Punxsutawney, PA – April 7, 2008 – Fox’s Pizza Den founded in Pittsburgh, PA in 1971 will launch its first national marketing effort. The 334 unit company found in 33 states across the country has responded to the needs of franchisees to create top of mind awareness nationwide.

FoxsPizzaDenCoupons.com was created to provide a universal marketing campaign to franchisees, 77% of Fox’s units are participating. Scott Anthony, franchisee forum moderator, adds, “This site was created based on the consensus of our operators who want to improve their marketing efforts and promote their locations. We chose the online option because it best suited our royalty structure.” The creation of the site was coordinated by the input of the franchisee forum along with prime marketing partners, ONTV.com and CFM Concepts.

The site includes a brief history of the company along with a typical store menu, printable coupons & leads to participating locations. Anthony added, “This format was chosen after a few years of researching key items that internet users looked for on our existing web sites.”

Fox’s Pizza Den was founded on the principle of providing each operator with an opportunity to be a true entrepreneur. No percentage of sales or advertising fees is charged back to the franchisees. Franchisees only pay a flat $300 per month royalty and are in control of their individual marketing programs.

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Papa John’s dominates Internet sales of the $36B-a-year industry while Domino’s, others test it out.

For Mike Santonocito, ordering pizza at Michigan State University was as simple as: Point. Click. Pizza. “Online ordering is more convenient,” said Santonocito, now a law student at DePaul University in Chicago. “It’s just popping into the computer, clicking the mouse a few times and the pizza shows up.”

More and more pizza customers in Metro Detroit and across the country are turning to the Internet for home delivery.

Papa John’s is leading the way in online ordering in the $36-billion-a-year pizza industry, with others such as Ann Arbor-based Domino’s Pizza testing the waters. Experts predict that all major chains will offer the option within five years.

About 2.8 percent, or 84 million, of the 3 billion annual pizza orders are placed online, said Jeremy White, editor of Pizza Today, a trade publication. Five years ago, it was only 0.008 percent or 24 million Internet orders.

Online ordering offers advantages: It’s quicker, less prone to errors, provides an up-to-date menu and prices and cashless transactions. It’s just a matter of a few clicks of the mouse and entering your address and credit card number (you can even include the driver’s tip).

“The pizza industry has proven the Internet works well for some,” said Steve Coomes, a former senior editor for PizzaMarketplace.com. “They can’t ignore it or they risk losing customers to other pizza outlets that have it. It’s a highly competitive market that nobody wants to give up even a small percentage of their sales.”

He predicts online ordering will never replace the phone; it’s just another way to connect with the local pizza shop.

Papa John’s is the only chain with online ordering nationwide, including at its 43 Michigan stores.

“The Internet is where most customers live today,” said Chris Sternberg, Papa John’s senior vice president of corporate communications. “Consequently, we want to make it easy for those customers to order out food. There are advantages to the Internet.”

The Louisville, Ky.-based company, which has 2,600 stores nationwide, began offering the service in 2001. Since then, the company has taken more than 25 million online pizza orders. Online ordering has increased by at least 50 percent each of the last few years.

“Many customers don’t like to be put on hold,” Sternberg said. “They want to see the menu and pricing. And they like to move ahead with their order at their own pace. This can be done on the Internet.”

Domino’s Pizza, with 5,000 stores in the United States, sees online ordering as a staple of its future. Some of its stores have been testing online ordering with success, and officials predict it will eventually be used companywide. Online testing is being done in Michigan and in San Diego, New York City and Gainesville, Fla.

“From our experience, offering online ordering will be required of us,” said Tim McIntyre, vice president of corporate communications for Domino’s. “Our consumer base is headed in that direction. People are always looking for convenience and control.

“Online ordering takes a lot of guesswork out of it,” he added. “You are eliminating the mistakes. You are the one doing the clicking as opposed to relying on someone at the other end of the phone hearing you correctly.”

Neither Little Caesar’s pizza, headquartered in downtown Detroit, nor Hungry Howie’s, a Madison Heights pizza chain, has any immediate plans to provide online ordering, officials at those companies said.

Pizza Hut, the nation’s largest pizza chain, began testing online ordering more than a decade ago and is working to get all of its stores wired with the Internet. Last month the company began offering a Spanish language Web site for online ordering.

“It’s more than a test now,” said Chris Fuller, a Pizza Hut spokesman.

Orders routed automatically
Hoyt Jones, 48, has been testing online ordering at his eight Domino’s franchises — seven around Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti and one near Michigan State University — the past eight months.

