Elisabeth Abbatiello speaks quickly, as if she were running. A rate of speech in the image of the growth of Pizza Salvatoré, the chain of restaurants that she owns with her three brothers and her sister.
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She tells me that in Canada, it is the catering brand that is advancing the fastest: an opening every two weeks since March 2021!
“We’re starting to be comfortable with the speed,” says the young entrepreneur, who also became a mother of three girls before she turned 30.
Recently, the Abbatiello family was approached by a large group who wanted to buy their pizzerias and, like their father before, who had received an offer from Pizza Hut, they kindly declined. Clearly, the family enjoys adventure and a pride in entrepreneurship that comes from its Beauce and Italian roots.
Marcel Tremblay/Agence QMI
Elisabeth’s grandfather immigrated from Italy. In Montreal, he married a Quebecer originally from Saint-Odilon-de-Cranbourne. Then, on the occasion of a New Year’s Day party, Salvatore introduced the Beauce family to pizza. Under the spell, she convinced him to open his restaurant. This is how, in 1964, he introduced pizza to all of Saint-Georges.
The first Italian in Beauce
“My grandfather was the only Italian in Beauce, he spoke a kind of Franglais Italian and he lived in an apartment above the restaurant with my grandmother and their seven children”, says Elisabeth, whose father and a uncle bought out Pizza Salvatoré later, and then opened a dozen franchises.
Marcel Tremblay/Agence QMI
As far as she can remember, Elisabeth has worked in the family business, and as she does everything quickly, she became a shareholder at the age of 24, when the third generation took over.
How did everyone find their place in this household of five? She says it just happened naturally and it seems too good to be true, but if this family has a team that can open a restaurant every two weeks, maybe they can also share the roles in harmony?
Elisabeth has invested in the field of communications and marketing, she is hyperactive on social media, where she offers a young and dynamic image of the company. In five years, Pizza Salvatoré has gone from 13 to 64 restaurants, while going through the shock of the pandemic. That’s not all: the young shareholders repaid in two years rather than five the loan contracted for the purchase of the chain.
“It was following that we were able to start expanding with corporate restaurants. We worked 60 to 70 hours a week at the beginning, the five, the two hands in the operations, ”says the young woman.
Run to grow
Casually, opening a restaurant every two weeks means recruiting and training 30 to 40 employees each time, in a context where there is a shortage of manpower everywhere.
I don’t know what vitamins are in Pizza Salvatoré’s recipes, but I’m starting to think of magic ingredients! Especially since Elisabeth tells me to eat it nine times a week!
Back to the pandemic. March 2020. Half of the sales were then at the Pizza Salvatoré buffets. That’s what closed first. The Abbatiellos had no desire to lose their staff, so they changed their formula to keep the jobs. The delivery system already existed, we inflated it and, with unbeatable promotions, we attracted orders.
First week: overall sales were down 15%. A month later, they were up 60%. Pizzeria counter and deliveries: this has become the new business model that is spreading to Quebec, the Maritimes and soon to Ontario. Don’t we say that unity is strength? This tight-knit family seems to want to call it back.
SALVATORE PIZZA
Year of foundation
1964
Founders
Salvatore Abbatiello and Angèle Fecteau
Head office location
Québec
Activity area
Restoration
Number of employees
2365
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