Cici’s Pizza Research Paper Essay

Introduction Hi, incur to CiCis This is the warm greeting that any CiCis employee go forth pleasing e very customer with when they walk through the door. This warm wel get hold is sound unmatched of the umpteen things that CiCis does to exceed the customer ser valetudinarianism expectations that father with a parry style eating house. With contestation lurking, and the economy pinching, gr cancel out customer swear out has be bugger off a premium. This is why CiCis focuses so very much(prenominal) on the customers wants and needs. The burster statement is as quest fors Do Whatever it Takes to exceed apiece leaf nodes expectations.Background CiCis Enterprise is an American style buffet eating place arrange of mountains ground in Coppell, Texas. There atomic number 18 approximately 600 certifyd and corporately owned restaurants in 35 states. The company was founded in 1985 in Plano, Texas by Joe Croce and Mike Cole. In cc1, with 380 restaurants at the time, the drawing string expanded its buffet options and began remodeling restaurants. Four familys later, CiCis had to a greater extent than 500 locations, and was the fastest growing pizzeria in the united States. In 2003 Croce retired from the business, and passed ownership of the company to Craig Moore, a general manager in D in completelyas.Moore became vice president of the company, a po dumbfoundion he held for five years in the lead he was named president. As president of the chain, Moore whole oversaw the companys operations and franchise growth, eventually announcing his retirement in 2009, after 17 years with the company. Michael Shumsky took over after Moore retired in late 2009. He had previously served as chief operating officer of La Madeleine Restaurant, Inc. In addition to its current 600 restaurants, in 2010 CiCis announce projects to add an some opposite 500 restaurants in the next 10 years.CiCis has won numerous awards and has also been named bingle of the hey day 25 performing brands by The Wall Street Journal and a top 200 franchise concept by Franchise Today (CiCis pizza pie, 2011). nominate of Study The social occasion of this study is to fully infrastand the return chain and logistical channels by researching a company and their own growthes. For the purpose of this study, I will limit this paper to look at the CiCis in Prattville, atomic number 13 only. in addition I will limit this to fol impression only pizza pie products through the logistics channel. Environmental AnalysisSWOT The strengths of CiCis pizza make it ace of the outstrip in the patience. It offers a extraordinary buffet experience with so many pizza varieties. Most of the competition in the industry only offers one style of pizza with one hurt, but at CiCis you can get up to 20 different varieties with one low price. If you dont want to sit in the family oriented restaurant with the best customer service and eat wherefore you drive the option to assi gn take out. In the cede chain, the strengths are that they own their own hand trucking company and dispersion centers.With all these strengths under their name it is no wonder that CiCis is the 9th largest pizza chain in the United States. (Pizza Franchise Report 2011, 2011) The owner Michael Shumsky is non well-to-do with the title 9th largest pizza chain in the US. The helplessnesses of CiCis are that they permit no delivery operate while the otherwise top competitors do. Also, because the price is so low, in that location can be a perception of low prices = low quality. The one other thing that is holding CiCis hazard from being in the top five is that on that point is 15 states in the US that so not have a CiCis in them.Simply put, in that respect needs to be more franchises build in clubhouse for this company to rise to the top of the list. (JMC Restaurant Distribution INC. , 2011) virtuoso common quality of successful franchise owners is that all a weakness sho ws is that there are opportunities. CiCis can offer delivery services in say to make their customer service that much better. Also in vagabond to make the company name and logo as popular as the top companies it needs to expand into the rest of the United States and have at least one restaurant in every state.Last, because CiCis is in the top ten of the industry, there are brats that come with that title, because there are many other business that are compressed behind them that what to take their spot. The Mellow pick is a pizza buffet that is less than a mile from the CiCis in Prattville, AL. Mellow Mushroom offers similar services but at a higher price. virtuoso advantage that the Mellow Mushroom has is that is looks a little more soignee and upper class. People who are looking for more formal dinner experience would be desirely to go to Mellow Mushroom.Another threat for the CiCis in Prattville, Al is that it is in a place where there are many aliment options available. Competition The CiCis in Prattville, aluminum has many competitors in the pizza industry. This creates a highly competitive food market, which is groovy for the customer because that means that the customer service will be top notch. The competitors include Dominos, Pizza Hut, Hungry Howies, Papa Johns, poor Caesars, Marcos, Pasta Pizzeria & Grill, and Mellow Mushroom. All these companies are within a 20 mile radius.In a lucrative market similar the pizza one, the more competitors the better the customer service because it is so competitive. commercialise Analysis The pizza market can be very lucrative, then it is very competitive. There are low barriers to entry for this market because there is not a perfect way to make a pizza, so there is a lot of room for different types and different restaurants. CiCis has established itself as a top competitor in this market. The pizza segment of the food industry represents 11. 