PUBLISHER’S NOTES
By Tom Boyles | PMQ’s Pizza Australia

It’s April and the weather is starting to cool down. Many business owners out there are scared business will be cooling down over the next month with the volatile world economy, but there is good news. According to The Australian, in tough economic times many Australian consumers still enjoy their meals out and are turning to fast food as their choice. “This is a great time for fast-food outlets to catch a bigger share of the market as more people turn to less expensive hamburgers, pizza, chicken meals and sandwiches,” the article said. For the complete article go to Theaustralian.news.com.au and search for “Fast Food”.

While that is on your mind, remember this: when/if business starts slacking off, this is exactly the time you need to boost your marketing efforts to bring customers back in. Find an approach that promotes how pizza can feed a family of three or four for less than many other food choices…and you can deliver. Offer incentives for them to come back and look into loyalty programs. Now is a great time for our industry to capture a larger share of the market so don’t be frightened by the media’s constant reporting of doom and gloom. They have to sell advertising and it appears that scaring the hell out of everyone is the only way they can do it. It is tough out there but also a great time of opportunity.

PMQ, our readers and advertisers would like to take this opportunity to send our deepest sympathies and condolences to the families who were caught in the recent fires in Victoria. We wanted to offer a link to the Red Cross where donations could be made but a spokesperson said that they were not sure if the link would be valid by the time this issue arrived. If you would like to donate, try searching for the Australian Red Cross web site for appropriate links.

Thank you,

Tom Boyles