers to find out more about a product advertised in this issue or to place an order. This index is provided as a service. Canadian Pizza Magazine is not liable for errors or omissions.

DECEMBER 2013 pizza 29

1

pizza on fire

Tom Stankiewicz

t seems like the cost of producing great quality pizzas is always on the rise, and this trend will most likely continue. People understand that good quality food is priced well above average prices, and this likely won’t change either. It costs more to produce quality and the expectation of exceptional is reflected in the price of the pie. Ingredient cost is directly linked to your business’ operating costs and by domino effect it impacts the customers who choose to pay the premium price. The important dilemma here for pizzerias lies in how to maintain a good balance between quality and raising prices.

If I asked you to identify the No. 1 product that has the most impact on the end pizza price, my guess without hesitation is that you will say it is the current high cost of cheese. Cheese is definitely the most expensive topping in comparison to all other pizza toppings on our menus. Arguably, it is the only universal topping that is put on every single pizza that slides into ovens nationwide. On a rare occasion, someone might choose to skip the cheese, but it’s so uncommon that it’s not worth counting. At any pizzeria, the inventory of produce clearly shows that we go through multiple boxes of cheese on any given day. This is one of the main items causing an increase in the cost of making pizza, yet we cannot control how much we must pay for cheese. All we can do is carry out careful planning that will help us ensure none of it gets wasted. For those who are new to the pizza business, the best advice oldtimers like me can give is to tell you to buy a measuring scale. Your employees should never guess how much cheese to put on a

i

30 pizza DECEMBER 2013

Paying the premium price pizza. This is the most common mistake competition. This would be a huge benefit that makes cheese disappear too fast. The and help for all of us who try to maintain amount of cheese to be put on any pizza high pizza quality without increasing the should be clearly identified in a chart for price and passing the cost to customers. I all employees to see. can’t wait to discover how this change will With so much emphasis on cheese, it impact and transform the pizza industry comes as no surprise that pizzerias tend over the next few years. to research cheese prices and suppliers in I think it’s important to note that this great detail before deciding who we will also means the Canadian market could purchase it from. Over the years, I’m sure see novel variations of cheeses from Euthat many of us have had several different rope. If the price is right, this might be cheese suppliers. Whatever an opportunity to intromade business sense at that duce new cheese flavours the amount time guided our decisions, to your customers. Offerwhether it was lower price ing a greater cheese selecof cheese to or better quality prodtion gives customers a new be put on any uct. From my conversareason to order pizza from pizza should tions with other pizzaiolos, you today. It’s true that it seems that we are most most customers ask for be clearly likely to change our promozzarella cheese, but ofidentified in a duce supplier for reasons fering other unique cheese chart for related to cheese than for varieties could attract a reasons related to any other new customer base Pair a all employees food. new variety with an existto see Anyone who follows the ing great quality pizza and news has heard about the it could potentially increase recent free trade agreement your sales. in discussions between Canada and EU Although I don’t expect any drasthat will bring more than 16,000 tonnes tic changes in terms of price, I do think of European cheese into Canada free and it could impact how often and by how clear of high tariffs. If inked, this deal will much the Canadian cheese prices are inhave implications for many businesses. As creased or decreased. After all, it sounds I am one of those business owners who like we will have more options to choose pay attention to the constantly increasing from, which helps put us in the driver’s cheese prices, I’m hoping this will have a seat. Let’s stay focused on making exceppositive impact on the pizza industry. As tional quality pizzas, while keeping a close with everything else, time will show how eye on the cheese prices. • this will affect independent pizza owners. I’m hoping this could result in a Tom Stankiewicz has been in the pizza business for more than 15 years. He has been the proprietor of Bondi’s decrease or at least maintenance of Pizza in London, Ont., since 2000 and is president of the current cheese prices due to increased Canadian Pizza Team.

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