Isaac’s Deli Is Flying High

Isaac’s Deli Is Flying High
A success story of starting your own restaurant chain

by Andrea Ciccocioppo

Almost anywhere you go these days, it is likely you’ll see a flock of Canadian geese congregating in the grass. But there’s another bird that’s becoming almost as prevalent in Central Pennsylvania, and these birds won’t soil your lawn. Flamingos are turning up in towns all over the region beckoning the hungry passersby into Isaac’s Deli. The flamingo is the company logo for the unique restaurant chain that offers a broad selection of sandwiches all named after exotic birds.

The idea of Isaac’s Deli was laid out in 1983 by a couple of college buddies—Isaac Williams and Phillip Wenger. After graduating from college in Virginia, Wenger returned to his native Central Pennsylvania in search of a job. He encouraged Williams to fly north where the job opportunities were more plentiful. Soon, with a good location and help from Wenger’s father, Chester, Isaac’s Deli was hatched as a small deli in downtown Lancaster.

The company began with three shareholders—Isaac Williams, Philip and Chester Wenger. Williams, however, left the business early on. With no restaurant experience and a liberal arts education, Phillip Wenger quit another full-time job and put all his eggs in one nest, so to speak, and set his sights on running the restaurant. Despite his lack of formal training in food service, Wenger proved to be no birdbrain. In 14 years, Isaac’s has had steady growth, with an average of one new restaurant opening each year and $9 million in annual sales. Isaacs’s flock includes about 400 employees at the 13 locations to date.

Perhaps, Wenger’s success can be attributed more to his strong moral foundation and genuine concern for people than to his entrepreneurial spirit. "I didn’t have a dream to be some mega-entrepreneur. In fact, I find that money is not good motivation—that’s not why you make things grow. At Isaac’s, the reason that we’re growing now is because of our employees and giving them the opportunity to make something happen with this company," Wenger notes.

"When I open a new store, it gives people a chance to get promoted, it gives people a chance to increase their wages, and it gives people an opportunity to feel that they are a part of something that’s a growing and happening place ... there is a sort of built-in momentum that grows," he said.

But, Isaac’s flock can only be as strong as its leader. Though he is founder, president and CEO of Isaac’s Deli, Inc., Wenger maintains a humanizing approach to running the business. For the most part, tasks are shared: no one person is stuck with the most boring jobs, and management is involved in decision making. "I call it flat-table decision making. While I’m the CEO, my board of directors is my general managers. That’s how we make decisions. I don’t make unilateral decrees."

In addition, Wenger takes a hands-on approach to his position. "I am responsible for what I call the managers’ ‘happiness quotient’—I’m the one who goes out and visits them in the stores to see if they’re enjoying their jobs and, if they’re not, what can I do to make sure that they are," he said. "That’s primarily what I spend most of my energy doing."

The mundane side of running a business doesn’t ruffle Wenger’s feathers; he schedules his own appointments and promptly returns his own phone calls. Yet, he’s not too proud to give credit to the rest of the flock. "Obviously, the most important reason we’re a success is the quality, integrity and character of the people who work here," he states. "They’re the ones who make it a success."

In return, Wenger sees to it that his employees are taken care of. The company offers great benefits including health, dental and life insurance, a company-matched 401k plan, vacation pay, flexible working schedules, free meals and uniforms. These perks not only contribute to the low employee turnover rate, they also help to ensure customer satisfaction. When employees are happy, customers will be happy, too.

As for the bird theme, it came about by accident. "We had all this Fiestaware that we were planning to serve on and Isaac used to collect pink flamingos," Wenger recalls. "So we figured if we use this pink flamingo to go with the Fiestaware, why not name all of our sandwiches after birds." The theme took off immediately and the chain does very little advertising because of it. "By naming the sandwiches after birds, it’s so unusual and it strikes such an interesting chord with people, that we have found our sales volume has made us profitable without advertising because of that unique concept with the birds," Wenger notes. In fact, over one-third of Isaac’s 56 sandwiches have come from customer suggestions. Apparently Isaac’s is one of the few successful businesses who can say advertising is, indeed, for the birds.

A Birds’ Eye View of Success

Phillip Wenger started Isaac’s Deli with no restaurant experience. Over the years, he has expanded his one deli into a successful chain of 13, with more on the horizon. We asked him to draw on his own experiences and give us a few tips on how to make a small business a success.

Mr. Phillip Wenger shares:

• Grow your business because it’s fun and challenging, not because you think you’re going to get rich. If you think you’re going to get rich and you’re going to watch all your pennies, you won’t make a good entrepreneur—you have to loosen up and have some fun with your idea.

• Build a good team of people to work for you. Our philosophy here is that great employees are not hired, they’re created. We’ll take anybody and give them an opportunity. If they fit in and get along, if they show what they’re made of, they have every opportunity to go on and become a senior vice-president.

• If you’re in the retail sector, initiate relationships with developers who have shopping centers and are willing to help you finance your expansion. I’ve been able to find local developers who really like our concept and want us in their centers to enhance their reputation. As a result of that, they are willing to lend me money to open some of the new locations.

• Don’t create enemies. I found out early on that if you treat each person as a human being and respect them, you become highly regarded in the community and a whole lot wiser as a result of that.

• Learn from your mistakes. Any entrepreneur who thinks they know it all will find out very quickly that they don’t. If you make a mistake or you make a bad business decision, don’t beat yourself up or beat up the people you work with. Instead say, ‘What can we learn from this experience?’ If you approach every pitfall that you run into as a learning experience, you become smarter and better at expanding your business.

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717-703-5000.