Shakey's always wows its guests

MANILA, Philippines - Even if Shakey’s is still a close third in the P10-12 billion local pizza market, this 35-year old premium brand is well loved by big groups of families, companies and students simply because it never fails to wow its guests. Unquestionably, it is how Shakey’s wants to be remembered for the ultimate celebration and dining experience at reasonable prices, especially for large groups.

“At Shakey’s we call our patrons as guests not as customers and give them the best service and value for their money. Each and every crew of Shakey’s have imbibed the culture of wowing the guests, said Vicente Gregorio, Shakey’s executive vice president and COO, who rose from being a waiter in the 80s to general manager when he was hired back in 2003, and then promoted again to EVP-COO last year.

Just recently, Shakey’s has been renovating some of its stores, converting others in what it calls flagship stores which has kiddie play center, a function room big enough for company workshops and presentations, parties and other social activities. There are now six operating flagship stores and two more will be opened come December namely, Pulillan in Bulacan and Batangas City, reported Gregorio.

The first flagship store that opened in December 2008 was in E. Rodriguez Avenue in Quezon City near St. Luke’s Hospital, followed by Paseo de Sta. Rosa in Laguna, then Las Pinas, Lipa, Loyola Heights in Katipunan and then Quezon Avenue, Quezon City. Its newly opened Quezon Avenue flagship store is a spacious but cozy dining area with spacious function rooms and a wholesome kiddie play center (featuring classic games of the 80s). These stores have very expansive parking area, usually a problem of big restaurants not located inside malls.

Of late, Shakey’s came out with the Shakey’s Pizzanatic Supercard with a validity of one year, replacing the old pizzanatic card version. The new Supercard now entitles the cardholder to a 10 percent discount (for dine-in), free pizza for delivery orders, earn points from purchases (dine in or deliveries), and birthday blowout (an automatic free pizza) from any Shakey’s stores nationwide. To date, a total of 100,000 pieces of these supercards have been bought by Shakey’s patrons, Gregorio said. This new Supercard version is worth P299 (where holder can earn points) while the pizzanatic card is P199.

Shakey’s also launched the Shakey’s Pizza Padala, a new service system where a guest can buy and pay pizza or any other item for another person somewhere else and this can be claimed or delivered by the store nearest to the recipient, Gregorio said.

“We realize that people need to send their friends or loved one something special for a certain occasion but they can’t be present to give them the item. So they can order and pay from Manila for someone in Cebu,” explained Gregorio.

“With Shakey’s you can also order from one outlet to another, including franchised stores. You can also pay delivered pizza or other items and pay using credit card, he added. Of late, Shakey’s has also been catering to companies and universities using its Shakey’s on Wheels, a big modern and fully equipped bus that can cook and bake orders onsite. The bus can cater to concerts, universities, company parties and other special events like the Sinulog or Ati-atihan festivals, outside concerts, company anniversaries and school fairs,” Gregorio said. The recent catering of this unique mobile store was during the St. Theresa’s College Foundation Day last week was a big hit Gregorio said.

Through the past 35 years, Shakey’s has gone through so many transformations--- from being just a licensee of the US brand (when San Miguel Corp. brought it into the country to support its draft beer products in the 80s) to a truly Filipino-owned company, International Family Food Services Inc. Its goal is to be a wholesome casual dining restaurant where all types of large groups can feel at home and cherish their dining experience, Gregorio added.

Shakey’s modestly grew its store network to 115, with the bulk in Metro Manila and 35 to 37 percent franchised and over 60 percent company-owned. Its revenues had been growing by double digits every year for seven straight years, enabling the company to land at the 578th spot of Business World’s Top 1000 corporation listing. Few years ago, we were not even part of the top 1000 list, Gregorio recalled.

The Shakey’s Philippine operation is the biggest in the world and is growing even faster than the US-based Shakey’s, where it originally came from, he beamed with pride.