Name: Anthony J. "Tony" Calamunci
Title: chief executive, Johnny's Lunch Franchise LLC, Toledo, Ohio
Birth date: Feb. 2, 1968
Education: juris doctor, Ohio Northern University, Ada, Ohio; bachelor of arts, Alfred University, Alfred, N.Y.
Career: is a partner in Roetzel & Andress law firm of Toledo; has worked at family-owned Johnny's Lunch for more than 20 years, starting as a part-time employee in college; is a co-owner of Toledo's Avenue Bistro Restaurant
Manages: 65 employees
Family: married, with three children
Pastimes: golfing, weight training
POS system: Micros 3700 RES
Accounting: Intuit QuickBooks
Unit-level, back-office application: Microsoft Office; developing proprietary in-house marketing and inventory management systems
Anthony J. "Tony" Calamunci has big plans for Johnny's Lunch, the quick-service hot dog chain based in Toledo, Ohio, and founded by his grandparents, Johnny and Minnie Colera, in 1936, and "technology will help us get there," he said. "We want to be the top dog in our category — the McDonald's of hot dogs, if you will," explained Calamunci, Johnny's chief executive and defacto technology policymaker.
Johnny's, whose specialty is the "Johnny's Hot," a hot dog distinguished by a "secret" Coney Island-style sauce with a Greek twist, now operates two corporate-owned stores in Jamestown, N.Y., and Toledo, and franchises three others in Waterford, Livonia and East Lansing, Mich. Company officials said they have sold franchises that could yield 212 restaurants, and of those, five are under construction. Twenty additional company stores will be developed over the next 18 months and should follow today's 2,000-square-foot prototype design with 50 seats, officials indicated.
It was in late 2006, at the onset of franchising, that Calamunci assumed his current post at Johnny's Lunch, which reports that the original Jamestown location does annual sales of $1.4 million from an average check of about $5. He is partners with his parents, Gust and Diane, who is "Johnny's" daughter, and his brother, A. John Calamunci, the firm's vice president of construction and store design.
What type of technology is key to Johnny's Lunch?
We're using a geospatial technology from Pitney Bowes MapInfo, along with that company's consulting services, to identify geographic cluster markets that best match our concept from a demographic and psychographic perspective.
What role does the geospatial technology play?
Models created by the technology give us a blueprint for expansion that can help minimize some of the uncertainty in strategic growth plans. We can prioritize critical capital expenditures and increase our ability to pick "home-run" locations while avoiding the site selection mistakes that can cripple a budding franchise. Using this application, we have identified approximately 4,500 trade areas across the country that should deliver the best opportunities for Johnny's Lunch franchises, while allowing manageable levels of cannibalization from other targeted franchise locations.
On the flip side, why are you developing your own in-house marketing and inventory management systems?
Out-of-the-box solutions would require too much customization to suit our concept. I don't want to say much about the marketing system yet, but essentially it will take data from MapInfo, syndicated resources like CREST and Scarborough and the POS system to create a good snapshot as to who our best customers are so we can effectively target our marketing efforts.
Why is technology crucial to the success of your restaurant operations?
Restaurant operations live or die, compete favorably or flounder, based on the number of correct decisions management makes concerning day-to-day operations. However, decision-making cannot be maximized without hard data and, hence, technology.
Do you have any examples of such data dependency in action?
Not long ago, we were trying to evaluate how, if at all, we were benefiting from offering delivery to college dormitories located across the street from one of our stores. We went into our POS system to determine the volume of orders we were receiving and found that delivery indeed was a good model for that particular store, rather than a waste of resources. Without that information, we would never have known that we're fishing where the fishing's good.
Any others?
We have also used POS data to compare sales of an individual menu item in one store to sales of that same menu item in another store, during the exact same time frame. This has proven helpful in adjusting our menus and in knowing whether one market would be more receptive than another to test items.
Some small operators are reluctant to deploy much in the way of technology. Why do you feel otherwise?
For smaller operators, a lot of the reluctance stems from the mentality that technology is unaffordable, that it's just a tool for major chains. I think our experience so far, particularly with the geospatial technology, proves otherwise. We can't afford not to implement at least some technology if we're going to compete effectively. Often, fear of change also comes into play. Many smaller operations have done things one way for so long that it prevents them from accepting that there may be a better way. Technology is a competitive weapon, and anyone who's recruited to work in foodservice in this day and age needs to understand that. If the people you recruit don't accept it, you're putting obstacles in your path.