Pasta Just Lika Mamma Makes!

By Darrel Vecchio | BIZMATRIX

Being of Italian heritage, in fact third generation, I am a big fan of Italian cuisine... especially pasta. Also being married to a true Italian born in Torino, Italy, we eat pasta at least once a week, with the mandatory Sunday night family pasta meal. There are mixed opinions on whether pasta should be part of the pizza shop menu. This subject is too large to cover in just one article, so over the next few issues we will work out what is the best solution: Yes pasta or no pasta, just concentrate on great pizza or do you have great pizza and pasta and how to effectively market it and increase sales.

These are exciting times. The Australian economy is not well and when the US markets sneeze the Australian economy catches a cold. There is much doom and gloom with rising oil prices, cheese up by 40%, and chicken and other goods have also increased. Our customers and we are threatened daily by interest rate increases and we are in for an economical recession. Pizza sales have dropped back! We are riding a financial rollercoaster.

The big boys are feeling the drop in sales where they are now resorting to complimenting their menus with pasta, ribs, chicken wings, salads, free drinks, fries and so on. Is that the answer? What is your business? Do you have the best pizza? If you answered yes, why do you want to sell other products?

You are in the business of selling pizzas. Let’s not forget your core business is pizza...the convenience food. Why water down your product by telling your customers to buy another product that is not pizza? It is easy to think you might increase your sales by having pasta or other products.

When the customers dollars are tight they won’t spend any more. By introducing another choice, like pasta, your customers may buy a pasta and no pizza and you are left with less takings and fewer pizza sales. There are situations where pasta can work and we will address those situations too, but let’s address this idea first.

Removing Pasta from the Menu
I completed a test with a pizza shop that listed pizza and pasta on the menu. We removed the pasta component, and yes they lost the pasta sales. Amazingly, the pizza sales increased; the weekly sales were the same without the pasta . They sold more pizzas in lieu of the pasta- net effect no impact.

Removing the pasta also streamlined the operation. There was no need for a specialist pasta cooker and the labour forced was able to be trained in pizza making as opposed to pizza and pasta making.

Should you remove pasta in all Pizza businesses? No!
In the above example the pizza menu was ordinary and the sales were already low. When you have a pizza shop and your theme is good, quality pizza, or when it is take out, delivery and pick up, and your net sales are in the range of 200 - 2000 pizzas per week, then pasta may not be a good choice.

Pasta Compliments the Pizza Sales
Another example involves a client’s pizza shop which is a 200 seater sit-down, delivery and pickup location. The pizza shop is more a pizza & pasta restaurant which has been trading for over 20 years. The owner found his pizza sales were falling. His average pizza price was $22 for an 11-inch pizza.

In this case the operator introduced a small 6-inch pizza and a large pasta takeaway. The result; the customers were buying two x 6-inch pizzas for around $16 and a large pasta to share for around $20. The result was an increase in weekly sales of around $5,000...so in the right situation and the right approach, pasta can be greatly beneficial.

Should/Shouldn’t List?

• When should your shop have pasta?

• Are you the best pizza shop or pasta?

• What style of shop should /shouldn’t have pasta?

• If you pizza is poor quality should you introduce pasta?

• If you have pasta, how many choices should you offer?

• Fresh-made or packet pastas? What is available in both? What is best?

• A basic pasta recipe if you decide to make it yourself.

We will answer these questions and more over the next few additions.

I forgot to mention, in Italy when you eat pizza the Italians like to compliment it with beer or a nice Chianti red wine. When we eat pasta you must have a red wine...beer isn’t acceptable. As we mentioned, this is an intro to a more in-depth discussion about pasta which will be covered in the next article- Pappa's pizza or mumma's pasta