TheBuzz
TheBuzz
The banner flapping in the breeze outside the Kaneohe Taco Bell is true. It really is serving Zippy's chili. Next stop Pizza Bell?
Sales of the locally branded staple started this week just as the newly rebuilt Zippy's restaurant mere blocks away on Kamehameha Highway opened for business on Tuesday.
"It wasn't timed to start at the same time, it was pure coincidence," said Theo H. Davies Co. Ltd. Field Marketing Director Leah Allen.
Kaneohe is one of only two Oahu Taco Bell restaurants selling the popular local chili -- the other is in Kapolei.
The head-turning banner is part of an overarching deal between Zippy's Restaurants -- located only on Oahu -- and the food service group of Theo Davies which owns the Hawaii franchises for both Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. There are 32 Taco Bell locations and 45 Pizza Hut locations statewide. The phone book lists 21 Zippy's locations.
"The reason why we're doing it is, basically, our feeling was Zippy's is such a quality brand name, everybody's familiar with Zippy's chili. For us on the Pizza Hut/Taco Bell side, we're the leading brand in each category. We thought (the chili) was a great product to enhance our menu, offering more variety to our customers," Allen said.
"We had an agreement with Pizza Hut to do chili," said Jeanine Mamiya-Kalahiki, Zippy's marketing manager, "but Taco Bell wanted to do it also."
Around the islands
Pizza Hut's 13 neighbor island locations started serving Zippy's chili and rice bowls and selling two- and seven-pound buckets of Zippy's chili a year ago.
The Zippy's chili is available only as its own menu item; you won't see it as an ingredient in Taco Bell nachos, for example.
Chili and rice bowls were rolled out at Taco Bell locations on Kauai in December and then expanded to Maui. Customers of the two Big Island Taco Bell restaurants will have to wait awhile longer.
"We don't have a specific date," Allen said, "but it will probably be soon."
Sales of the chili at the two Oahu Taco Bell locations are on a two-month trial run, according to Mamiya-Kalahiki.
"It will only be expanded if it's a win-win for both sides," Allen said.
The trial period will end and each company will review figures for incremental sales increases at Taco Bell and minimal impact on sales at Zippy's.
"For them it's a way to expand distribution, offering the chili in a lot more outlets in a more convenient manner," Allen said.
Zippy's chili is already sold frozen, not only in Hawaii as a fund-raiser for organizations, but is available on the mainland in Seattle.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com