Business View - February 2015 73
Karam said marketplace testing of the refined “New
York-style” and “pizza by the slice” elements has been
very positive, and that substantial traction has already
been gained from the company’s decision to go back
to items that are most authentic to its mid-1950s heri-
tage. Much of the steam-table food options were elimi-
nated from menus in favor of emphasizing fresh-made
pizzas and strombolis, a made-to-order pasta offering,
contemporized beverage offerings and salads.
“When you have a mature brand like Sbarro, you can’t
just change your brand position. You’ve got to really
reclaim elements,” he said. “That’s not only authentic
and a bit of a refresh on the menu offerings of the
brand, but it also is very relevant to where the consum-
er is. It’s a combination of what is claimable based
upon the heritage of the brand, but also what’s rel-
evant to the consumer and what’ll allow you to grow
the business at an above-industry average rate.”
And, because Sbarro is already such a prominent
name in such a broad restaurant category, it won’t
take a whole lot of market share progress to yield sig-
nificant sales and growth opportunity results.
“Pizza’s a big category and we’re a big player in pizza,”
Karam said.
“It has improved the box economics. It’s reduced the
size of the footprint that we need for new store devel-
opment, and it’s improved the economics – less labor,
less food costs – and we’ve been able to achieve that
despite the fact that we put 20 percent more cheese
on our pizza to really enhance the product, and crafted
a more compelling value proposition. It all fits together
pretty neatly, and we’ve tested that on an iterative ba-
sis with very, very solid results.”
While the company’s tumultuous past few years may
FRANCHISE