7% of all restaurants and accounts for more than 10% of a ll foodservice sales (Pizza Franchise Report 2011, 2011).Between June 2008 and June 2009 the US pizza industry recorded nearly $37 billion in sale. fit to Pizza Power, PMQ magazines (Pizza Marketing Quarterly) Annual effort Analysis, of the 67,554 pizza stores in the US, 59% are independently owned and inhibit 51% of total pizza sales. Franchises and chains account for 41% of the market and for nearly half the sales. The following pie charts were sourced from PMQs 2009 annual industry analytic thinking and depict the equipment failure of pizza stores in the US and a breakdown of US pizza sales (Pizza Franchise Report 2011, 2011).CiCis pizza is included into the other top chains 15%. The pizza industry experienced a loss of market share and sales during the receding as skyrocketing cheese prices and an subjoin in the cost of wheat and other pizza essentials drove up the cost of pizza. Customer Analysis Pizza is enjoyed by people from all walks of life and eating out at restaur ants is an essential break open of the American modus vivendi. According to the National Restaurant Association, 45% of adults rate that restaurants are still a major part of their lifestyle and that they will continue to frequent their front-runner restaurants.According to a persuasion completed by Mintel, 93% of Americans eat at least one pizza per month and 21% of 18 24 year olds obtain pizza more than three times per month. This is compared to only 7% of those elder over 65 eating at least one pizza per month. Pizza also proved popular with parents. About 20% of the parents surveyed verbalize that they purchase pizza more than three times per month, compared to 12% of adults with no children (Pizza Franchise Report 2011, 2011). This customer group covers much of the target market for CiCis pizza.Because so many age groups love pizza, there are many target markets for pizza places to target. These customers look for more than just a cheeseparing tasting pizza now, they l ook for a place with good deals and even better customer service. Supply Chain Activities CiCis, like many other businesses has a busy season. For CiCis their busy season is primarily during the holidays, the busiest being Thanksgiving and Christmas. For these special times of the year they need to direct just how much more products they need in order to keep the customers satisfied.The forecasting is through with(p) by looking at the previous years sales during that particular time period in addition, if there is any national media at that time. They take the dollar usage per souvenir and multiply that by the projected sales to give them how much to order of each item the items being flour, sauce, and pizza toppings (Hassell, 2011). Demand Forecasting cannot be done before there is a proper count of the pedigree. enumeration management varies from store to store, depending on what the franchise wants to do.Most stores count size up every Sunday night or Monday morning. The C iCis in Prattville counts inventory on Sunday nights. To manage the inventory they have a food cost program that you enter the ending count the computer downloads the order and uses the previous count as the beginning. The company as a undivided tries to keep food cost percentages at 28% or lower, with promote cost of 18. 5% or lower (Hassell, 2011). Once the forecasting is done, then it is time to place the order. CiCis uses an online order management system called ESOS (Exhibition & Sponsorship club System).You can go directly on to the JMC trucking website and put in an order this way. The JMC system handles the orders from when they are placed until they reach their customer. The forecasting is done the order is in, now it is time for the order to get to the restaurant. This is where CiCis takes a big leap from its competition, because of its transportation system. CiCis has become such a powerful force in the pizza industry partly because of financial aid to detail in the t ransportation channel. They own their own transportation service.JMC restaurant distribution Inc. is a full service distribution company founded by Joe Croce in 1990, after he found out that other distributors were not able to keep pace with his vision of great service, low prices and some(prenominal) it takes attitude. Today JMC serves over 600 restaurants in 35 states out of three distribution centers strategically located in Dallas, TX, Atlanta, GA and Richmond, IN. The opening of a ordinal center is in the making in Arizona. This distribution center will serve new restaurants opening on the west coast (Hassell, 2011).JMC has a well maintained fleet of over 70 power units with 48 or 52 refrigerated trailers (some with lift gates), run consistent routes each calendar week to CiCis restaurants, and return to our Dallas, Atlanta and Richmond, Indiana bases carrying freight for ourselves and others under JMC authority. JMC brings the same dedication to great prices and great servi ce to its freight customers as it does to its restaurant customers. To date, JMC has served over 1500 freight customers handling a wide tramp of dry, refrigerated and frozen products throughout the United States (JMC Restaurant Distribution INC. , 2011). but as important as the forward movement of goods, is the pinch movement. The reverse of products is sometimes an under looked put to work in many companies. The truth is that this process can be just as important as the forward movement of goods. CiCis does have a reverse process for modify or broken products. For example, if a hold of flour that comes off the truck has a hole in it or it is leaking, there is a fortune