Wilkin Still Believes Prompt Pizza Service a Big, Big Deal

Rolf Wilkin says he’s embarrassed to admit the truth. He didn’t enter the pizza business with a winning formula for much success.

“For the first couple of years, we threw away a lot of pizzas,” he recalled. “And that was frustrating.”

But images of people waiting in line at other fast food chains or seeing drive-thru traffic at a standstill helped Wilkin see the best way to earn his slice of the pie in the restaurant industry.

“Pizza had always been a food that you phoned in and came and picked up a few minutes later or had it delivered,” he said. “Then we started analyzing our orders, and 50 to 75 percent of them were cheese, pepperoni or sausage pizzas. So it was really easy to see that we could satisfy most people pretty quickly.”

As Fayetteville-based Eureka Pizza celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2012, Wilkin said the company and its Fast ‘N Fresh philosophy has trended to more of a quick-service restaurant as opposed to a traditional pizza restaurant.

Eureka Pizza’s menu offers an assortment of appetizers along with numerous pizza selections and more than 20 toppings to choose from. But Wilkin believes the role of the cheese/pepperoni/sausage trio of ready-to-go pizzas will be a big deal in the company’s future growth.

“That’s been a fun evolution because I don’t think our competitors understand it, which is kind of cool,” he said. “We’re not really competing with Domino’s, we’re competing with McDonald’s, and that’s exciting because we’re competing with a food they don’t have.”

Wilkin founded Eureka Systems Corp. in 1992.

By 1999, the year Wilkin was honored as part of the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 class, Eureka Pizza had five locations in Northwest Arkansas and four in Missouri.

Three years later, Eureka Pizza was recognized at the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s Business of the Year banquet.

At the time, Eureka Pizza had 16 stores combined in Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas and Kentucky, and total revenue of $8 million.

Wilkin has since left the stores in other states to focus on Arkansas, “where it seems a lot easier to make money,” he said. And a short-lived idea of franchising the restaurants was dropped.

Today, with seven pizzeria locations in Northwest Arkansas and two in Fort Smith, Eureka Pizza generated approximately $7 million in revenue in 2011.

None of the restaurants have dine-in service for customers, instead offering pizza via carryout, delivery and now drive-thru window.

A push is on to add a drive-thru window to each location, increasing Eureka Pizza’s reputation as a quick-service leader.

“That’s our big evolution,” Wilkin said.

Wilkin added the company’s first window two years ago in Fort Smith, and now has four of the nine locations with drive-thru service.

“We’ve seen 50 percent growth in our drive-thru stores in two years,” he said. “That’s our big push right now.”

Wilkin recently received a building permit to begin work on the company’s newest restaurant location at 2119 W. Walnut St. in Rogers. The building, next to Andy’s Frozen Custard, was formerly Napoli’s Italian Restaurant.

For Wilkin, one innovation that stands out in the company’s first 20 years is Monday Madness, introduced two years ago. Large cheese, pepperoni or sausage pizzas are available all day on Mondays for $3.99 each.

“The food cost is really high, but the labor cost crumbles because of the volume,” he said. “It went from being one of our slowest days of the week to the busiest and most profitable. At the Leverett store [in Fayetteville], we’ll sell over 1,000.”

Away from the restaurant, Wilkin enjoys cycling and traveling with his wife of 11 years and their three children.

Wilkin also is serving a term as president of the Springdale Rotary Club, where he’s been a member for 10 years, and in conjunction with that group, Wilkin and his wife will head to India in the coming weeks for eight days to immunize children against polio.

And as for the company’s next 20 years? Expansion beyond the Natural State doesn’t seem likely.

“I’ve got three kids now, so the advantages of doing business close to home here and in Fort Smith really resonates,” Wilkin said. “And really, what a great area to do business in.”