C&M Pizza of Leominster, MA, a Landmark Restaurant, Celebrates 40 Years of Making Pizza
Pizza shop adds marketing, technology to its recipes. Sales more than double in two years since ownership change.
Leominster, MA, March 06, 2006 --(PR.com)-- What happens when a mortgage broker tries meatball-making to help out a family business? Visions of marketing opportunities dance in his head, and a pizza parlor that’s been a fixture in Leominster center for 40 years suddenly takes off by growing its customer base and adding catering.
C&M Pizza at 69 Central St. has been servicing the neighborhood with fresh ingredients and homemade product since company founder “Spike” Nousis started the operation (a few doors from its present location) in the mid-1960s. Nousis died a few years ago, but longtime employee Deborah Chesbrough and her family bought the business in December 2004.
Her son, Andrew Sears, operates his own mortgage and real estate company, SF Financial, Inc., of Westminster. He started to help out his mom two years ago, behind the scenes. He’s at the shop about 10 hours a week “to help out with some of the heavy lifting and baking,” and handles back-office duties like marketing and working with the new computer system.
By upgrading with point-of-sale technology, the shop has increased its walkin and delivery business and found new outlets with high-volume, catering customers such as Kohl’s, Filene’s, and the state prison in Shirley.
“We have corporate accounts,” Sears says, “We do company parties, training sessions ... I send them a catering newsletter once a month with specials.”
For instance, on two dates in early March, C&M will deliver 18” x 25” sheet pizzas — 80 of them — to Leominster Recreation Department for a basketball event.
“We’re in good with the schools, too,” Sears adds.
Sears reports that revenues are up 250 percent in two years since we took over. “We anticipate gross sales approaching $1 million in the next year or so,” he says.
Sears, who has a bachelor’s degree in economics from UMass Lowell, hadn’t much experience with cooking or food preparation before. “It’s totally different from the mortgage and real estate business I do every day,” he notes.
The company maintains a database of delivery customers who order more than once a month; it numbers about 15,000, not counting walk-in customers. Deliveries represent about half of the business.
Sears has instituted several cross-promotional strategies with other retailers and video stores in the area. “We included a ‘box-topper,’ a glossy coupon, on top of our pizza boxes,” he says.
He insists, however, that the product remains the primary selling point of the business.
“The marketing has just made people aware of [Chesbrough’s] great food. We make everything from scratch. We mix the dough, cut all our produce fresh and bake our own chicken, hamburger and meatballs,” he says.
According to Sears, his mother is tireless. He says, “She was born and raised in Leominster. She gets in at 6 a.m. almost every day to make the dough and sauce. She has been making the pizza there for 40 years using the same recipes my godfather [Nousis] brought with him from Greece.”
Chesbrough says the shop is busy. “We’ll use 12 to 15 [50 lb.] bags of flour each week [and] 80 to 100 pounds of hamburger.”
She describes Friday nights when extra staff is on duty and six people are banging into each other behind the counter. “It’s fun most of the time, but the help can get burned out” from the fast pace and stress, she says.
Chesbrough is glad to have help from her son. At the beginning, she says, “I needed him... he started just doing the heavy lifting, then making the meatballs.” The pizza business is not her only career. Over the years she has worked for Ashburnham Travel and still does a bit of travel agent work in her “spare time,” she says. “When I take days off I have to leave town, or I’ll come in [to C&M],” she admits, adding that “on my birthday each year I take a 10-day cruise.”
She also uses long weekends to visit her grandchildren. Besides Andrew’s two children, her other son Keith has a family in Florida.
Limitless travel and time with family may seem tempting and a good excuse to retire early, but for Chesbrough work is always beckoning.
“I don’t plan on retiring,” she says.
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C&M Pizza at 69 Central St. has been servicing the neighborhood with fresh ingredients and homemade product since company founder “Spike” Nousis started the operation (a few doors from its present location) in the mid-1960s. Nousis died a few years ago, but longtime employee Deborah Chesbrough and her family bought the business in December 2004.
Her son, Andrew Sears, operates his own mortgage and real estate company, SF Financial, Inc., of Westminster. He started to help out his mom two years ago, behind the scenes. He’s at the shop about 10 hours a week “to help out with some of the heavy lifting and baking,” and handles back-office duties like marketing and working with the new computer system.
By upgrading with point-of-sale technology, the shop has increased its walkin and delivery business and found new outlets with high-volume, catering customers such as Kohl’s, Filene’s, and the state prison in Shirley.
“We have corporate accounts,” Sears says, “We do company parties, training sessions ... I send them a catering newsletter once a month with specials.”
For instance, on two dates in early March, C&M will deliver 18” x 25” sheet pizzas — 80 of them — to Leominster Recreation Department for a basketball event.
“We’re in good with the schools, too,” Sears adds.
Sears reports that revenues are up 250 percent in two years since we took over. “We anticipate gross sales approaching $1 million in the next year or so,” he says.
Sears, who has a bachelor’s degree in economics from UMass Lowell, hadn’t much experience with cooking or food preparation before. “It’s totally different from the mortgage and real estate business I do every day,” he notes.
The company maintains a database of delivery customers who order more than once a month; it numbers about 15,000, not counting walk-in customers. Deliveries represent about half of the business.
Sears has instituted several cross-promotional strategies with other retailers and video stores in the area. “We included a ‘box-topper,’ a glossy coupon, on top of our pizza boxes,” he says.
He insists, however, that the product remains the primary selling point of the business.
“The marketing has just made people aware of [Chesbrough’s] great food. We make everything from scratch. We mix the dough, cut all our produce fresh and bake our own chicken, hamburger and meatballs,” he says.
According to Sears, his mother is tireless. He says, “She was born and raised in Leominster. She gets in at 6 a.m. almost every day to make the dough and sauce. She has been making the pizza there for 40 years using the same recipes my godfather [Nousis] brought with him from Greece.”
Chesbrough says the shop is busy. “We’ll use 12 to 15 [50 lb.] bags of flour each week [and] 80 to 100 pounds of hamburger.”
She describes Friday nights when extra staff is on duty and six people are banging into each other behind the counter. “It’s fun most of the time, but the help can get burned out” from the fast pace and stress, she says.
Chesbrough is glad to have help from her son. At the beginning, she says, “I needed him... he started just doing the heavy lifting, then making the meatballs.” The pizza business is not her only career. Over the years she has worked for Ashburnham Travel and still does a bit of travel agent work in her “spare time,” she says. “When I take days off I have to leave town, or I’ll come in [to C&M],” she admits, adding that “on my birthday each year I take a 10-day cruise.”
She also uses long weekends to visit her grandchildren. Besides Andrew’s two children, her other son Keith has a family in Florida.
Limitless travel and time with family may seem tempting and a good excuse to retire early, but for Chesbrough work is always beckoning.
“I don’t plan on retiring,” she says.
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Contact
C&M Pizza, Inc.
Andrew Sears
978-537-4264
candmpizza.com
978-490-7336
Andrew Sears
978-537-4264
candmpizza.com
978-490-7336
Contact
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