Online orders are automatically routed to the pizza preparation area and are integrated into the flow of phone and walk-in orders. During slow periods, bells sound to alert workers that an online order has arrived.

Already, online ordering represents 7 percent to 8 percent of Jones’ business and has proven especially popular with college students. And businesses like online ordering for advance orders, said Jones, who worked in Domino’s franchising department from 1985 until 2002, when he began opening his own stores.

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U.S. chain Papa John’s International Inc. plans to grab a bigger slice of the extremely competitive Canadian pizza market, announcing yesterday it will open 57 new locations across the country beginning this year.

The company, which bills itself as the world’s third-largest pizza company, currently operates 14 locations in Western Canada and says Canada is a target for international growth. The restaurants will be built under development agreements with franchise groups in different parts of the country.

“Canada is a key focus area for our international expansion,” chief financial officer David Flanery said in a release. “And these multiunit franchise operators will help us further establish a strong foothold in that country.”

Papa John’s is beefing up in Canada as domestic pizza companies are already aggressively expanding into each others’ territories.

Last year, Pizza Pizza Ltd. announced it is expanding from its base in Central Canada to Alberta, while Panago Pizza Inc. has been moving east from its base in British Columbia, opening its first restaurant in Toronto last spring and announcing plans to open 150 locations in southern Ontario.

Boston Pizza, based in Richmond, B.C., has also been expanding eastward from its Western base.

Food service consultant Douglas Fisher said the “quick service” market for takeout and delivery pizza - which is Papa John’s typical model - is an especially saturated sector in Canada.

“I think it’s a really price-sensitive market and it’s really tough to penetrate it,” he said.

“And we’ve got Pizza Pizza, which is certainly a strong driver in the market in Ontario for sure.”

Pizza Pizza operates 616 locations across Canada, most of them in Ontario.

Mr. Fisher said ingredient prices are typically higher in Canada than the United States, and the pizza sector in particular is currently being hit with by a double whammy of rising flour prices and rising cheese prices.

Based in Louisville, Ky., Papa John’s operates 3,200 locations worldwide, including 450 restaurants outside the United States.

The company’s development agreements call for 20 restaurants to be built in Atlantic Canada by franchisee PJ Atlantic Franchising Ltd., and 10 to be built in Saskatchewan by MJ Taylor Holding Co.

As well, Bajco LLC will build 15 restaurants in western Ontario, while PDR Associates Inc. will build 12 units in eastern Ontario.

Each franchise group has committed to having at least one restaurant opened in 2008, the company said in a release yesterday.

Mr. Fisher said it is important to see how quickly the chain builds its new Canadian locations. He said he has seen many companies announce aggressive expansions into Canada only to build a fraction of the locations originally promised.

That’s because many U.S. chains typically have higher operating profits than Canadian locations, and are disappointed they cannot match those margins when they expand northward.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Pizza Hut anticipates preparing almost two million pizzas during the hours leading up to the Super Bowl.Nearly 50% of the Pizza Hut deliveries and carry-outs occur in the two hours prior to kick off and during the first hour of the Super Bowl.

Pepperoni is the most requested topping followed by Italian sausage and extra cheese. Breadsticks are the most popular side order followed by wings and cinnamon sticks. Pan Pizza is the most popular followed by  Hand-Tossed Style Pizza.

Domino’s delivered 400 million pizzas last year… that’s a pizza (and a slice) for every man, woman and child in the United States.

Pizza is a $30 billion per year industry.1

The World’s Fastest Pizza Maker makes 14 pizzas in 2 minutes and 35 seconds.

Domino’s opened its 7,000 store worldwide on April 10, 2001 in Brooklyn, New York

Domino’s drivers cover 9 million miles each week in the U.S. alone. (That’s 37.5 round trips to the moon every week!)

In 2004, Super Bowl Sunday was the busiest day of the year. Domino’s sold close to 1.2 million pizzas, which is about 42 percent more pizzas compared to a normal Sunday. Super Bowl Sunday ranks among the top five days for pizza deliveries annually, up there with Thanksgiving Eve, New Year’s Day, New Year’s Eve and Halloween.

Ever wonder about what the three dots stand for in the Domino’s Pizza logo? They represent the first three Domino’s Pizza stores. The plan was to add a dot for every new store, however, with Domino’s current store count over 7,000, that would have been quite impossible to continue.

Super Bowl Takeout and Delivery Fact Sheet:

* According to National Restaurant Association research, roughly one out of seven (15 percent) Americans order takeout or delivery food from a restaurant for a Super Bowl gathering at their house or someone else’s house. For younger adults (ages 18-34) who watch the Super Bowl * this year held on Sunday, February 5 * that figure rises to 22 percent.

