Pizza Marketplace - Winter 2007 - (Page 16) he said. “You know what you’re getting, kind of like when you go to McDonald’s. You know what’s there.” A hallmark of CPK restaurants is community involvement. Restaurants conduct CPKids Restaurant Tours that offer children behindthe-scenes access, as well as a host of other school partnerships. The company also has partnered with several established restaurant operators to open locations around the world. Recent openings include restaurants in Mexico City, Hong Kong and Seoul, South Korea. “We say we are the world’s premium pizza, not just the United States’ premium pizza,” Flax said. “In order to say that, we have to open up around the world. We partner with some pretty good people to do that.” Consumers can enjoy the company’s pizzas even in areas where the company hasn’t yet opened a restaurant. In 1997, the company partnered with Kraft Pizza Co. to offer a line of California Pizza Kitchen frozen pizza. Today, the frozen pizza line is available in 17,000 retail outlets in all 50 states. “It primes the pump for us,” Rosenfield said. “When we go open in a new area, people come in and tell us they’ve tried our frozen pizza and they are really thrilled to see the restaurant.” a comparable-store sales growth of 2 to 3 percent in 2008. Flax and Rosenfield also have published “The California Pizza Kitchen Cookbook,” outlining recipes for many of the dishes served in the restaurant. They aren’t concerned, though, that a competitor might use those recipes to their own advantage. “The moving parts of the restaurant business are much more than just coming up with a good concept and the same thing is true of the recipes,” Rosenfield said. “At the end of the day, the success of a restaurant business has little to do with recipes. It’s the menu coming together with the service and the ambiance. Everybody’s copied our BBQ chicken pizza, but that’s not what brings people back.” Despite how far the company has come, challenges remain the same as they were 22 years ago. “We have over 14,000 employees right now,” Rosenfield said. “It’s always going to be getting the right people.” Flax agreed with Rosenfield’s assessment. “Developing great new interesting food is always a challenge,” he said. “But ultimately it’s the people who are going to execute the service.” A look at the future California Pizza Kitchen is slated to open approximately 17 new full-service restaurants in 2008, along with a minimum of six international full-service franchise restaurants. Also planned are at least four domestic CPK/ ASAP franchise locations and one new LA Food Show restaurant. The company projects revenue growth of approximately 14 percent to 15 percent and 16 WINTER 2007/SPRING 2008 | PIZZ A MARKETPLACE REPORT
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