Publisher's Notes
By Tom Boyles | PMQ's PIzza Australia

June is here and the cooler weather has arrived. Like the seasons, the restaurant industry is perpetually in a state of change. If you don't stay on top of the changes and pay attention to the details, things can get out of control pretty fast. One of the most important things to keep your eye on is your cash. That is why we are introducing a new writer and topic in this issue. The writer is Kerry King and he is the owner and operator of Prudent Partners Consulting Pty, Ltd. and a member of the National Institute of Accountants with the status of PNA (professional national accountant). I, like many of you, dread dealing with the numbers. Most business owners prefer to work in their business when in fact they should be working ON their business…and the first step, no matter how much you hate it, is understanding the numbers. Do you know exactly how much it costs to run your business? Many of us do not. Kerry is going to be writing a series of articles that will help us better understand our sales, direct costs (such as raw materials, direct labour and consumables), overhead (marketing, administrative and occupancy) and our financial position (such as cash position, inventory and payables). Through this educational series we will learn how not to dread crunching the numbers, but to embrace and use this information as a tool to better understand and operate our businesses with more success. Read Kerry's first article of this series on page 16. And if you have specific questions you would like to ask him, send an email to letters@pmqaustralia.com.

Also in this issue we continue with our Profiles in Pizza series. In this issue we will be focusing on Allan English of Silver Chef. Silver Chef offers a "Rent, Try, Buy" service for the restaurant industry. Clients simply negotiate the best possible price they can with their equipment supplier and Silver Chef purchases the equipment for them and rents it back to the client for a minimum term of 12 months. If the client chooses to purchase the equipment at any time in that 12 months, 75% of the rent paid comes off the purchase price. At the end of the 12 months they can choose to buy it or they can return the equipment, or alternatively, they can keep on renting it and the purchase price continues to be lowered to reflect their loyalty. To learn more about Allan and Silver Chef, read the Profiles in Pizza article on page 12.

Australian pizza makers continue to dominate pizza chefs around the globe in pizza competitions…and it seems that all of the talent is coming from Western Australia, Perth specifically. Perth residents Raffaele Brotzu and PMQ contributor and pizza shop owner Brandon Farrell both went to different international competitions and competed against chefs from Italy, the US, France, Turkey, China and several countries and both brought home hardware to hang on the walls. Read more about their experiences and grab some recipes in this issue.

Don't forget, PMQ's Pizza Australia is conducting Australia's first-ever census of the pizza industry Down Under. Do you know what's going on in your industry? Take the survey and get the results online by going to www.PMQAustralia.com or go to the direct link at www.pmqaustralia.com/census.php. Take it...for pizza's sake. One lucky census-taker will win $100.\

Thank you,

Tom Boyles