A spotty teenage Business Studies student can tell you that in order to be successful you need to get the 'four Ps' of marketing right. Product, excellent pizza, check. Price, with the introduction of a mini margherita, check. Promotion, big wood fired oven and free tasters, check. Place, Cosham Food Festival, epic fail. The student looks on smugly as he goes about being another one of the masses who can talk good business, but doesn't have the 'huevos' to go and do it.
In fairness we need to be getting out to any event that will have us, and on paper it didn't look too bad. A food festival, close to home and a modest stall fee. The writing was on the wall though as we rocked into Cosham in the big red van. Pound Stretcher, Bingo hall, pawn shop were predominant on the high street. Bacon and bean slice from Greg's, yum yum. Freshly made wood fired pizza made with love and fresh ingredients, not so much. Now a well oiled unit we are beating other stall holders in setting up which gives me a huge amount of satisfaction. Growing up with three brothers has over inflated my competitiveness somewhat, but it's no mean feat setting up a working kitchen complete with wood fired oven in less time than it takes someone to put up a flimsy gazebo and enough trinkets to make a stallholder in the souks of Marrakesh jealous.
The lunch rush was brief. We sold some pizza, but not a lot. Got some great feedback, nver getting bored of it - we need to turn fantastic comments in to hard dollar. I shouldn't be so harsh, we gave out quite a few business cards and made some good contacts with other stall holders and event organizers. If we keep making a consistent and quality product the sales will come. James made his first appearance of the summer as front of house and con-seeded that he prefers to sell to people who ring you up everyday to place an order. It's hard graft on the streets and we all now have a gnats toe of more respect for the idiots on the apprentice.
Sunday 26 June 2011
Tuesday 14 June 2011
Open Farm Sunday
Having completed the 'Open Farm Sunday' outing in howling rain and wind we are now considered hardened outside caterers. Jessica was back again to help and she of course did a sterling job although it was so cold the tractor wheel nuts weren't only on the tractors! The Bogris bunch are made of stern old stuff so with a rod inserted up Edwards backside we carried on and produced some pretty special pizzas..... much to the surprise of everyone there who seemed to think that Eds' hobby wasn't going to feed everyone so had ordered in a Hog Roast as well to cater for the sub 50 people that turned up to the actually quite well organised event. I think the idea was in the competitive spirit of the supermarket supply chain (the Farm are beaten upon regularly) translating that philosophy to their local village open farm style event.
Luckily for us it was so cold and miserable that most people ate both things; the pizza most definitely trumped the hog roast people who seemed to be as much in the dark as us about two caterers being arranged. It also helped that Ed had pre-empted a potential wash out and organised pizza tokens with the event oranisers for farm staff who were helping out. Pat on the back for Edward!
It's always nice to receive genuine amazement at how good our pizzas are but so far it hasn't yielded repeat customers as we tend to leave the place of retail and never come back. The benefits of a retail shop start to become apparent. Never the less we are going to continue to put out a quality product regardless of the fact that repeat custom is rare in the vain hope that someone will actually want to hire us for an event or see us again. Accountant friends have suggested that we put out the cheapest pizza possible as we are never going to see most customers again; we want to make the world a better place though so twiddles to them!
A big thanks to Langmeads for having us at their event and Jessica for being a faith full little helper.
Friday 10 June 2011
Thursday 9 June 2011
Becoming a 'Man with a Van'
Taking the plunge and buying a van was not an easy decision. We knew we need a van for the business, but the most cost effective way of running one while keeping all parties happy was a puzzler. In the end the writing was on the wall for the Punto and I traded it in to become the proud owner of a Fiat Scudo 2.0l JTD. Ryan says the JTD was invented by Alfa Romeo, and I for one believe him, so technically I drive an Alfa Romeo. Still get some funny looks though when cruising to work in shirt, tie, glasses and a big red van. I don't care, I've got a van. Already I've noticed the massive respect I get from other highway users, compared to the Punto anyway. And you can cut people up and they just put it down to 'van drivers' generically rather than thinking that me as a person is a bad driver. Not that I am, but was pretty surprised that the insurance is less when I put Ryan 'no points, no crashes' Noble as a named driver. Result.
What wasn't a result was the lack of radio/cd player when faced with the 4 hour trip to Hay. I even contemplated borrowing Millsy's Best of Meatloaf tape for the journey, but it didn't take much contemplation. Listening to the voices in my head would be much better. Actually, after the first ten miles I ran out of Dizzee Rascal lyrics to rap to and did start to listen to my mind wandering. Pretty inane stuff really and not much worth writing about. I did discover why tramps often suddenly shout stuff randomly. It is born out of complete and utter boredom, as cruising at 50mph behind Ryan and the pizza oven led me to shout out occasional random statements. "Oh, we going to eeebizza!" was a favourite. Worryingly.
The other thing about going at 50mph was the time you have to watch stuff going on around you. A kestrel was spotted, swerving between haulage lorries as it eyed up it's lunch. At 50mph we got to see it hover and dive, nailing it's prey right between the barriers of the central reservation. Which got me thinking about why it would choose to hunt on a motorway? Perhaps it used to be nice countryside until we tarmacked it. Then I thought about it chewing on the carbon monoxide poisoned lungs of the mouse it had bagged and that a nice country mouse would be so much tastier.
