RUNNING a food business basically requires an owner to have an innovative mind and a passion to explore new opportunities. For Brooklyn’s New York Pizza Managing Director Johan Sy, these factors proved to be important in their case also when his family decided to acquire Brooklyn’s Pizza from the original owner in December 2012.
Sy said his family decided to acquire Brooklyn’s Pizza because they saw a potential in the company. They were also expanding their own food business at that time. The Sy family took over the management of Brooklyn’s in December 2012. The original management opened the store in 2003.
“My family is in the food industry. My father runs the Hap Chan chain and my mother operates a franchise of Pancake House. We were on the lookout for a pizza business and during our exploration, it was Brooklyn’s that suited our taste,” he said.
After taking over the ownership, Sy introduced some changes. First, he changed the name to Brooklyn’s New York Pizza from the original name Brooklyn Pizza. However, they retained the recipes of pizza, pasta and buffalo wings to ensure the followers of the original brand will be retained. Further, Sy expanded the menu to broaden the customer base.
“While we have modified the name a bit, we would like to assure those who have been loyal to Brooklyn Pizza that the pizza, pasta and buffalo wings are exactly the same as what they’ve enjoyed for more than 10 years,” he said.
“Those products remain to be the core of our restaurant. However, we have expanded our menu and have recently started offering brunch and rice meals, among others. And for the pasta, we used to have only big portions, enough for two to three people. Single diners found the serving size too much and too expensive so we had to create a solo size,” Sy added. Brooklyn’s added the brunch items—American, English and Lumberjack–because Sy’s sister thought that they didn’t have enough for their customers.
Moreover, it introduced new changes in the interior setup of the stores. The renovation has made the stores brighter so they feel more inviting. Although the stores don’t have a single look, it has unifying elements. “Like they all have concrete walls; we try to make it artsy. The SM North Edsa branch shows the Brooklyn street art while in Tomas Morato, it is more gallery-ish,” he said. Sy said one of the best business practices they have adopted is to give the customer’s their money’s worth when they eat at Brooklyn’s. For example, Brooklyn’s does not use ready-made mixes but develop them from scratch, from the crushing of tomatoes and all.
Brooklyn’s has a commissary where every item needed by the store is produced. To be consistent with the standards, a quality-control team regularly performs spot checks at the branches.
Brooklyn’s signature brand is the 18-inch pizza, which is similar to the ones served in New York pizza houses. The pizza is also not oily, so it’s easy to eat with your hands. Brooklyn’s now has a total of nine branches. The new management added three to the current six that it acquired. The first six are in Alabang Town Center, BF Homes Parañaque, Robinsons Place Manila, Makati, Ortigas and Tomas Morato. The newest branches are in Robinsons Place Las Piñas, SM North Edsa and N. Domingo, San Juan city.
Sy said all the stores are company owned, although it recently opened the brand for franchising.
“We opted to wait until we got our bearings before inviting franchisees. We made sure we were ready to support our franchisees, otherwise, running the business will be difficult for them and it will not reflect well on the name of the company,” Sy said. The franchise fee is P750, 000.