Friday, April 1, 2005 | 11:12 a.m.
In the low-tech world of pizza delivery comes a high-tech idea to speed hot food to the doorstep.
A Lynchburg, Va., marketing company, exhibiting at this week's International Pizza Expo at the Las Vegas Convention Center, is showing a 3-inch square Pizza Beacon -- a signal to pizza delivery personnel -- to attract attention for delivery.
The device shown by Leslie Beverly of Vision Marketing Inc. doubles as a standard refrigerator magnet that can list a pizzeria and its phone number as well as the delivery beacon.
Once a food order is made, the customer turns on the battery-operated beacon, which has eight flashing red lights, and places it on the front door with a suction-cup attachment. The attention-grabber is designed to speed the delivery process.
"We first introduced it at this show in Las Vegas last year, but now we have them ready for delivery," said Beverly, whose booth at the three-day trade show sponsored by the National Association of Pizzeria Operators is surrounded by cheese, sauce and meat suppliers, ovens, dough mixers and other goods associated with the pizza industry.
About 800 exhibitors and 10,000 people are attending the three-day event that concludes today. Exhibitors across the floor said Thursday that business has been brisk and that the show has generated numerous solid leads.
Beverly said her beacons are being sold for $99 for a box of 30. She recommends that beacons be given away to good customers or sold to customers for around $5 apiece, with people using them getting a discount on any delivery order.
"We're trying to create customer loyalty and the beacon helps accomplish that," she said.
While customers swarmed around Beverly's new marketing device, others sought out the food, with some finding a booth with a Las Vegas connection.
Sammy Perez, director of foodservice sales in the West, offered salad fixings for Ken's Foods Inc., a Marlborough, Mass.-based company with a Las Vegas manufacturing plant.
Perez said business is booming for the company's line of Ken's Steakhouse Dressing products, which offer more than 300 formulas including some new Asian flavors.
Ken's has manufacturing plants in Boston, Atlanta and Las Vegas. The two eastern plants have 400,000-square-foot facilities, but the Las Vegas plant, open for about a year now, covers just 170,000 square feet and hasn't yet reached capacity.
"We're still getting our manufacturing equipment in," Perez said, adding that the company's 20-acre site on Blue Diamond Road is prime for future expansion.
Perez said the local plant isn't handling a retail line yet, but is supplying several food-service outlets for restaurants operated by Caesars Entertainment Inc., Harrah's Entertainment Inc. and the PT's Pub chain.
Perez said the company has been pleasantly surprised by the quality of workers that have been hired at the local Ken's plant.
"They're thrilled to get into manufacturing," said Dominic Damore, who manned the Ken's booth at the Pizza Expo with Perez. "They were tired of changing sheets and they're great workers."
While most exhibitors at the show were pleased with the leads they were getting, others were happy to get exposure as delegates grazed through the food products.
"This is one of the best shows we have here every year," said Rossi Ralenkotter, president and chief executive of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, after paying a visit to the show floor. "It's great to have the smell of pizza baking wafting into our offices."
Exhibitors returned the praise.
"Las Vegas is the best place in the world to hold a show like this," said Rich Livingston, a Statesboro, Ga. delegate who works for Buffalo, N.Y.-based Rosina Food Products. "It's a fun place to be. I hope to bring my wife back here in a couple of weeks. If you're not going to get your best contacts at this show, you're not going to get them."
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