Luckily we reached Ryan's ancestral home before I went completely insane.
Note to self: Get down Argos and get yourself a car stereo.
What wasn't a result was the lack of radio/cd player when faced with the 4 hour trip to Hay. I even contemplated borrowing Millsy's Best of Meatloaf tape for the journey, but it didn't take much contemplation. Listening to the voices in my head would be much better. Actually, after the first ten miles I ran out of Dizzee Rascal lyrics to rap to and did start to listen to my mind wandering. Pretty inane stuff really and not much worth writing about. I did discover why tramps often suddenly shout stuff randomly. It is born out of complete and utter boredom, as cruising at 50mph behind Ryan and the pizza oven led me to shout out occasional random statements. "Oh, we going to eeebizza!" was a favourite. Worryingly.
The other thing about going at 50mph was the time you have to watch stuff going on around you. A kestrel was spotted, swerving between haulage lorries as it eyed up it's lunch. At 50mph we got to see it hover and dive, nailing it's prey right between the barriers of the central reservation. Which got me thinking about why it would choose to hunt on a motorway? Perhaps it used to be nice countryside until we tarmacked it. Then I thought about it chewing on the carbon monoxide poisoned lungs of the mouse it had bagged and that a nice country mouse would be so much tastier.
Luckily we reached Ryan's ancestral home before I went completely insane.
Note to self: Get down Argos and get yourself a car stereo.
Sunday 5 June 2011
Food Fair
With our new found confidence from the Hay festival weekend we entered the Petersfield food festival with high expectations and a general feeling that we were invincible- like James Bond. Consequently we hiked up our prices and arrived with lots of dough and sauce of which we sold under half! Compounding problems were my rather soggy batches of dough (trying to copy Jesses proficient effort the week before); our new super woman Nick managed to flour them up with great effort so we could make a few pizzas at least, Ed then decided that a quarter of the volume demanded a half effort; pizza quality was emerging somewhat varied and at times the oven was not being stoked to the required heat by my good self. Front of house Liv was popping pain killers willy nilly for the board em but failed to stave off the outer appearance!
Petersfield food festival turned out to be a strange one with punters perversely not really in the market for food; instead opting for the 'cake shake' or an ice cream once they had tried all the samples along the stalls. The idea of a cake blended with ice cream and milk was to good an opportunity to pass up so everyone in the stall par toke; myself opting for the black forest gateau! This, coupled with the competition selling lack lust-re cheap food, was the general vibe of the festival. It was with little sorrow that we decided to pack up at 7.15 having pulled a 12 hour day of not doing a lot and being on our feet all day; just as the live music picked up and a little atmosphere started to enter the arena!
On reflection we have surmised that like an F1 car we struggle going at half speeds without encountering problems. As a result we are going to make 60 pizzas an hour regardless at any event and sell them on an open market based system. Liv is going to be our floor trader and adjust prices according to market demand. Bartering each pizza out at a min of £2 to shift units and a maximum of £10 when folks can't get enough. She'll get paid on a percentage of the sales she makes. Boom! It's all going 80's style go gettem pizza making at Piu Pizza.
Wise thoughts:
When one has a dish washer instead of putting plates on the side put them straight in to the dishwasher.
Petersfield food festival turned out to be a strange one with punters perversely not really in the market for food; instead opting for the 'cake shake' or an ice cream once they had tried all the samples along the stalls. The idea of a cake blended with ice cream and milk was to good an opportunity to pass up so everyone in the stall par toke; myself opting for the black forest gateau! This, coupled with the competition selling lack lust-re cheap food, was the general vibe of the festival. It was with little sorrow that we decided to pack up at 7.15 having pulled a 12 hour day of not doing a lot and being on our feet all day; just as the live music picked up and a little atmosphere started to enter the arena!
On reflection we have surmised that like an F1 car we struggle going at half speeds without encountering problems. As a result we are going to make 60 pizzas an hour regardless at any event and sell them on an open market based system. Liv is going to be our floor trader and adjust prices according to market demand. Bartering each pizza out at a min of £2 to shift units and a maximum of £10 when folks can't get enough. She'll get paid on a percentage of the sales she makes. Boom! It's all going 80's style go gettem pizza making at Piu Pizza.
Wise thoughts:
When one has a dish washer instead of putting plates on the side put them straight in to the dishwasher.
Thursday 2 June 2011
The aftermath
A fair wind blew us all the way to the Puckshipton asparagus party early Saturday morning; resulting in significant fuel savings and a feeling of general good times to come. After pilfering some wood fuel from the Noble estate our new lady helper proved we could set up and prepare the dough for the evenings asparagus party in ample time; giving us time to pontificate about the onslaught to come- and lash down the tent against the 60 m.p.h gusts shimmying the tent left right and center.
