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Pizzas For School Contract??

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We have been approached by the local school to bid on their contract. It would be for approx 300 Pizzas a week. The only thing is one day it is around 250 at one shot!! The business would be good, but the price that won last year was $6.00. That is alot of work to get 250 Pies out at one shot for that little money. Any ideas or thoughts? Should we bid or just let it go??? We would have to get hot boxes and alot more screens etc!!! Does anyone know where to get hot boxes???
 
If I can recall one of my accounting instructor’s lessons. If you are not detracting from your existing business and the profit is $1 it is a go. Remember that your fixed costs are covered by your existing business so the only input costs to consider will be the variable costs ie food supplies, labor, paper costs, extra utilities. Not included would be lease, phones, advertising, etc.

The 250 at one time may not be a problem if you have a good way to transport them. I often send pizza to oil rigs 2 hours away and they get there hot.
 
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We do half-price pies to schools…full price for a 14" cheese is 11.55, so we’re selling them at 6.28. No contract, just good word-of-mouth!

That 250 can possibly be done as a 4x60 delivery, or something similar. Several smaller orders rather than one big one. Most schools have lunch periods broken up over a couple of hours. That’s still a PITA, but if your pies including boxes etc are under $3 cost, you’re still sitting pretty. Even at $4. Be sure there is a flat delivery charge for each run—even $1 per run will make the drivers more amenable to the challenge. And, find a way to suggest that a tip be included as well…since everyone will be working their tails off, THAT will be appreciated, esp by the kitchen staff (and make sure it’s shared!)

We get a lot of school business, as I said no contracts, but teachers order for their individual classes, sometimes the schools do it overall, and quite often the teachers and staff order for themselves. We do half for them also. It’s great PR, and it can probably be used as a tax deduction somehow…we don’t pursue that, though.

Go for it!
 
Our schools check the temp. on arrival. If they aren’t 140 or hotter, they send them back.

Russ
 
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I know as a former driver, I personally hated delivering school orders because the school system we delivered to didn’t tip the driver! 😦 While I was out delivering a HUGE order to the school which was at the very outskirts of our delivery area during the most profitable time of the day for a driver, the other drivers were pocketing upwards of ten to twenty dollar tips during this time. And the managers themselves even questioned whether or not it was worth it, as the ovens were full of pizzas for the school, competing with much higher profit business orders. It didn’t seem like there was any way to gauge whether or not the goodwill was paying off.
 
As far as a deduction I am pretty sure all you can write-off in this case is the foodcost that is already written off 😦
 
The money spent to make a huge order for a school contract is good. Even though the food cost may be very high the labor spent to produce that order is usually ridiculously low. Overall effect is higher bottom line.

However there is a downside! Even if you send the pies out and they arrive at the proper temp, by the time the kids come eat it, it sucks!

I had a contract for 10 years and did nearly $5000 per week in school contracts. I thought i was the king. I was sending out all these pies and the kids were eating them everyday, so when they thought of pizza they thought of me.

I lost the contract to PH because they went even lower ($5.50 for a 16 1 top), which was not in my ballpark. That 1st year without i thought was going to be hard, but it was OK. The next year the school district added health rules such that a special cheese needed to be used. No problem for me, but i was again outbid by Dominos (even cheaper with expensive cheese $5.25 for cheese only and $5.45 for 1 top). That was last September.

Through this last year i worked on getting the schools to order from me outside the contract (to the classrooms and doing pizza night fundraisers, etc…)and spent time working on the business sector that often got ignored with the presence of a school contract. Long story short - I just had my best June ever in that store and it almost beat May!!! With the momentum i have established i know that this October i should break my record Week and Month (which was with the old contract $5k per week). Dominos will have the contract once agai and i will land more schools for pizza nights!!!

*Note to the driver reply on this thread - I have 1 shop that still does some school contract orders and my drivers created a soultion ON THEIR OWN. The split tips and commisions for the lunch rush so what you explain does not mean anything. Plus on a $250 delivery my guys make $12.50 in commission so a tip would not really matter anyway.
 
You are NOT going to get a tip from a school lunch order.

As a pizza shop owner, you should consider that when compensating the driver, and when making the bid to the school.

On the other hand, regardless of how a shop handles the compensation, keep in mind that without the order, there would be one less driver (you) on the schedule.

I was a driver long before I was an owner. It always grinds my gears to listen to drivers complain about tips. Get over it. Some are good, some are bad. It all balances out in the end. Without the non-tippers, we would not have enough business to stay open, and then there would be no tips, no paycheck, for anyone.
 
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