|
 Business Examiner
December 10th, 2007
During the past year, Farrelli's Wood Fire Pizza has seen great success - adding a fifth location at the highly-touted Garfield Commons in Parkland and getting kudos from Pizza Today magazine as the "Independent Pizza Chain of the Year."
While recognition and accolades are nice, the Farrell family is much more intent on forging a great reputation not only with its customers, but with its employees as well. The extended Farrelli's family continues to grow as locations are added. The company now operates locations in DuPont, Parkland, Tacoma, Sumner and Lacey.
Co-founder John Farrell attributes the company’s growth to many factors.
“We developed a menu based on very high quality pizza that is cooked in our wood fired oven. We teach our pizzaoli (pizza makers) that each round of pizza dough is a palette, and their job is to transform it into a beautiful work of art! We are passionate about the quality of our hand-crafted pizzas, and we think our customers appreciate the difference that makes,” he said. “Second, and every bit as important, our business culture teaches all staff how to both take care of our customers and take care of each other, truly creating a family within a family. Service to each other and our community is a basic part of our business model. Third, the quality of our décor is not what you expect from a pizza restaurant; we want our customers to relax, take their time, and enjoy their meal, and we create a warm, welcoming ambience to promote that.
“We think that these factors – a distinguished wood fired pizza, our great staff, and our warm and relaxing environments – distinguish us from our pizza competitors,” he added.
Because of a love for family, food and business ownership, the Farrell clan has been able to find success in a relatively difficult industry. Margaret and John Farrell joined forces with daughter Jacquelyn to develop the Farrelli’s brand. The three are partners in the business, but the Farrell family involvement doesn’t stop there. Jacquelyn’s sister, Lizz, is the DuPont store general manager.
Niece Madison is beginning her initiation into the business and Jacquelyn’s cousin, Teresa Suprak, serves as a partner and president of operations.
The family has watched the company bloom.
“We opened our first store in Lacey in 1995. It took us until 2004 to open our second store in DuPont. When the second store exceeded our expectations right out of the gate, we thought ‘maybe we have something here.’ So in 2005 we built and opened a Farrelli’s in Sumner. Wow – it did better than DuPont and exceeded our projections. So why not try again? Our Tacoma store opened in 2006, and Parkland in 2007. Every store we opened has outdone the last,” the patriarch said. “We expect revenues of more than $10 million in 2007.”
While the family continues to be thrilled with the success of the pizza concept, success has brought some challenges.
Growth brought on management challenges, but fortunately, Suprak has been able to help create a more disciplined business plan and was key in developing the teams that opened the last two restaurants.
“Having the right people doing the right things has always been one of the keys to our success,” John Farrell said. “Nurturing talent, helping young people develop career paths, and creating a culture of professional and personal growth pays huge dividends – both for our business, and for our community.”
The success, both with their product and with their family of employees, has the Farrell family considering further expansion.
“We plan to double in size in the next five years. We are licensed to sell franchises in the states of Washington, Oregon and California. We are actively looking for area developers to take our concept to other regions of the country. We will be looking to hire a vice president of franchise development to help us expand,” John Farrell said.
His outlook remains positive and he doesn’t expect to have any roadblocks thrown in front of him as the company continues to implement its growth plan.
“We don’t see any impediments to our continued growth and success – and if, and when, we do, we’re confident that we have the right team in place to identify and overcome them,” he said.
Ultimately, John Farrell said virtually any business can learn from the Farrelli’s model.
“Young people are capable of becoming partners in your business. My daughter Jacque has taught us that we hire most importantly for character, not for experience,” he said. “All the managers in our stores have come from within. Several started with us at 15 years of age as dishwashers and worked their way to cook, to kitchen manager, to assistant manager and to manager. They are now stockholders in the stores they manage.”
|
