Steve Ulrey (Olrey), who built the first Flyers 10 years ago with his three brothers, is surely a child of fortune. His work and pleasure are inextricably blended. Their first Flyers pizza shop (as Ulrey calls it) was a 400 square foot-building on Hall Road, followed by Flyers on Robert’s Road and Flyers on West Jefferson Street, all in Columbus Ohio. We’re still a congenial group, Ulrey says, bringing different gifts to business. I’m the oldest one by nine years and I have 20 years in the restaurant business. Mark has a degree in marketing, Dave a degree in bakery, and Scot a degree in business. Our father, Wayne Ulrey, started Tonni’s Pizza 22 years ago. At 76 he still has a lot of vinegar I him, and he comes I to work with us five days a week. A native of Columbus, Steve Ulrey received his B.S. and M.A. degrees from Ohio State, then taught Social Business in the public schools for six years. In his perfect-for-radio-voice, Ulrey talked about his early career changes. After teaching, I accepted a job in Orlando, Florida to help found a restaurant chain, Rax, which had 15 stores in central Florida,: Ulrey recounts. It was highly successful for a while, but the corporation bought it. Next, I had an interesting offer from another group, Snapps, with the wild idea of opening 35 restaurants with a double drive-through. Later I moved my family back to Columbus, where I helped build other restaurants before opening Flyers. It has a plane theme despite the fact that no one in the family is a flier. My wife of 28 years, Ellen, he continues, is in the payroll and accounts payable department and is a very important part of the business. Our sons, Matt and Mike both work at Flyers on weekends.

At Flyers 60 percent of the business is delivery, with the rest dine-in or carry out. In addition to their popular pizza, Flyers serves 10 varieties of Subs, salads, chicken tenders, fried appetizers, an apple and cherry streusel pizza, and carbonated drinks. Ulrey says they’re actually in the people business; they just happen to sell pizza. Since we installed Rapid Fire POS (Radiant Systems) in 1995 we have mad major growth,: he notes. Our employees, 100 of them, apprehensive about this new system at first, but two weeks later we were off and sailing. The Caller Id identifies your customers, which promotes safety by telling our drivers exactly where they’re going and who the customers are. The directions are printed on the receipt. Keeping in regular communication with customers is vital at Flyers and they frequently use their POS marketing feature. They send potential customers, who are newcomers to the area, ‘New Neighbor’ cards offering a hefty discount off their first order. First-time customers receive another card and a receipt which gives them 50 cents off their next order. We get a 50 percent response from these receipts. Customers who haven’t been in a Flyers pizza shop in 45 days receive a ‘Miss You’ offer: a discounted ‘Meal Deal’ that includes pizza, sub, and pop. This offer elicits a 60 to 65 percent response. A free pizza is given to each customer who’s ordered 35 times. Naturally, this freebie produces an overwhelming 90 to 100 percent response. This year, Ulrey points out, we’re doing a new promotion. A ‘Special Customer Card’, done in gold, will be given to each customer who has ordered 100 times. This card is a $10 gift certificate. Recently, we began our VIP-Frequent Flyer program, sending out 2,000 punch cards to customers selected through a ‘pick-up only’ query generated by Rapid Fire.

Is the Flyers crew on the ball or what? They send special postcards to businesses in the era offering different lunch combos. We’ll choose 25 businesses a month and send three specials for the month. A letter goes too, for Taster’s Special, giving away $25 worth of food. We select a few receipts signed by the manager. It’s an effective way to get our food out the door. Employees at Flyers are paid and rewarded in several ways. They can benefit from profit sharing, get paid for extra working hours, earn bonuses for achieving extensive mileage or recruiting more employees, and be rewarded for increased orders and deliveries.

On-the-fly labor reports at Flyers enable younger supervisors to make sure they are achieving goals. If there are too many people working and sales are going down, Ulrey says, then I know I can send someone home. He ads, We can gouge how quickly an order goes our the door by using the system’s production day report. If we know that more than 70 percent of our delivery orders are out within 22 minutes of being taken into the system, then I know we’re doing a good job.

Ulrey’s keen sense of humor and down-to-earth philosophy are evident in the way he treats people and directs his employees. The only time success comes before hard work is in the dictionary, he says with a chuckle. About 95 percent of our customers are great people. So I remind my employees that we must remember these people and not allow a few negative customers to get us down. Perseverance is essential.

His definition of a commitment to success stresses that each person should be the best that he or she could be. Sharing and being involved in the community are priorities with Ulrey. When I was in elementary school the mayor spoke to our class, and I still remember his words. ‘Words without deeds are like a garden full of weeds.’ That makes sense. How does he remain so active while he manages a business that only closes at Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas? We have excellent managers and dependable employees. For example, five employees have taken more than 10,000 orders and three drivers have made more than 23,000 deliveries. Also, there doesn’t seem to be a problem with turn-over. Did I mention that Ulrey is serving as chairman of the annual 4th of July parade and is active on the Jonathan Alder School building committee and in his church? Participation in community events is a habit at Flyers; Memorial Day ceremonies, D.A.R.E., and auctions are just a few. Flyers works closely with local schools and charitable causes such as area bingo halls which benefit On MY Own, for handicapped people who live on their own but need assistance; Council of the Blind; Joshua Tree; and Drum and Bugle.

We mail a discount sheet to all area schools at the beginning of the year, Steve says, Each time they order from Flyers they get a discount according to the number of pizzas they ordered. We also sponsor their soccer, basketball, baseball, and football teams. Flyers donated $500-scholarships to three area schools, as well as funding students attending a ‘business week’ seminar. They donate pizzas and contribute money to ROTC, in addition to providing the middle school’s bus fare to a trip to the Center of Science and Industry.