Welcome to Vincenzos Online

Specialty food retailer ponders its options for expansion
PHILIP JALSEVAC - Taken From The K.W. Record Jan 14, 2004

Vincenzo's, which has become somewhat of an institution in Kitchener's Belmont Village commercial district, is regarded as one of the premier stores for fine foods in southwestern Ontario.
But what is the gourmet shop's recipe for success?
"Some people say, 'How did you come up with the concept and the name?' " says Carmine Caccioppoli, 37, co-owner with his brother, Tony, 43.
"It's just a lot of work and learning from your mistakes, trying to adjust as you go along and being close to the customer, being able to listen to them when you're out on the floor."
Indeed, that responsiveness to the buying public is "part of the reason for the whole success. Our customers are constantly suggesting products."
Carmine not only listens, he acts -- like the time someone asked him if he could find some white tea. He'd never heard of it, but wound up finding a supplier in California and now stocks the rare product. As for the name of the store, it honours the memory of the brothers' late father, Vincenzo Caccioppoli, an Italian immigrant who started the family business in 1967, fashioning a small shop out of the living room of his Bridgeport Road home, near Regina Street, in Waterloo. Called Italian Canadian Foods, it specialized in Italian fare. But Vincenzo Caccioppoli also catered to requests from other ethnic groups. "We had students from Egypt and the Middle East coming in and my dad made trips to Toronto to pick up those types of items," Carmine recalls. "He went out of his way to get things for his customers to keep them happy and we've carried on that way. We want to make our store the first place to call when you're looking for a special product." Along with listening to customer suggestions, Carmine researches products through his travels, reading magazines and browsing the Internet. And he still gets advice from his mother, Rita, 79. "When you come from an Italian background, food is so much a part of your life," he says. "Sometimes when I think 'where can they pull out the next hottest product,' when you think there's nothing else, something else pops up. That's always exciting." Vincenzo's -- it has a website at www.vincenzosonline.com -- carries products from more than 350 Canadian suppliers that fill 4,000 square feet of space at 740 Belmont Ave. W., a former beer store. The goods come from literally all over the world -- Asia, Europe, Africa, North and South America -- and from a handful of local producers. The European imports fill space from countries like France and Spain but, Carmine notes the largest selection is from Italy. Along with staple items like fresh vegetables and herbs, bread and pastry, olive oil, cold meats and cheese, there's a dizzying array of condiments and specialties such as truffles, caviar, Belgian chocolate and Kenyan tea. That's not to mention the housewares and ceramics, or the deli counter serving items like take-out sandwiches and hot dishes, including pizza and pasta, cooked in a kitchen at the store. While it retains its Italian flavour, Carmine cites one example of its eclectic fare. "Whoever heard of an Italian store selling fresh sushi?" In any case, the recipe seems to be working. "We're serving about 8,000 to 9,000 customers a week," Carmine says. As for gross annual sales, he won't reveal the exact figure, but says the average in recent years has been in the order of "several million" dollars. LOCATION Tony, the company president, started working full-time for his dad in 1984 after studying materials management at Conestoga College. Carmine, vice-president, joined about a year later after graduating from Kitchener-Waterloo Collegiate. In 1986, at Tony's urging, the family got into making fresh pasta at home for sale in their store. As demand grew, the family bought a 1,600-square-foot property on Third Avenue in Kitchener for about $80,000 to provide space for production and a small retail outlet called World Foods. Tony ran that operation while Carmine busied himself at the Bridgeport Road store. In 1990, when their father retired at 70, the brothers took over the family business and, after years of searching for the right location, set up shop on March 23, 1992 on Belmont Avenue, close to Union Boulevard and the old Westmount neighbourhood. The store on Bridgeport Road was closed and the Third Avenue property was sold, with the proceeds used to help purchase the new store. "We paid over $500,000 for this building and signing your name to the deal was a little scary," Carmine says. "It was a big risk. But it kind of fell into our lap. It was one of those things that was sort of destiny." These days, Tony works mostly at the new production plant and travels to Toronto to select fresh produce while Carmine spends most of his time running the store. But both are involved in major decisions about the business, whose official corporate name is V&R Italian Canadian Groceries Ltd. Tony is the "older, wiser brother," Carmine says. "I get a little excited about things and do a little more dreaming. He gives it the sober second thought. And that combination has made it successful." Tony agrees, saying: "I pull Carmine down to earth. It generally works out. We've never had any real major differences of opinion." PRODUCTION As for the food production side of the business, that changed significantly with the opening of the new store. Between 1986 and 1992, the brothers sold their pasta to Ontario restaurants and then to the large chain of Provigo and Maxi grocery stores in Quebec, along with about a half-dozen private label brands. Eventually, they decided the wholesale operation wasn't worth it. "It felt like I wasn't working for myself," Carmine recalls. "You're shipping out 3,000 to 4,000 cases a week. It was a huge volume and, for the first time in my life, I felt a lot of stress. We realized this is just crazy." Tony adds: "It was a tough choice. It was taking up so much of our time and the return on it was not really that great. The cheque was big but the profit margin was not really substantial." So, Carmine says: "We basically phased it out." Still, the family had invested about $400,000 in equipment and, rather than sell it, simply put it to a different use, albeit with fewer workers and a lower volume of production. Now, the food produced at its current, 5,500-square-foot plant on Gage Avenue is sold only through the brothers' store just down the road and to Rohman Importing, a distributor based in Mississauga. And it all carries Vincenzo's own brand name. The brothers also sell a variety of their own brand of pasta sauces. Carmine says there are a lot less headaches now, and any lost income from wholesale sales has been made up by focusing more on the retail store, which accounts for about 75 per cent of income. Food production brings in about 10 per cent of revenues and the remaining 15 per cent comes from selling gift baskets and providing catering services, particularly to local financial institutions such as nearby Sun Life and high-tech companies such as Research in Motion and Descartes. Vincenzo's has grown to where it now has 30 full-time and 50 part-time employees, including family members Pat, Carla and Calina Caccioppoli. "We're sort of at a crossroads," Carmine says. "Our business continues to expand and we're at that point where we're pushing the limits." The Caccioppolis are considering expanding at their current location, but remain reluctant to open a second shop or a franchise. "We're a pretty unique store," Carmine says. "It would be difficult to put it in a new spot and create that magic. We've got something special here." Q & A We asked Carmine Caccioppoli: Q. "Your staff has grown substantially over the years. What is your biggest challenge as an employer?" A. "Learning how to manage people and finding staff who have some of the same passion that you have for the store and the customers. We've found some of those people, but it's a constant challenge. That's what's made our store successful, to find and coach people to make sure you treat your customers right. The only thing we haven't worked on is the singing like my dad used to do for his customers. He used to be a real charmer."