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MAMMA ROSA'S: KEEPIN' IT IN THE FAMILY
By Jim Dees
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Bill Green of Salem, Ind. was looking for a business to run after retiring from the military in 1988. He has since clawed and worked his way into gaining a sizable chunk of his town’s pizza market. Bill and his wife Von and daughter JoAnna operate Mamma Rosa’s, a 140-seat pizzeria in Salem (pop. 5,000), located 30 miles north of Louisville, Ky. Bill says he has made it by paying attention and putting in plenty of time at his store.
“We just recently changed over to compact fluorescent lighting using a lower wattage,” he says, “and I’ve calculated the savings at $1,200 over a year. That adds up. I have 28 in my dining room. I used to have nine small freezers and I junked them and got one large one. Our new POS system saves us another $400-500 a week in mistakes. Saving a little here and a little there adds up.”
From the Get Go
After his military service, Bill and his family returned home to Salem and he set about looking for a business. When Mamma Rosa’s came up for sale, his wife had a background in the restaurant industry and Bill said the price was right, so they bought the business.
“It was run by an Italian family. Back then it was heavy on delivery and aside from pizza there was also a Mexican menu. We ran the concept as it was for the first four or five months and watched it. One of the first things we did was drop the Mexican food, we just wanted to concentrate on pizza because of the profitability.”
How did Bill discover pizza’s profitability? Like many operators, Bill says he was a pizza novice when he first started, but he quickly learned on the job.
“I read everything I could, including PMQ,” he says with a laugh. “But I was just free-throwing at first, I didn’t know what I was doing. We started figuring how much a pizza cost us. We weighed and cupped. We found out we could become very profitable if we watched what we did…and we did.”
Watch Yourself
Last year Mamma Rosa’s posted sales of over $600,000 and Bill thinks he’s on track to hit the million-dollar mark in the next couple of years. He estimates he averages around 200 pizzas per week. One of his big sellers is the 20-inch, Big Mamma pizza, which is a build-your-own and sells for $27. He estimates he sold 14,000 of them last year. Bill has a total of 28 employees including a delivery driver on weeknights. He says kitchen workers often help deliver on busy weekends, but otherwise he has a kitchen staff of two, a pizza maker and a delivery person.
“All of our waitresses are also good cooks, and the dish washers can cook. We’ve cross-trained everybody,” Bill asserts. He reports food costs of 29% and labor costs of 32%. Mamma Rosa boasts 20 non-pizza items on its menu including lasagna and other Italian dishes. Bill watches his menu and will quickly change it if something isn’t selling.
“Yes, you have to be flexible with your menu,” he maintains. “After 9/11 we had a run on comfort food. We were selling a lot of meat loaf and mashed potatoes, that kind of thing. We had customers driving long distances to come eat. Then, after about 18 months, it kind of dropped off, so we took it off the menu.”
Bill says Mamma Rosa’s added a bar three years ago that has really fattened his bottom line. He cautions that while the bar is good business, it requires vigilance to stay in the red.
“You’ve got to watch your inventory and also make sure your bartenders aren’t over-pouring or giving away too many drinks. I’ve installed security cameras at the bar and at the front of the house.” There’s a certain “security” for customers too as the restaurant offers a unique service to over-tippling patrons.
“If someone has too much to drink, we’ll take two of us and drive them and their car home,” Bill reveals. “On a weekend we’ll take 30 or 40 people home.”
Now that’s customer service.
Hometown Heroes
Adding to his store’s ambiance is a 700 sq. ft. area located behind the bar that Bill has converted into a banquet room. He changed it to a western décor and now serves seafood and hamburgers in there. There is also a game room with video and darts. After 18 years in business, Bill says his customers are almost like family.
“A lot of our return customers are people who have been eating with us for years and we know their names and what they like to eat. It’s a family-oriented business. Even in the bar, we have regular customers. Women come in unescorted and feel safe.”
Bill helps gets the word out by advertising in his local paper but he doesn’t offer coupons.
“To me it cheapens your product,” Bill declares. “If you’re going to sell me a pizza for $9 today but normally it’s $15, how much money are you making? I may add on breadsticks or a two-liter drink but I won’t coupon a pizza. I tell people that I sell them a quality pizza for a fair price every day of the week.” Bill says he runs some sort of special every day, in addition to a children-eat-free night.
“We have it on Sunday night,” he says, “and any child under 10-years-old can eat free that is with an adult. We just started this in January and so far it’s been a little slow.”
Not to be deterred, Bill says it’s important for independent pizza operators to continually reach out to their community.
He accomplishes this in many ways, including free meals for the needy. At Thanksgiving every year, Mamma Rosa’s will feed anywhere from 150-200 meals to the indigent. The restaurant also caters a Wednesday night community supper at a local church. He has just started another promotion in conjunction with the restaurant bar that he is really proud of.
“We do an outside picnic and all the money we take in we donate to Shop with a Cop,” he says. “Shop with a Cop” is a program where needy children are given $125 each and are taken shopping at Wal-Mart by a member of law enforcement. The rule is the children must buy clothes, but are allowed one toy.
“Last year they took 2,000 kids shopping. We had our first picnic recently and roped off our parking lot. We had great support. Some of our local pork producers donated a whole hog. Beer companies donated. We had live music and raised $1,500. We’re going to do two this year, Memorial Day and Labor Day.”
Such events are good marketing tools, but Bill says that’s not why he does them.
“Every penny we make is from the community so we feel like some part of it should go back,” he says. “If we can give 15 more kids a Christmas, then it’s certainly worth doing.”
Road to Recline
After 18 years of building a pizza business, Bill says he and his wife are looking to pass the nuts and bolts of their operation to their daughter and “ease out of it a little bit.”
“I’d like to see my daughter take over and move some of our employees up into management positions, and my wife and I gradually get out of it,” Bill sighs. “We’ve been at it a long time.”
Throughout his years in the pizza industry Bill has seen his business go through many stages. He says he tried opening two other stores with a take and bake concept in neighboring communities, but his managers weren’t able to stay on top of it.
“I couldn’t be there everyday and they couldn’t keep up with the business, so we had to close them down.” Mamma Rosa’s also experimented with Mexican food and steaks but he eventually phased them out.
“Over the years we have found that we always do best with Italian,” Bill states. “Almost all of our sauces are made from scratch and we make our own dough fresh daily. It’s what we’re known for.”
If you ever get to Mamma Rosa’s in Salem, Ind. chances are you might miss Bill Green. His daughter may be running the show and that will be just fine with Bill. Family is what Mamma Rosa’s is all about.
“Most of our customers have been with us for years,” he explains. “It’s always nice to see people bring their kids and we watch them grow up. Pretty soon, our regular kids are bringing in their kids.”