CASE STUDY
Firehouse Pizza
A SUCCESS STORY
Hospitality
INDUSTRY
100+
EMPLOYEES
2
Locations
2021
USER SINCE
From fire department helmets, patches and t-shirts on the walls, to the uniquely named pizzas, a familiar and stylish atmosphere where everyone feels welcome is present throughout when you walk into Firehouse Pizza.
Firehouse Pizza was born in 2009 in Dublin, Ireland, by Paul Morris and Stephen O’Brien, active Firefighter and Paramedic with Dublin Fire Brigade. They combined their passion for service and food with fresh high-quality ingredients to create Firehouse Pizza (FHP). In November 2011 Firehouse Pizza set up a model store in Ballymun, Dublin to deliver the best fresh and authentic pizza. Today, FHP continues to reimagine creativity, pushing culinary boundaries with a long list of industry-firsts including gluten-free dough, gluten-free desserts and vegan alternatives. Handcrafted with fresh ingredients, each pizza and side order at FHP is uniquely built on innovation.
Today, the idea of moving food and people forwards is part of the fabric of who we are as a brand. You see, FHP is committed to evolving in perpetuity – but that’s only possible if FHP continues to grow our footprint and welcomes new talent like Wanda Okibede (Operations Manager) into our family so we can share distinctly way of life with more people every day.
All this talk of pizza is making me hungry but read on to find out how Bizimply has helped them overcome scheduling issues, managing part time staff and forecast management to enable proper monitoring of sales and labour costs.
The Challenge
At Firehouse Pizza, Operations Manager, Wanda Okibede initially organised staffing using Excel – “it seemed like the easiest option at the time”, Wanda said, “but then we found Bizimply and it was 10 times better”. When the time came, they knew from the very start that Bizimply was going to be the perfect fit for their business model.
“Everything is going digital, but it’s about finding and implementing the right software that will help business grow,” explains Wanda, and right from the start, Bizimply had an important part to play in their story of being voted The Best Pizza, The Best Takeaway in Dublin and The Best Takeaway in Ireland at the Just Eat National Takeaway Awards 2018!
One of the biggest challenges facing the team at Firehouse Pizza. is “accurately and consistently getting rosters out to staff”.
Wanda has found that Bizimply really helps with preventing no shows and miscommunications of shifts. Employees can download the MyZimply app and bring up their rota at any time; “the scheduling tool has enabled us to create smarter shifts, we have the right people scheduled at any given time, those working with the right skills required in order to create a good team and manage the high demand of orders.”
Wanda also explained how they had a lack of insight to their forecast management; they only had a rough estimate of their expenditure on labour costs which was impacting revenue of the business. This was another reason why Bizimply became a strong contender for being implemented in the business model.
The Solution
The entire Firehouse crew loves Bizimply. They believe it has improved their productivity within the workplace and as a team, they have become a lot more engaged and efficient. They are now receiving their schedules quicker which allows them to plan for social activities outside of work.
“Staff are able to put in their time off requests through the app and all I have to do is approve it, once it’s approved it shows up on the schedule and they can’t be scheduled for that shift, that simple convenience eliminates any upset staff or future adjustments needed to be made to the schedule”
The Time station app is another well-loved feature in FHP. They now can clock in and out, clock staff break times and have accurate records of hours worked. This has helped Wanda to monitor staff labour costs, identifying peak shift times and ways to effectively reduce labour costs. “We are now able to plan for demand which has reduced our labour costs by 15%”.
In addition to this, employees are reassured they are receiving the correct wages; “the staff appreciate the clarity and certainty that Bizimply gives”.
Bizimply has also allowed Wanda to streamline how the rota is completed: “what used to take hours doing the rota, now takes minutes. No more confusion with holiday requests or unavailability as it’s all right there in front of you”, she explains, “I’m delighted now we have such an efficient system.”