How Mici Italian is Strategizing to Combat Labor Market Woes

While the state of employment for the restaurant industry remains grim and inflation continues to raise the cost of running a business, many establishments have felt the pinch. But what sets Mici Italian apart from the competition is that the ten-unit franchise is constantly strategizing about how to overcome economic issues.

“Doing something to stay on top of employment issues is important,” explained Elliot Schiffer, CEO. “I think we're in a very challenging environment and seeing a big shift demographically. A lot of people are going into retirement, and we were seeing a tight labor market pre-pandemic. Since then, we've seen a lot of people move out of restaurant and retail jobs.”

The executive team at Mici Italian has been working hard to find ways to improve efficiencies with a smaller applicant pool, rising minimum wage rates and increasing costs on every front of operations.

Pre-pandemic, pizza boxes used to cost 19 cents. Now, they have skyrocketed 400% to $1 each, according to Joe Melton, senior vice president of operations. And minimum wage has gone up in Colorado, where the franchise is based, from about $9 five years ago to $17.29 starting January 1, 2023.

“We've never paid anyone a minimum wage anyway; we've always been well above the minimum wage line. But as it raises, we have to raise our pay offers,” Melton said. “So we must get creative to stay in business and remain profitable. But we refuse to cut quality or service. So we came up with a group plan to tip share.”

For about six months now, Mici restaurants have been experimenting with tip sharing as a way to proportionately pay the kitchen staff and the front of the house. Because pickup and delivery orders are a major source of the brand’s sales, it has made sense to include the cooks in tip-outs. The initiative has also been helpful with getting general managers back up to the front to focus on service, as many of them had to help with cooking.

Mici Italian has also incorporated insulated pickup stations to help labor and efficiency in stores. The hot/cold combo stations have been “going exceedingly well” for speeding up order retrievals for guests, Schiffer said.

The brand has also altered its phone system to redirect to online ordering. Online ordering allows staff to focus better on helping in-store customers rather than being stuck on the phones. And in the kitchens, Mici has switched to conveyor belt pizza ovens with bricks inside of them and has put pizza dough rollers in all stores instead of having staff roll out the dough by hand.

“We took a look at our products and have been trying to figure out how to reduce prep time and automate things while still maintaining the same quality,” said Schiffer.

Finding ways to streamline processes has always been very important to the brand, especially now as the industry faces labor woes. The franchise continues to have strategic talks about how to maneuver the employment landscape in the future, and Schiffer will be speaking about the issue as a panelist at the Fast Casual Executive Summit in Indianapolis on Monday, October 10.

For more information on Mici Italian, visit miciitalian.com.

ABOUT MICI ITALIAN

Founded in 2004 by Miceli siblings Jeff, Michael and Kim, Mici is an emerging Italian restaurant franchise based in Denver. Mici’s streamlined artisanal menu offers comforting, classic Italian fare steeped in generations of family history, all prepared quickly without losing an inch of quality for families who don’t always have the time or money to prepare a full Italian dinner and each location offers minimal wait and delivery times thanks to high-efficiency kitchen operations. Recently Mici began national growth and is launching the brand in several markets this summer, including DFW, Phoenix, and Detroit. In 2020, Mici Italian placed on FastCasual Movers and Shakers and QSR 40/40 lists and has won Denver’s Best Pizza and Best Italian for the last 10 years.