Eureka Pizza finds ‘Eureka’ moment with Craig Box Corp.

Officials with Fort Smith-based Craig Box Corp. approached Rolf Wilkin, owner of Eureka Pizza, in early 2010 to convince the Northwest Arkansas pizza company owner to switch box manufacturers.

Wilkin, who had pizza boxes made in Kansas City by a large national company, rejected  the Craig offer because he didn’t think they could handle the volume. Eureka Pizza uses about 2 million pizza boxes a year — almost 5,500 a day.

But the Craig Box sales force did not give up.

“I’ll tell you, they were very persistent. … They kept coming back to us,” Wilkin explained.

It worked.

In mid-December, Eureka Pizza began using boxes made by Craig Box. Not only does Wilkin expect to save about $100,000 a year with the switch, but working with a local company provides Eureka more flexibility in box delivery.

Prior to the switch, the boxes made in Kansas City for the nine Eureka Pizza stores (seven in Northwest Arkansas and two in Fort Smith) were delivered to Eureka’s food distributor in Springfield, Mo. The boxes were then shipped with the food, which resulted in Eureka paying an extra handling charge. But Craig Box delivers directly to Eureka, eliminating the charge and, Wilkin noted, reducing the environmental impact of shipping boxes to two locations.

Also, in the event of bad weather or unexpected demand, Craig Box is better able to deliver boxes on short notice, Wilkin said.

‘TIED TO FOOD’
Craig Box Corp. General Manager Eddy Craig said pursuing Eureka Pizza is part of the company’s strategy to find customers not likely to move out of the area.

“We’re trying to work with as many customers that are tied to food because your food products can’t really leave the country,” Craig said.

Craig Box employs about 25, and produces boxes for about 200 customers who range from small businesses to those will billions in annual sales. The company concentrates on recruiting and retaining customers located in a roughly 90-mile radius around Fort Smith.

“We have a broad base of customers, and that’s why we have been successful in the past few years. We don’t have that one large company that makes up a big part of our business,” Craig explained.

BETTER BOXES
Another surprise in the switch came from the national box company that lost the business. Wilkin said the national company argued that Craig Box didn’t have the experience

“I think (the national box company) was not willing to accept the fact that a local box company can make pizza boxes,” Wilkin explained.

Not only can they make them, but Wilkin said they make better boxes. With the previous company, each store had a place to stack defective boxes. Present, that space is rarely used.

“We were really stunned because it’s a better box. The employees like it better because they say it’s easier to fold,” Wilkin said.

IMPROVING SALES
Easier-to-fold boxes will indeed be a welcome change for Eureka Pizza’s 200 employees. Wilkin said same-store sales in 2010 were up 13% compared to 2009.

Sales are also growing for Craig Box also. Craig said the amount of raw material purchased in recent months has “been some of the highest volume” in recent years.

“We’re just an efficient small business, and we don’t have the overhead a lot of other corporations have,” Craig said when asked how the business remained steady during the recession.