Pizza advice from Greenwich president Ariel Fermin

You have to have a dream. Ariel Fermin, the young dynamo the mean pizza machine that is Greenwich, shares this pizza advice. When the president of the food company he used to work for asked him what his dream was, this marketing guy, who was so full of dreams and so full of spunk, replied, “My dream is to take your position years from now.”

With a chemical engineering degree from University of the Philippines tucked under his belt and a formidable marketing and R & D background honed in big companies such as Unilever, Procter & Gamble, and Nike, Ariel didn’t just daydream. He made his dreams come true. “I wanted to be president so my moves were very purposeful.”

Today, at 42, he’s concurrently president of Greenwich and Chowking.

He rolls up his sleeves, takes a big bite of his favorite pizza, and says, “It starts with an aspiration. And I had the benefit of having generous, patient mentors who taught me the fundamentals of running a business. Of course, I’m blessed to have great parents — Ester and Elias Fermin (deceased, he was a professor in Thailand). It’s been a good journey for me.”

Under Fermin’s leadership, Greenwich has taken a bigger slice of the pie, posting a system-wide total growth of more than 10 percent. Its 2009 store profitability has been the highest since Jollibee Foods Corp. (JFC) bought Greenwich in 1994. Greenwich has been around since 1978 — remember Greenwich at Virra Mall?

Now the most dominant pizza and pasta brand on the market, Greenwich continues to lead as the best-tasting pizza, best-tasting pasta, and best value brand. We agree with all our hearts — and all our hearty appetites!

Get a load of this: Greenwich’s Overloaded Pizza, that’s got a lot more toppings than you can ever dream of. The Greenwich Special Overload has 12 toppings — now what can top that? The Ultimate Hawaiian Overload has twice more toppings — premium ham, glazed pineapple, smoked bacon, and 100-percent mozzarella and cheddar cheese. The Meat & Cheese Overload has seven meats and cheeses.

Remember the time when there was just kind of Greenwich pizza — the classic Hawaiian pizza with just bits of pineapple on top, but of course!

Those were the days. Today, Greenwich offers a whole lot more. And we want more than a pizza this and that!

If you love American Idol, you must have been an instant fan of the limited-edition American Idol pizza with seven favorite American toppings — bacon, beef burger, bratwurst sausage, onions, green bell peppers, mushrooms, crunchy shoestring potatoes with 100-percent mozzarella cheese.

Sobrang cheesy, you say? You haven’t heard anything yet. Ask John Lloyd Cruz. The young heartthrob, who looks as yummy as the pizza he endorses, swears by the Xtreme Cheese pizzas — Philly Cheese Steak Overload with half pound of roast beef, Triple Ham & Cheese Overload with three types of ham and three cheeses, Monster Cheese & Pepperoni Overload with 100-percent pepperoni, Extreme Cheese & Ssausage Overload with three types of sausages, the 5 Cheeses & Garlic Overload with mozzarella, cheddar, Parmesan, cream cheese, Edam cheese.

“Our ‘Sobrang cheesy’ campaign was patok na patok, sobrang pop culture,” says Ariel with a big grin. “We cater to what we call the mass premium market. That means we remain accessible to what we call the base of the pyramid while earning respect from the high-tiered people of society. We wanted to be considered not just the guy who sold a lot of pizzas and pastas, but the guy whom people felt was the market leader, the leader in innovation, in pop culture. We’re fortunate to have very young, funny, energetic marketing people.”

He adds with a hint of pride, “When I assumed office in 2008, I remember telling the guys they can actually make this company a better place than when they found it. It starts with a vision that goes beyond business. If you ask what their vision at Greenwich is, they’d probably tell you they wanna be green with pride. They just feel proud of what they do. And it’s become magical for these guys at Greenwich. Ang gagaling eh! There’s a lot of energy, passion, and hard work happening at Greenwich.”

But according to Ariel, consumers are the real bosses at Greenwich. “We listen to our consumers and we give them everything they want. For instance, we came up with the Pizza Overload — the big Mama created in 2008 — which has 12 toppings because when we asked our consumers how we can add more value to their pizza, they said they wanted more toppings, more cheese.”

As much as he loves Greenwich pizza, Ariel gets more than his fair share of it during product development board meetings. “I’m required to eat easily close to eight to 12 slices. We present about four, five new flavors every time we meet. So pagdating mo sa bahay, tumatakbo ka (so when you get home, you’re running) or you play to perspire. But it’s a good thing. We’re about six to eight people, the R & D chef, etc. It takes six to nine months before a new product is launched. But the last say is always the consumer. We do all sorts of consumer tests.”

He elaborates, “We have what we call an innovation calendar. We know what we are coming out with next year. It entails a lot of planning. It’s like telling a story — it’s smooth because you know what’s gonna come out. And we get inspiration from a whole lot of people, young and old. We always try to improve, even if the product is already okay. We gotta keep the bar higher from a competitive standpoint. And from the customers’ standpoint, of course, we want to give the best.”

In both his career and personal life, Ariel gets tons of inspiration from his family — lawyer wife Paulyne and seven-year-old son Iñigo. “My son Iñigo is a smart, fluffy, bundle of joy. He loves pizza. We play Transformers, we wrestle together. Weekends are for the family.”

Ariel describes a typical day in his life: “I wake up at 5 a.m., I pray, and I kiss my kid. Since I live in the south, I should be out before 6 a.m. and should be in Ortigas by 7 a.m. There are no people at the office at that time yet so that’s the chance for me to catch up on e-mails and do reports. I’m home at 6 in time for dinner. My wife Paulyne cooks a mean Korean beef stew. We’ve been married a little over 10 years. We met at work.”

Needless to say, with Ariel and Greenwich around, we can be sure of pizza on earth and good food to all men!