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Mozzarella through the roof

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New_York_Charlie

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I just spoke with my Roma rep(and close friend thank God) and he gave me a heads up that that mozz is going up about 14 cents almost immediately. He has no reason to lie to me and he knows I deal with other companies and that hasn’t affected our friendship so I believe what he says is true. That being said, I have a question. I currently use a two cheese mozzarella blend, one being GRANDE. With Grande going up to around $2.30 a pound, does anyone have any advice on a comparable cheese substitute?? I have a very unique taste for the area where I live and don’t want to lose it. I make my own pizza sauce and I blend Grande WM and PS with another brand PS but I am starting to worry that with the price of mozzarella going through the roof I won’t be able to continue with this combination. Any suggestions??? Thanks
 
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We blend Grande w/the GFS brand…I believe it is packed by Saputo…I’ve used Saputo b4 and they offer a range of blends…

I was also a fan, at one time of Sorrento…their 3% WM was great…it was Sysco house brand yrs ago, b4 US Foods bought them out…

Ck w/ US Foods, as GFS might not serve your area…
 
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I currently blend the Grande with a Saputo product. Lugano is packaged for Ferraro and is a Saputo product as well as Riselli which is packaged for U.S. Foods. The problem I found with both is they do well when blended with the Grande but I’m not a fan when used by themselves. I also found that Piancone(Roma) is a decent mixer but again, not a fan if it stands alone. I may just have to suck it up until mozzarella comes down. I’ve been hooked on Grande since I first opened…I just love the melt, the texture, the smell, the taste…where was I again…I’m only as finicky as my customers 🙂
 
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I use the Roselli (USFoods proprietary band) 50/50 mozzPS/provolone. I get great flavor, melt and taste. Though I’ve neve rused Grande, I am very happy with the flavor profile I get with my sauce/cheese combination. Adding provolone to you mix with a non-Grande cheese may give you the melt, stretch and flavor profile you’re looking for.
 
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I wish I could get mozza for $2.30 /lb. I am paying $4.30 and that is the lowest priced supplier others are at $4.50 for the same cheese. We really get screwed over in Canada. The government does a number on us here.
Check this out http://www.dairyplanet.ca/
 
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Hello Charlie, I use the same grande blend as you and in all honesty…there is no comparison.I tried many diff. angles that people said tasted as good if not better than Grande,and it wasn’t close, butt I am also a finicky mutha. :shock: I just bite the bullet and go with the price changes…remember consistency IS everything!
Niccademo in Philly
 
One of the most common mistakes people make when the cheese market goes up is to switch to a lower quality product or skimp on the portion. Although there are many high quality cheeses available, if you like what you are using, don’t change just to save a few bucks. Portion control is important, even more so when the cheese market is so high, but to shrink your portion is not the answer either. The best thing you can do is continue to make the best product you can while your competition changes recipes and portions. Even if the price of cheese goes up $.80 and you assume 12 ounces of chees on a large pizza, your cost only goes up $.60 per pizza. If you raise your price $.75 per pizza you have increased your profit $.15 per pizza and hopefully gaines new customers since your competition has cut back their quality and or portions.
 
New York Charlie:
I just spoke with my Roma rep(and close friend thank God) and he gave me a heads up that that mozz is going up about 14 cents almost immediately. He has no reason to lie to me and he knows I deal with other companies and that hasn’t affected our friendship so I believe what he says is true. That being said, I have a question. I currently use a two cheese mozzarella blend, one being GRANDE. With Grande going up to around $2.30 a pound, does anyone have any advice on a comparable cheese substitute?? I have a very unique taste for the area where I live and don’t want to lose it. I make my own pizza sauce and I blend Grande WM and PS with another brand PS but I am starting to worry that with the price of mozzarella going through the roof I won’t be able to continue with this combination. Any suggestions??? Thanks
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You know all that ethanol fuel their making? Corn. So feed prices are up. Add to that transportation prices. Add to that a minimum wage increase on the way. There are your causes- haven’t seen the bad part of it yet. It could get real ugly folks.
 
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everybody needs to raise their prices. pass along your increases to your customers just like every other business. profit is not a dirty word cuttin quality hurts all of us. just based on cost of living increases from 1984 a large cheese pie should be almost $20. I charge $11.95 with no problem people will pay for quality
 
I was in Spokane recently…It seems people have no problem paying U$80.00 a couple for a dinner at Outback but a U$9.95 pizza is too expensive…Hmmmm…RCS…
 
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royster13:
I was in Spokane recently…It seems people have no problem paying U$80.00 a couple for a dinner at Outback but a U$9.95 pizza is too expensive…Hmmmm…RCS…
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:roll: This confuses me as well. Applebee’s or those other sit down casuals will run $10-12 a person (not including tip of course). But at my place you can easily feed four for $25.
 
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Hate to tell everybody but the early prognosis for this cheese situatuin is that it will continue to go up and we will not see it go down until November.
 
Raise your price raise your price charge what it is worth you cant save yourself to profitabilty
 
Why is everybody flipping out over high cheese prices? I’m sure most of you have been in this business long enough to know cheese prices increase in the summer months, and will get even higher come August when school starts. Then, after the initial school rush subsides, it drops back down again in the fall through spring… then increases again. This isn’t a new phenomenon.

One good thing about these summer months is that more people are out and about increasing carryout and dine in sales, thus lowering labor costs. You can’t do anything about rising cheese prices so maybe start focusing more heavily on running great labor with your newfound pickup and dine in business since you don’t need drivers for these customers. Your lower labor costs should more than offset increased food costs due to high cheese prices.

This is just an opinion.

-J_r0kk
 
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the difference is cheese is 50 cents higher a pound as it was a year ago this same date. At my volume, that equates to almost $1000 per week. definatly a reason to flip out.
 
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Paul,

Are you sure it’s $1000? That seems a bit much:

$1,000 @ 50 cents/pound = 2,000 pounds of cheese.

2,000 pounds of cheese x 16 oz. per pound = 32,000 oz. of cheese

Avg. pizza = 10 oz. cheese

This means you would have to make 3,200 pizzas/week

I thought you were more around 1,600 pizzas/week? 1,600 pizzas would equate to a raised food cost of $500/wk:

$500 / $20,000 = 2.5% increase in food cost. Surely with the increased carryout sales you can decrease your labor by that 2.5% huh?

-J_r0kk
 
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j_r0kk:
Why is everybody flipping out over high cheese prices? I’m sure most of you have been in this business long enough to know cheese prices increase in the summer months, and will get even higher come August when school starts. Then, after the initial school rush subsides, it drops back down again in the fall through spring… then increases again. This isn’t a new phenomenon.
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Similar cycles with chicken wings. We aim our pricing for just above the median costs and focus on increasing efficiency, carry out action and top line numbers during pricing surges. We run specials on high margin items when we get prcing surges and trim back the specials a little here and there.

Thankfully, they haven’t been the same times always with wings and cheese, so we don’t take a complete bath in the same months every year.
 
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My ideal usage last week was 1570 lbs of mozz and 60 lbs of prov. So if every pizza had the ideal it cost me $815 more than it would have at last years prices. My point in the last post was that what we are seeing is more than year to year cyclical increases. April and May do not historically see huge increases in cheese like late June, or moreso July and August. If we see typical late summer increases, we’ll be looking at $2.00 per pound block market prices.
 
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Jr0kk - What is this increased carryout sales you speak of? My carryout to delivery sales ratio does not fluctuate much during the year.

Maybe this is something you see only where there is a harsh winter.
 
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