Noble Roman’s Refocuses Strategy
Indianapolis-based Noble Roman’s Inc. has announced measures designed to improve its strategic direction. The pizza company, which has been focusing heavily on licensing agreements for its "take-n-bake" products in grocery stores, says it is in "productive discussions" with retailers that represent around 550 locations.
It says it has also in contact with two grocery store distributors who deal with additional retailers.
The announcement comes as the company announces a dip in net income over the last year. In 2015, Noble Roman’s is reporting net income of $786,000, compared to $1.6 million during the same period a year earlier.
In a news release about the company’s annual fiscal results, Chief Executive Officer Scott Mobley said:
In 2015, as CEO, my analysis of the company’s strategic direction concluded that its greatest opportunities for value generation in the longer run are different than where the largest short-term gains will likely be realized. In the short run, given that the company has already invested significant effort in it and is well positioned to extract value from it, I believe the grocery take-n-bake venue represents the potential opportunity for faster, significant growth. However, for a variety of reasons, I consider the stand-alone venue to have more significant and dependable long-term revenue growth potential. Although more mature and staid, with our efforts to update and modernize the approach in mind as prerequisite, I believe the non-traditional venue also offers significant potential for long term growth. Our objective is to continue to capture the faster growth opportunities in the grocery take-n-bake venue while at the same time positioning the company to capitalize on its strong, longer-term opportunities. Much progress has already been made towards these ends and will continue to be the company’s focus in 2016.
Last year, Noble Roman’s was added in more than 400 grocery locations. Through the first three months of this year, it has reached licensing agreements for more than 130 new locations and opened in 72 stores so far.
The company has also revamped its pizza kiosk system, worked to develop and test new products, services and systems, and says its has begun the first steps to restructure and refinance current debt obligations.