With everybody suitably fashionably late; the young age units were the first to drip the trendy buffet style pizza provided by us all over our table and their persons- one such item described our oven as 'magic' as the pizza went in uncooked and came out finished; we agree. Adults as well were suitably over awed by the magic, so much so that they liked to stand in front of our oven and feel affronted when they are asked to move- by the end of the night I had managed to not upset or bash anyone along with surviving flighty winds and lashings of rain. To bed at 1:00 a.m. having made 130 od pizzas and packed up ready to leave for Haye at 6:30 a.m.
Picking up a hungover helper unit on the way to the place of books we were soon set up in the shadow of Hay castle and before we knew what was happening had an onslaught of people demanding pizza and asking how we could prove it was wood fired. Pretty soon there was chaos amongst the various clowns, circus types and live music circulating the stall translating in to chaos in the pizza arena; pizzas sticking and burnt, orders muddled and finally dough running low. Fortunately lady Caroline had rode her trusty steed all the way from the Harrods PR department; arrived, exercised her steely feminine strong will to inform punters that we were shutting down the operation to take stock/ re-stock and re organise for an hour. This we did and under a watchful eye we progressed seamlessly from there on- chucking out pizzas till the cows came home. At about 7.00 ish.
With hospitality provided by the Shepard's Ice Cream (super lush and healthy) empire we were to bed and out cold suitably early having sold just under 200 pizzas! The next day we rolled in at 10:00 a.m. to find it lashing with rain and miserable- you're never dry in Hay-on-Wye; feeling pretty gloomy, people coming in dribs and drabs, we thought we would sell nothing; with the Shepards shop opposite doing a roaring trade as usual. People emerged however and by one we had a large cue as per the day before; without our PR guru we had her prodigy Liv who with her crash course training (and refreshed self) oiled the front of house machine that kept the cogs turning beautifully; inspiring comments that we were all far to 'calming and angelic like'. Finishing the day with a similar turnover we packed up exhausted and ready to go home at 8:00 p.m. and decided to head home once Ed has taken his pills of the 'man up' variety.
All in all a very successful weekend with lessons to be learnt and heart to be taken! We thank a heroic effort from Jessica for showing Ed how to do his job, a front of house masterclass from Caroline, Liv for handling the second day effortlessly by herslef and making everyones jobs a breeze, and Juliet and the Shepard's crew for being a rock of support.
On to the Petersfield food festival on Saturday; we're featured in the Petersfield post! Keep the good times coming!
Quote of the weekend
Punter: 'Bonjourno'
Liv: 'Errrr. It's not French actually. It's Italian' (said in a west country teenage don't you know way).
With everybody suitably fashionably late; the young age units were the first to drip the trendy buffet style pizza provided by us all over our table and their persons- one such item described our oven as 'magic' as the pizza went in uncooked and came out finished; we agree. Adults as well were suitably over awed by the magic, so much so that they liked to stand in front of our oven and feel affronted when they are asked to move- by the end of the night I had managed to not upset or bash anyone along with surviving flighty winds and lashings of rain. To bed at 1:00 a.m. having made 130 od pizzas and packed up ready to leave for Haye at 6:30 a.m.
Picking up a hungover helper unit on the way to the place of books we were soon set up in the shadow of Hay castle and before we knew what was happening had an onslaught of people demanding pizza and asking how we could prove it was wood fired. Pretty soon there was chaos amongst the various clowns, circus types and live music circulating the stall translating in to chaos in the pizza arena; pizzas sticking and burnt, orders muddled and finally dough running low. Fortunately lady Caroline had rode her trusty steed all the way from the Harrods PR department; arrived, exercised her steely feminine strong will to inform punters that we were shutting down the operation to take stock/ re-stock and re organise for an hour. This we did and under a watchful eye we progressed seamlessly from there on- chucking out pizzas till the cows came home. At about 7.00 ish.
With hospitality provided by the Shepard's Ice Cream (super lush and healthy) empire we were to bed and out cold suitably early having sold just under 200 pizzas! The next day we rolled in at 10:00 a.m. to find it lashing with rain and miserable- you're never dry in Hay-on-Wye; feeling pretty gloomy, people coming in dribs and drabs, we thought we would sell nothing; with the Shepards shop opposite doing a roaring trade as usual. People emerged however and by one we had a large cue as per the day before; without our PR guru we had her prodigy Liv who with her crash course training (and refreshed self) oiled the front of house machine that kept the cogs turning beautifully; inspiring comments that we were all far to 'calming and angelic like'. Finishing the day with a similar turnover we packed up exhausted and ready to go home at 8:00 p.m. and decided to head home once Ed has taken his pills of the 'man up' variety.
All in all a very successful weekend with lessons to be learnt and heart to be taken! We thank a heroic effort from Jessica for showing Ed how to do his job, a front of house masterclass from Caroline, Liv for handling the second day effortlessly by herslef and making everyones jobs a breeze, and Juliet and the Shepard's crew for being a rock of support.
On to the Petersfield food festival on Saturday; we're featured in the Petersfield post! Keep the good times coming!
Quote of the weekend
Punter: 'Bonjourno'
Liv: 'Errrr. It's not French actually. It's Italian' (said in a west country teenage don't you know way).
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