We at the moment are almost halfway by the second quarter of 2009. The pizza business has felt the burden of the higher American financial image, however the dismal panorama exterior our piece of the foodservice sector hasn’t stored operators from transferring ahead. There isn’t any doubt occasions are robust. In case your comp gross sales are fl at, you’re doing effectively. In the event that they’re solely down 3-5 p.c, you might be in the identical boat as a lot of the remainder of the business.
However there’s gentle on the finish of this proverbial tunnel. The truth is, a brilliant beacon of hope shone in mid-March on the Worldwide Pizza Expo. In Las Vegas, of all locations, gentle is in prepared provide. The 2009 model of Worldwide Pizza Expo was no exception. When the reveals closed for the ultimate time on Thursday, March 12, roughly 10,000 pizza professionals had gathered beneath the identical roof to advance our business. The present had greater than 900 exhibiting firms and almost 5,700 attendees. The latter quantity just about mirrors the attendance at Worldwide Pizza Expo 2008, which turned out to be the second-largest Expo in historical past.
To place it merely: this 12 months’s Expo was a convincing success. For me personally, it turned out to be essentially the most pleasurable Expo I’ve ever labored. Not as a result of it was the present’s twenty fifth anniversary or as a result of it was so busy, however as a result of I may sense the palpable resolve and vitality that threaded its method by the air. The hard-working pizzeria house owners in attendance weren’t rolling over within the face of adversity. They had been preventing again. They had been unified of their willpower and I didn’t really feel a way of desperation. As an alternative, I picked up on an pressing want to make the most of schooling to the fullest by the use of the Expo’s seminars — and to place new concepts to speedy motion. The attendees had been hungry, however in a wholesome method. Pushed is perhaps a greater phrase.
As I walked the present ground or sat within the Pizza Right now sales space, I had scores of pizzeria operators pull me apart to share a fast ‘Thanks.’ They weren’t thanking me personally — they had been thanking Pizza Right now and Worldwide Pizza Expo. They shared tales of how a sure article within the journal or a sure product they discovered on the present ground of a previous Expo helped catapult their enterprise to profitability. Many informed me they wouldn’t be in enterprise as we speak if it weren’t for the journal or the tradeshow. As you may think, these remarks served as an elixir — they jogged my memory of why the workers of Pizza Right now and Worldwide Pizza Expo take their duties so critically. Thanks to everybody who took a second of their time to say hiya throughout the present. Your suggestions is crucial to us right here at Pizza Right now.
In case you had been at this 12 months’s Expo, then I’ve little doubt it rejuvenated you and gave you hope that higher days for this business are simply across the nook. The truth is, it ought to have informed you that this business is more healthy than you dreamed to think about earlier than March 10. Pizza has lastly shed its passive defensive mentality and moved into assault mode. There’s momentum to construct on — don’t again down now.
Greatest,
Jeremy White, editor-in-chief
We at the moment are almost halfway by the second quarter of 2009. The pizza business has felt the burden of the higher American financial image, however the dismal panorama exterior our piece of the foodservice sector hasn’t stored operators from transferring ahead. There isn’t any doubt occasions are robust. In case your comp gross sales are fl at, you’re doing effectively. In the event that they’re solely down 3-5 p.c, you might be in the identical boat as a lot of the remainder of the business.
However there’s gentle on the finish of this proverbial tunnel. The truth is, a brilliant beacon of hope shone in mid-March on the Worldwide Pizza Expo. In Las Vegas, of all locations, gentle is in prepared provide. The 2009 model of Worldwide Pizza Expo was no exception. When the reveals closed for the ultimate time on Thursday, March 12, roughly 10,000 pizza professionals had gathered beneath the identical roof to advance our business. The present had greater than 900 exhibiting firms and almost 5,700 attendees. The latter quantity just about mirrors the attendance at Worldwide Pizza Expo 2008, which turned out to be the second-largest Expo in historical past.
To place it merely: this 12 months’s Expo was a convincing success. For me personally, it turned out to be essentially the most pleasurable Expo I’ve ever labored. Not as a result of it was the present’s twenty fifth anniversary or as a result of it was so busy, however as a result of I may sense the palpable resolve and vitality that threaded its method by the air. The hard-working pizzeria house owners in attendance weren’t rolling over within the face of adversity. They had been preventing again. They had been unified of their willpower and I didn’t really feel a way of desperation. As an alternative, I picked up on an pressing want to make the most of schooling to the fullest by the use of the Expo’s seminars — and to place new concepts to speedy motion. The attendees had been hungry, however in a wholesome method. Pushed is perhaps a greater phrase.
As I walked the present ground or sat within the Pizza Right now sales space, I had scores of pizzeria operators pull me apart to share a fast ‘Thanks.’ They weren’t thanking me personally — they had been thanking Pizza Right now and Worldwide Pizza Expo. They shared tales of how a sure article within the journal or a sure product they discovered on the present ground of a previous Expo helped catapult their enterprise to profitability. Many informed me they wouldn’t be in enterprise as we speak if it weren’t for the journal or the tradeshow. As you may think, these remarks served as an elixir — they jogged my memory of why the workers of Pizza Right now and Worldwide Pizza Expo take their duties so critically. Thanks to everybody who took a second of their time to say hiya throughout the present. Your suggestions is crucial to us right here at Pizza Right now.
In case you had been at this 12 months’s Expo, then I’ve little doubt it rejuvenated you and gave you hope that higher days for this business are simply across the nook. The truth is, it ought to have informed you that this business is more healthy than you dreamed to think about earlier than March 10. Pizza has lastly shed its passive defensive mentality and moved into assault mode. There’s momentum to construct on — don’t again down now.
Greatest,
Jeremy White, editor-in-chief
