#Eureka pizza driver#
While handing them out, he saw a delivery driver for a national competitor bring one small pizza to the dorm. When Wilkin first advertised his new campaign by placing fliers in the residence halls on the University of Arkansas campus, he was so loaded with orders that he delivered the pizzas to students in the back of a pickup truck. Thanks to a "buy one, get two free" campaign reserved for carry-out orders, 10 percent of Eureka Pizza's customers order take-out pizzas - saving Wilkin the cost of delivery - while the remainder want it brought to their doors. Wilkin scrapped the idea of a sit-down restaurant. "There was still some cheese in the cooler," Wilkin said.Ī name change and a new strategy have turned the business around. Two weeks after the store closed in February 1992, Wilkin purchased the once-popular 1,200-SF King Pizza. Wilkin had gone a local pizzeria to sell advertising to its owner, Nathan Combs, when he learned how the business was slipping. Rolf Wilkin of Fayetteville found his business treasure when he purchased a local pizza parlor for $8,500. “We’re just an efficient small business, and we don’t have the overhead a lot of other corporations have,” Craig said when asked how the business remained steady during the recession.Eureka is a word that expresses the excitement of finding a special treasure. Craig said the amount of raw material purchased in recent months has “been some of the highest volume” in recent years. Sales are also growing for Craig Box also. Wilkin said same-store sales in 2010 were up 13% compared to 2009. The employees like it better because they say it’s easier to fold,” Wilkin said.Įasier-to-fold boxes will indeed be a welcome change for Eureka Pizza’s 200 employees.
“We were really stunned because it’s a better box. With the previous company, each store had a place to stack defective boxes. Not only can they make them, but Wilkin said they make better boxes. “I think (the national box company) was not willing to accept the fact that a local box company can make pizza boxes,” Wilkin explained. Wilkin said the national company argued that Craig Box didn’t have the experience We don’t have that one large company that makes up a big part of our business,” Craig explained.Īnother surprise in the switch came from the national box company that lost the business. “We have a broad base of customers, and that’s why we have been successful in the past few years. The company concentrates on recruiting and retaining customers located in a roughly 90-mile radius around Fort Smith. “We’re trying to work with as many customers that are tied to food because your food products can’t really leave the country,” Craig said.Ĭraig Box employs about 25, and produces boxes for about 200 customers who range from small businesses to those will billions in annual sales. General Manager Eddy Craig said pursuing Eureka Pizza is part of the company’s strategy to find customers not likely to move out of the area. But Craig Box delivers directly to Eureka, eliminating the charge and, Wilkin noted, reducing the environmental impact of shipping boxes to two locations.Īlso, in the event of bad weather or unexpected demand, Craig Box is better able to deliver boxes on short notice, Wilkin said.Ĭraig Box Corp. The boxes were then shipped with the food, which resulted in Eureka paying an extra handling charge. Prior to the switch, the boxes made in Kansas City for the nine Eureka Pizza stores (seven in Northwest Arkansas and two in Fort Smith) were delivered to Eureka’s food distributor in Springfield, Mo. Not only does Wilkin expect to save about $100,000 a year with the switch, but working with a local company provides Eureka more flexibility in box delivery.
In mid-December, Eureka Pizza began using boxes made by Craig Box. … They kept coming back to us,” Wilkin explained. “I’ll tell you, they were very persistent. Eureka Pizza uses about 2 million pizza boxes a year - almost 5,500 a day.īut the Craig Box sales force did not give up. Wilkin, who had pizza boxes made in Kansas City by a large national company, rejected the Craig offer because he didn’t think they could handle the volume. approached Rolf Wilkin, owner of Eureka Pizza, in early 2010 to convince the Northwest Arkansas pizza company owner to switch box manufacturers. Officials with Fort Smith-based Craig Box Corp.
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