Good food now goes with great ambiance at Greenwich

MANILA, Philippines - Greenwich Pizza is on a roll.

Just halfway into a multi-billion peso makeover for its nearly 250 stores nationwide, the pizza and pasta chain of the Jollibee Group has already made huge inroads in its ongoing marketing campaign.

Its series of TV ads, featuring popular young actor John Lloyd Cruz and his barkada, has those “cheesy moments” morphing in movies and shows, bagging awards, and slowly evolving as part of Pinoy pop culture.

Fresh from its success in the recent Tambuli Awards, the dynamic marketing team of Greenwich, headed by Francis Flores, is now focusing efforts on building up the stores’ image as the preferred hang-out to share and bond with close friends — the so-called barkada moments.

Anchored on an enhanced menu and improved service, Flores says the new Greenwich dining experience also features a different look - redesigned facades and interiors that express the fast-casual store concept - hip, cozier and more comfortable.

The overall layout and design were executed by premier design and creative agencies Team Manila, Blue Bottle Inc and Publicis JimenezBasic, while the store staff and crew underwent rigid service trainings by world-class hospitality service provider Magsaysay Institute of Hospitality and Culinary Arts.

“We’re transforming our stores for our niche market — the young, independent individuals or “yindies” who think there’s more to life than just work, as compared to the “yuppies” who have a very corporate connotation,” he explains.

In fact, the entire Greenwich marketing team has so imbibed the yindies attitude that they go to work “dressed and behaving like our target market,” Flores points out. That means casual jeans and shirts replacing the traditional office attire.

“In the process, we created a brand that is so much fun to work with,” Flores adds.

He says the ongoing renovation of their dining outlets started last year, and will be around 80 percent complete by next year. This major redesign, along with an enhanced menu and service — plus the drawing power of its multi-media advertising — led to an impressive 60-percent sales increase last year and, despite a slowdown in consumer spending in the early part of the year, is currently tracking a sales hike of 40 percent in 2009.

Flores notes that the pizza and pasta business churns out sales of between P8 - P10 billion a year, with still a big room for growth as only about a fourth of sales is accounted for by the regular pizza eaters.

Greenwich Pizza started out as a small over-the-counter pizza store in the Greenhills Commercial Center in 1971, becoming the Philippines’ biggest pizza and pasta chain after it was acquired by the Jollibee Group — the country’s undisputed leader in the fast-food industry — in 1994.