* Of those who ordered takeout or delivery, 58 percent ordered pizza, 50 percent ordered chicken wings, and 20 percent ordered subs or sandwiches.

* Those living in larger households (three or more members) were more likely than others to order takeout or delivery on Super Bowl Sunday, as were those living in a metropolitan area, and those living in the Northeast.

* In addition, approximately one in 20 Americans (4 percent) watch the big game at a restaurant or a bar.

October is National Pizza Month, (US). It was first so designated in 1987 and continues to be the traditional time for celebration of one of America’s most important and popular food industries.

Americans eat approximately 100 acres of pizza EACH DAY, or about 350 slices per second.

Pizza is a $41+ BILLION per year industry. There are approximately 69,000 pizzerias in the United States. Approximately 3.5 BILLION pizzas are sold in the U.S. each year. (Source: Blumenfeld and Associates)

Pizzerias represent 17% of all restaurants. (Source: Food Industry News.)

Pizza accounts for more that 10% of all foodservice sales. (Source: Food Industry News.)

93% of Americans eat AT LEAST one pizza per month. (Source: Bolla Wines.)

66.66% of Americans order pizza for a casual evening with friends. (Source: Bolla Wines.)

Each man, woman and child in America eats and average of 46 slices, (23 pounds), of pizza per year. (Source: Packaged Facts, New York.)

Italian food ranks as the most popular ethnic food in America. (Source: National Restaurant Association.)

According to a recent Gallop Poll, children between the ages of 3 and 11 prefer PIZZA over all other food groups for lunch and dinner.

A study done by a U.S. Department of Agriculture statistician and home economist found that in a three-day survey period, 42% of children between the ages of 6 and 11 has eaten pizza. (Source: Smithsonian Magazine.)

94% of the population of the U.S. eats pizza. (Source: Parade Magazine.)

Favorite Pizza Toppings in the United States

Pepperoni is by far America’s favorite topping, (36% of all pizza orders). Approximately 251,770,000 pounds of pepperoni are consumed on pizzas annually. Other popular pizza toppings are mushrooms, extra cheese, sausage, green pepper and onions.

Gourmet toppings are gaining ground in some areas of the country such as chicken, oysters, crayfish, dandelions, sprouts, eggplant, Cajun shrimp, artichoke hearts and tuna. More recent trends include game meats such as venison, duck and Canadian bacon.

Mozzarella cheese represents 30% of total cheese output. Production of Italian cheeses such as mozzarella, provolone, ricotta, parmesan and Romano by U.S. cheese makers more than doubled between 1980 and 1992, from 688.6 MILLION pounds per year to nearly 2 BILLION pounds per year. (Source: Cheese Market News.)

Manufacturers’ sales of pizza cheese should top $44 BILLION by 2006. U.S. per capita consumption of mozzarella cheese was 7.93 pounds in 1994 and is predicted to reach 12.51 pounds by 2005. (Source: Business Trend Analysts, BTA)

62% of Americans prefer meat toppings on their pizza, while 38% prefer vegetarian toppings. (Source: Bolla Wines.)

Women are twice as likely as men to order vegetarian toppings on their pizza. (Source: Bolla Wines.)

Barbeque pizza emerged as one of the more popular pizza variations in a 1994 study by the National Restaurant Association. Nearly 33% of menus offered some form of this dish. Other popular variations were Mexican pizza, white pizza, five-cheese combos, non-cheese pies and traditional Italian pizzas such as Margherita, Florentine and new potato pizzas. (Source: National Restaurant Assocation).

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Pizza Hot Deliver the Pizzas to the customers as quickly as possible!

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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Stellar Restaurant Solutions, provider of call-center and online-ordering services, has signed a contract with Borriello Brothers, a three-unit Colorado pizzeria chain. Under the deal, Stellar Restaurant Solutions will centrally manage phone orders and credit-card payments for the three-unit pizza chain. The implementation of the pizza phone-ordering service also will allow Borriello Brothers to merge their separate store phone numbers into one contact number that can be used in all their advertising and promotions.

The service will be operated from Stellar Restaurant Solutions’ dedicated restaurant ordering call center located in Colorado Springs, Colo.

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The Bay Area’s own Tony Gemignani went to Naples, the birthplace of pizza, and came home the world champion Neapolitan pizza maker - beating every Italian contender in the very city where pizza was born.

But he still can’t make his championship thin-crust margherita pie at his own Castro Valley pizzeria, Pyzano’s, which he runs with his brother, Frank (or at their Spin Gourmet Pizza nightspot in Walnut Creek).

