Catering to Caterers

Greg Kopriva remembers his first customer 20 years ago, a catering company with a uniquely Florida name: Pelicatessen.

Kopriva and his father, George, had moved to Naples and together they wrote a software program to help the owners of Pelicatessen better manage their company. “I could manage a Lotus spreadsheet like nobody's business,” Kopriva laughs at the memory of the antique software.

But George Kopriva thought they were onto something after they landed their second customer, the well-known Naples culinary institution called Wynn's Market. Why not write software for other caterers to manage their business?

“They started peddling it around the state,” says Chris Kopriva, Greg's brother who is in charge of marketing and joined them later. “This was back in the days of DOS, but they had it set up so that it was single-keystroke.”

Today, Horizon Business Services has 30,000 customers in the U.S. and overseas who use the Caterease software. The Koprivas decline to cite annual sales or percentage growth in recent years, but a hint of their success is that they plan to build a $3 million headquarters building in Naples to house their growing operations.

There's certainly plenty of room for growth. The Koprivas say there are about 120,000 caterers and event planners in the U.S. and another 20,000 in Canada. Only about 10% of their business is international, but they're working on a service that will translate their software so they can sell it in Europe and elsewhere.

Also fueling the growth is offering the software as an online subscription service that customers can access from computer tablets and other Internet-linked devices. Such “cloud-based” services are a rapidly growing part of the market and represent half their business already.

Part of the success of Caterease is that the Koprivas have stayed focused on their caterer customers even as others have asked them to adapt the software to other industries. That focus and attention wins customers like Warren Dietel, who give invaluable word-of-mouth advertising.

“We were running four different programs,” says Dietel, president of Puff 'n Stuff Catering in Orlando. Now, with Caterease, Dietel says he can do everything from scheduling staff to making proposals using the software. “This ties it all together. It's a huge time savings.”

Catering to caterers
When they were building their software, the Koprivas decided they weren't going to reinvent how people use it. They modeled their software after popular Windows applications like Outlook and Word so users didn't have to learn a new system.

Rival software developers make their customers learn a whole new system, they say. “It's a major mistake,” says Greg Kopriva.

In addition, the Koprivas are responsive to their customers, constantly incorporating tools that their customers might need. “This is not a one-size-fits-all kind of industry,” says Chris Kopriva.

But Greg Kopriva says the company is careful not to allow so many options that the program becomes unwieldy. There are various versions and optional add-on programs to fit different kinds of catering operations.

For the desktop, the express version costs $1,250 and the professional version costs $3,495. For $500, you can add on options such as a client-contact manager. Annual maintenance fees to get the upgrades range from $350 to $750 depending on the number of users.

While the Koprivas are responsive to their customers, they say it's important to retain control of the software so it doesn't veer into areas that aren't central to the catering business. For example, they've had some inquiries from health care providers. “If you spread yourself too thin, you do nothing well,” says Greg Kopriva.

Now, many caterers prefer to buy the Caterease software on a subscription model online rather than buying the software and installing it on a personal computer. That way, customers can access the software from anywhere with tablets and other devices. “Mobility is a big deal with our clients,” says Greg Kopriva.

The company's Web-based service is less costly initially. The professional version costs $1,000 to set up and there's a monthly fee of $130 (or $100 a month if annually). But the advantage of the subscription model is recurring revenues.

In both cases, automation plays a big role. The software can be updated at a click of the mouse via the Internet. Kopriva says his company could manage adding 2,000 new customers without hiring a significant number of people.

Air Force gives wings
The company's big break came in 1997, when it won a contract to provide the management software for the U.S. Air Force's clubs on 131 air bases around the world. That forced the company to add 90 new features to the program, making it more robust and flexible.

The Kopriva family has been able to grow the company without outside financing or investors. “We don't want to use venture capital,” says Greg Kopriva. His brother Chris is more blunt: “Greg is a control freak. He wants to maintain the decision-making.”

Unlike many software companies, the Koprivas won't outsource any of the operations, including customer service. There are 10 people in the company's Naples office who focus exclusively on helping customers with the software over the phone and Internet.

To help the tech support staff connect with customers, the Koprivas pay for them to attend industry trade shows. That way they can meet the customers they've been helping over the phone. “We have a personal relationship with customers,” says Greg Kopriva. “You see how you fit into the big picture.”

The Koprivas are sensitive to hiring and promoting the right people. “If you're not closely knit, one bad seed can be a real cancer to a small organization,” says Greg Kopriva. He owns an African lovebird that flutters freely around the office, and one way to assess job candidates is by their reaction to the bird.

Although it's been challenging to find qualified technology people in Naples, lately that task has become easier as more people are looking for work. Still, the Koprivas prefer to promote from within the ranks because employees must understand the catering business. “We know where our bread is buttered,” says Chris Kopriva.

To create team spirit, the company sponsors trips such as an all-expense-paid holiday to Key West a few years ago. Greg Kopriva laughs that the trip coincidentally was scheduled at the same time as Fantasy Fest, the raucous festival.

Originally from New England, the Koprivas routinely invite employees to take snowmobile trips up north and host lobster and clambake parties. “We're all family,” Greg Kopriva says.