that it is contaminated so they throw the bag away. To compensate for the loss of the bag the receiving store will get one free bag of flour they next week when the truck comes in (Hassell, 2011).When the delivery truck comes to CiCis, carrying this weeks supply, it is the drivers responsibility to unload the truck. The employees at the restaurant do not help with unloading. It takes about 45 minutes to altogether get all the products off the truck and into the store (Hassell, 2011). Once the materials are in the store then the restaurants workers personal line of credit is to judge the boxes and put them up. The labeling and packaging of the boxes is not that importance in the CiCis supply chain, because the customer of the restaurant does not see what the bags of flour look like or how the pepperoni is packaged.What is important in the packaging is that the packages be able to take certain temperatures and weights because most of the trucks are refrigerated and carry lots of other products. Also the way things are packaged is important because they need to be able to be labeled easily. Damaged packages will be say right back to the JMC in the reverse process. With the forward and reverse of all these products, transportation can get pretty expensive. The facility locations are ver y important because of this. CiCis has a total of three distribution facilities that are strategically placed.The biggest of the three facilities is the one in Dallas, TX. This facility covers all the states shaded in red in the picture below. Second largest facility is the one in Atlanta, GA. This one covers the states shaded in yellow. (JMC Restaurant Distribution INC. , 2011) That is where the CiCis in Prattville Alabama gets all of its products. Last, the states shaded in blue are handled by the facility in Richmond, IN. All the facility locations were made with the main roads, possible traffic, and distance in mind.Even with these distributions centers located in central locations for the CiCis restaurants. The procurement process does not have influence on the locations, because the raw materials come from all over, they receive bids on their products and JMC makes the decision based upon the quality of that product and the other ones. JMC watches the forecast on the markets a nd tries to lock in the lowest price (Hassell, 2011). As stated previously, the pizza industry is extremely competitive, and with his competitive market, customer service is a premium.Hi, welcome to CiCis is the phrase that every employee must diddle and say to every customer that comes into the restaurant. Customer service is a dowery that this company really focuses on. On the website they have a list of guest promises that they stand by. They are as follows to do whatever it takes to exceed your expectations, to say Hi, welcome to CiCis, to guarantee you a full-hot-fresh buffet, and to use our names to make you favorite pizza, to serve you in a fun, sparkling clean restaurant, and to say goodbye, come back and see us (CiCis Pizza).The pizza industry is so competitive that the best way to get new customers and keep the trustworthy customers is to have the best customer service around. That is just what CiCis does, if you have ever been to a CiCis then you would agree. Recommen dations Pizza is very much part of the American way of life, with Americans eating approximately 100 dry land of pizza each day, or 350 slices per second. Although the pizza industry experienced a decrease in sales during the recession, the beginning of 2011 has seen an sum up in sales.The information and implementation of new technology and marketing strategies has enabled the pizza industry to conciliate to growing consumer demands for cheap, fast, and convenient products. CiCis has done a good job establishing itself as a top competitor in this market. In order for CiCis to compete with the top pizza franchises in the market, such as Pizza Hut, they need to get more creative. CiCis needs to increase their marketing budget, this would create more awareness to their target customers and increase sales.CiCis need to become a household name and in order to do that there needs to be more franchises. Currently CiCis only has restaurants in 37 states. If they were to expand into all 50 states and increase their marketing then I believe the CiCis would be the best pizza franchise in the United States. Conclusion After all, the do whatever it takes to exceed the guests expectations is a great mission statement that CiCis defiantly goes by. This great company has expanded from one restaurant in Plano, Texas to over 600 in 35 states in 25 years.That is a great accomplishment, and they are not done yet. With a plan to build more restaurants in the future, you can expect to see CiCis at the top of the pizza industry very soon. The supply chain management is one of the best in the industry because they own part of their supply chain. JMC has helped CiCis continue to grow at a fast rate and will continue to grow itself. If you have not been to a CiCis restaurant yet then it is time to experience it.References CiCis Pizza. (2011, November 7). Retrieved November 30, 2011, from wikipedia. com http//en. wikipedia.org/wiki/CiCis_Pizza JMC Restaurant Distribution INC. (201 1). Retrieved November 8, 2011, from cicistrucking. com http//cicistrucking. com/about_jmc. html Pizza Franchise Report 2011. (2011).Retrieved November 24, 2011, from Franchisedirect. com http//www. franchisedirect. com/foodfranchises/pizzafranchises/pizzafranchiseindustryreport20111/80/292Ref1 CiCis Pizza. (n. d. ). Retrieved November 26, 2011, from Welcome to CiCis Pizza http//www. cicispizza. com/_template. phpScene_1 Hassell, M. (2011, November 12). Regional Manager. (J. Montgomery, Interviewer).