Pizza Month

The origins of this iconic food has long been debated. Many credit Naples, Italy as the birthplace of this dish. Some date it back further in time to Greece or even ancient Egypt. Others argue that pizza as we recognize it today started in New York City at the turn of the 20^th century. The debate rages on. While we can’t figure out where it started, we know one thing for sure. Americans can never get enough of the stuff.

The time of year where the pie is lifted to the top of the food chain is soon to be upon us. October is National Pizza Month. That is all the more reason why clubs and courses should take some serious stock in their slice game.

Need more reasons. Here are three:

1. Pizza is the people’s choice during the pandemic. A recent Technomics industry insights study found that nearly half of the American population has been ordering more pizza since the COVID crisis started in March. There was already a lot of pizza being eaten. How much? The average American eats 46 slices of pizza a year with 83% of our fellow countrymen eating the stuff every month and 43% of us eating it at least once a week! That’s a lot of carry out.

The recent increase is pizza sales as been credited to people’s desire to dine on the comfortable and familiar and part of it is it’s so darn easy to call up and carry out. Definitely something for your club’s kitchen to consider.

2. Pizza = Profit. Providing something your patrons want usually heads the list of culinary goals of a club. With pizza on the menu, that box is checked. Next in line is typically watching costs to keep budgets in line. Pizza provides a great solution for that as well.

The ingredients needed and prep time invested with pizza production can lower food costs and thus increase profits. The typical gourmet pizzeria runs at food costs much lower than the 32-40 percent food cost seen in the club industry. A restaurant owner study found an average of 27 percent food cost with upscale pizza operations. That’s making more dough—literally and figuratively!

3. ClubProcure can help you slice the costs of your slices even more. Staying on the topic of cutting costs, ClubProcure has aggressive contracts on nearly every product you need to make pizza. From cheese to cauliflower crusts and pepperoni to pizza boxes, we have hundreds of items that carry both volume allowance cash back when purchased from aligned distributors. Many of these SKUs also have lower front-end pricing if your club participates in ClubProcure’s Culinary Program and items are purchased through Sysco or from a regional distributor such as Gordon Food Service.

A number of these manufacturers—Conagra, Tyson, Great Lakes Cheese, and Rich’s—are helping us with our Pizza Promo (see the promo HERE) going on now through the end of October.  

Who cares about who started the pizza craze? All that matters now is your patrons love eating it and that trend isn’t slowing down especially now. So let’s get those pizza ovens fired up and circular cutters sharpened. We have some pizzas to make!