Famous Famiglia Lives Up to Its Name
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For the New York Yankees, it’s wait until next year following the team’s whipping in the playoffs.
But for one Yankee fan, Paul Kolaj, and his three brothers, Tony, John, and Georgio, it’s a great year. The four, who are the main characters in a remarkable New York rags-to-riches story, have a business relationship with the Yankees and are turning 2005 into their own virtual World Series victory – another record year for their 19-year-old company.
That’s Famous Famiglia Pizza, a chain of 46 pizzerias, half of them franchised, and the exclusive pizza parlor operator at Yankee Stadium. (Famiglia means family in Italian).
The four Albanian-born brothers, who range in age from 36 to 43 and each of whom worked in a pizza parlor when he was a teenager, are examples of what achieving the American dream is all about. The Kolajs came to America in 1970 with their mother and sister after their 38-year-old father had died two years earlier in an accident in Italy. The family, practically penniless, lived on welfare in the South Bronx, and in l986 opened their first pizza parlor on the Upper West Side serving pizza, pasta, salads, assorted heroes, and beverages.
Famous Famiglia, with headquarters in White Plains, now has nine restaurants in New York City, operates in 12 states, and will open its first unit outside America next year, at the Hong Kong airport. They’re also the official operator of pizza parlors in Madison Square Garden, Hersheypark in Pennsylvania, and Giants Stadium, and also have units at the JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark airports.
“We’ve come a long way,” the company’s CEO, Paul Kolaj, said. “We’re privileged and blessed to be seeing the fruits of our work and realizing the American dream.” But that success hasn’t affected the work ethic of the four brothers, who consider long hours part of their standard operating procedure. “Our wives are upset – we’re never home,” Mr. Kolaj said.
The business, as he sees it, is still in its early growth stages. Last year, the company, with 30 units, posted a volume of $28 million. This year – with a total of 51 units expected at the end of 2005 – sales are pegged to be in excess of $35 million. And in 2006 – with a planned year-end wrap-up of 65 units – volume is projected to be $45 million.
To accelerate growth, the Kolajs entered a 50-50 partnership agreement last January with the shopping center biggie DeBartolo Property Group, a move aimed at expanding the pizza chain nationwide. Mr. Kolaj views this partnership as a key step that should lead to a near tripling of the chain to 135 units by 2008, an initial public offering that year, and $100 million in sales by 2008 or 2009.
Famiglia charges, on average, $2.50 a slice and $12.50 for an entire pie. If you’re wondering how good the pizza is, it has won a number of awards and the Yankees director of concessions, Joel White, describes it as “the best pizza ever served at Yankee Stadium.” The stadium started offering the Kolajs’ pizza about three years ago. Other fans include Rudolph Giuliani, Adam Sandler, Al Pacino, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nicolas Cage, and the chairman of Continental Airways, Gordon Bethune, who describes the Kolajs’ pizza as “the best pizza anywhere.”
Why such a success story? Mr. Kolaj attributes it to a bevy of factors, chief among them:
* Aggressive growth with no debt.
* Solid relationships with well-known companies, such as JetBlue Airways, the Yankees, and Britain’s Compass Group, the world’s largest food service company.
* A diverse venue of locations such as casinos, sports stadiums, theme parks, and universities.
* A high level of worker loyalty among its system-wide 700 employees, abetted by bonus programs.
The singer Usher, though, adds what may be the most successful ingredient: “America’s greatest pizza.”