They make lots of pizzas - New York, Californian and their own fully loaded American-style Pyzano’s pie - but not the Neapolitan.

That’s because Pyzano’s doesn’t have a wood-fired oven, the only kind that gets hot enough - 900 degrees - to give Neapolitan pizza its classic blister and char. Like many urban areas, Alameda County restricts wood ovens to cut pollution.

In Pyzano’s gas oven, which tops out at around 600 degrees, Gemignani’s margherita bakes to a golden crispness. It’s delicious - but not what Naples has in mind when it comes to pizza.

“We always wanted a wood-fired oven,” Gemignani told me. And now, he hopes his upstart win may allow that to happen.

Over samples of his various pizzas - all have different crusts, made from different flours and recipes - Gemignani relived his day at the Trofeo Citta de Napoli Championato Internationale per Pizzaioli in June.

“It was a big win,” he said. “People are comparing it to Stag’s Leap (Wine Cellars) going to Paris,” and beating the best French Bordeaux makers in the 1976 tasting that put California Cabernet Sauvignon on the map.

Until that day, Gemignani’s claim to fame came as a pizza acrobat, winning eight championships for feats like spinning a disk of dough to 33.2 inches in just two minutes and rolling stretched pizza dough across his shoulders 37 times in a row. He’s appeared on Jay Leno’s “Tonight Show,” and is a Food Network regular with Emeril and Rachael Ray.

A couple of years ago, Gemignani hit his 30s and realized he was becoming the old man of the acrobatic world, so he decided to focus his competitive energies on baking. He flew to Italy to earn his certification as a pizzaiolo, or pizza maker. Italy takes its pizza seriously - the rules for making a Neapolitan pizza run to five single-spaced pages.

He installed a small portable Bee Hive wood oven in his Castro Valley backyard and started baking, with his Sicilian-born wife Julie serving as guinea pig and critic.

Hundreds of pizzas later, they headed to Naples for the two-day event in June. This was just the second year that the Naples trophy championship has been held.

Gemignani was one of 12 Americans among the almost 50 contestants. None of them was expected to win - especially not someone from California, where great pizza is notoriously tough to find, and where non-classic ingredients like figs, lamb and smoked salmon might show up as toppings.

When Gemignani showed up with his dough, tomato sauce, basil and salt in wooden bowls and trays, one young Italian pizza maker commented derisively, “You could tell him we have stainless steel now.”

Before the day was out, the joke was on the young Italian.

Gemignani showed me exactly what he did, before the sharp eyes of the Italian judges.

His crust is made with just flour, water and salt - and the flour must be the “double zero” kind, meaning it’s low-protein and low-gluten. In a few deft gestures, he stretched it to 13 inches, leaving a thicker edge at the center; it can be no thicker than about one-tenth of an inch.

He seeded San Marzano tomatoes and added salt for a simple sauce, spread on in the required spiral motion. Fresh mozzarella, a little basil, a swirl of olive oil - that’s it. The ingredients must be at room temperature, which is why he uses wood; stainless steel feels colder.

“It’s really back to the basics of the way pizza was traditionally made,” he says.

Once in the oven, the pie got a quarter turn every 15 seconds; 80 seconds later it was done - and a winner.

Afterward, the Italian contenders sat him down and demanded to know: “Who taught you?” He told them that although he learned basic pizza-making in Italy, he taught himself the Naples way.

Now, the Gemignanis are hoping they’ll finally be able to bake Tony’s champion pizza back home. Because of his win, the VPN - the Associazione della Verace Pizza Napoletana, or association of true Neapolitan pizza - has authorized him to open a pizza school in Castro Valley.

The Gemignani brothers plan to open a restaurant and school in downtown Castro Valley, if they can talk their local government into letting them fire up a wood-burning oven during certain hours of the week.

If that happens, they hope to start construction late this before year and move from their current location in a strip mall near Interstate 580.

But Tony Gemignani isn’t waiting around. He’s already found a supplier for the San Felice flour he used in the competition, and has brought in 30 55-pound bags - enough for 6,000 pizzas. And he’s got a permit to bring a wood-fired oven to the parking lot outside Pyzano’s for one day, Oct. 20.

For $17.95 a pie, the Bay Area will finally get the world’s best Neapolitan pizza - without ever leaving home.

Pyzano’s Pizzeria, 3835 E. Castro Valley Blvd. (in the 580 Marketplace mall), Castro Valley; (510) 881-8878 or pyzanospizzeria.com. Lunch and dinner daily.

Carol Ness, Chronicle Staff Writer

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