Pizza Firm Sticks To Basics -- Family-Run Chain Has Conservative Business Strategy

EVERETT

The world of pepperoni, black olives and Canadian-style bacon is a cheesy kinda business, where an increasing number of aggressive competitors vie for a bigger slice of the pizza pie.

Established pizza giants, such as Pizza Hut, have stepped up advertising and promotion efforts. The ubiquitous McDonald's chain recently test-marketed a pizza offering. And, even smaller, relatively new chains are aggressively pursuing growth. For example, ShowBiz Pizza Place and Chuck E. Cheese restaurants, will open 12 to 15 new U.S. locations this year and plan to open 20 or more next year," the company that owns both chains said. ShowBiz Pizza Time Inc. already operates 268 ShowBiz Pizza Place and Chuck E. Cheeses' restaurants.

Through it all, Everett-based Alfy's Pizza & Pasta Restaurants, started in 1972, continues on course.

The 14-store chain operates pizza restaurants from Marysville to Auburn, but no aggressive expansion plans are in the works. "Competition makes you sharper, but you have to pay attention to what you are doing and not get caught up in the competition. . . We're not after numbers. We're more interested in improving on what we have," says Brian Olson, one of the owners. Olson wouldn't reveal the company's revenue or profits.

Brian and his brother, Brett, expect to add just three stores in the next two years. The company is concentrating, instead, on bringing the chain into the 1990s by remodeling all its stores. The updates are costing between $200,000 and $500,000 per store, Olson says. The new look is a brighter approach; with lots of windows, a direct contrast to the dark pizza-parlor look of the past, Olson says.

Alfy's was started 19 years ago, before many of today's pizza competitors entered the market. The company is a family-owned business started by Bruce Olson and his wife, Judy. His sons Brian, 31, and Brett, 28, were raised in the business. When Bruce died in 1988, after a long battle with cancer, the two sons took over.

The younger Olsons work as a team, Brian Olson says. For two years following their father's death, the sons made no changes in the business, he says. "It was a very emotional thing. . . We wanted to settle down before doing anything drastic," he says.

The chain operates from a central commissary. Each day the pizzas are made fresh at the commissary and shipped by truck to the various restaurants for sale. The arrangement is an expensive one that is not conducive to expansion outside King and Snohomish counties, Olson says. The commissary approach does allow the company to maintain strict quality control, however, which is key to the chain's approach, Olson says. To expand geographically, the company will probably need to operate a second commissary, which is not part of any immediate plans, he says.

To further control quality, the owners spend time in the stores working beside their employees, Olson says. "I spend about 35 percent to 40 percent in the office and the rest out in the field making pizza, at the counter and cleaning tables," he says. Alfy's employs about 400 people.

Nationally, the pizza business is a growing niche, says Jeff Prince, senior director of the National Restaurant Association, based in Washington D.C. The restaurant business, as a whole, is a $248 billion industry. Of the total number of food orders, pizza is the customer's choice 13.1 percent of the time, he says. The tantalizing pie slices are the second-most popular order, following behind the all-American hamburger, which represents 17 percent of total food orders, Prince says.