Ingredients matter.

You make careful choices about the ingredients in your food. WestRock makes careful choices about the ingredients in our boxes. We resource raw materials domestically and manufacture our boxes in North America to meet the highest quality and food safety standards.

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HOW &PIZZA STAYED PROFITABLE IN THE PANDEMIC

&pizza has always played by its own rules, from the & symbol stamped on every piece of merch to its oblong-shaped pizzas and founder Michael Lastoria’s Old Testament-style beard. So when the COVID-19 pandemic struck this spring, the company, which has nearly 40 stores in five states and the D.C. area, reacted with predictable unpredictability. As many chains laid off workers, Lastoria raised wages across the board and guaranteed pay for all employees regardless of the number of hours they worked.

The result: &pizza was able to keep 85% of its stores open and 90% of its workforce on the payroll. Best of all? “We’re turning a fair amount of profit,” Lastoria said in a panel discussion for the Nation’s Restaurant News Restaurant Rise digital summit in June.

“For our brand, the most important thing we can do is grow out of this,” Lastoria explained in the panel discussion. “And to grow out of this, you need a workforce that feels appreciated and motivated and encouraged to show up and want to do the right thing and to want to help lift up this company.” Reducing employees’ stress during a difficult period builds loyalty that will pay off in the long run, he believes. “You’re not waiting for the federal government to step in and enact policy that helps support them. You’re the first one to say, ‘Hey, I’m going to invest in you, not just when times are good…but when times are very difficult.”

Lastoria took another bold step in late May as protests broke out nationwide over the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. Even as some of the &pizza stores sustained damage, such as broken windows, from vandals during the protests, the company offered its employees three days of additional paid time off for “activism,” which could include participating in the protests. &pizza will also close its doors on Election Day so all employees can vote.

Lastoria admitted his approach won’t work for everyone. “That’s difficult when you have private equity investment,” he said. “A lot of companies…are dealing with the tension between the traditional mindset of ‘protect the balance sheet at all costs and let’s live to fight another day’ versus this notion of ‘Are we committed to our people? Are we going to continue to make the investments [in employees] when times are not necessarily good and when the ROI in the short term doesn’t necessarily [support it]?’ It’s extremely important from a cultural standpoint [to show] that you are willing to invest…when it’s not obvious to do so, and we’ve always done that.”