Covelli Enterprises Considers Headquarters Expansion
WARREN, Ohio – Covelli Enterprises owner/operator Sam Covelli says he expects to decide over the next few months on a possible expansion of the company’s headquarters or to establish a satellite office somewhere in the Mahoning Valley.
Covelli made his remarks Tuesday at the Elm Road Panera Bread Bakery-Cafe after he presented a $15,000 check to the local Toys for Tots campaign. He said his company is continuing to consider options, which include setting up a payroll center somewhere in the community.
“We are getting to the point where we are starting to outgrow our headquarters,” he said. “We have built satellite offices in different markets but our headquarters is still going to be here and we’re going to need to do something.”
Whatever form the expansion takes, “it’ll be somewhere in the Valley,” he affirmed.
Covelli presented members of the U.S. Marine Corps with his company's donation to the Toys for Tots Foundation, along with a stack of toys collected by Covelli Enterprises employees. The company has donated nearly $500,000 to the campaign over the past 30 years, reported Liz Fiorino, regional marketing director for Covelli Enterprises.
The local Toys for Tots campaign provided toys for about 12,000 children in Mahoning and Trumbull counties, said Sgt. Modesto Montano, Toys for Tots coordinator for the two counties. “This year we had to tighten down on our distributions to ensure that we did get the needy families. So we’ll probably be around the same, around 12,000 children this year,” he said.
“This is a privilege for us every year. We’re just glad the Marines make us a part of this,” Covelli said. “It’s the greatest feeling in the world that we’re able to do it and we’re going to continue to do it. As long as I’m alive we’re going to continue to do it.”
Panera Bread’s continued growth is driving the need for Covelli Enterprises to expand. “We know we need to do something,” Covelli said. About 80 are employed at the East Market Street headquarters but Monday meetings double that number.
Construction recently got under way on Covelli’s 250th Panera Bread restaurant, to be located in Boardman, which he expects to open in February or March. He had planned to have the store open by the end of this year but issues involving water running at the back of the site, on Market Street south of U.S. Route 224, delayed the project.
Covelli said he plans to open 20 stores over the next year.
“We want to continue growing just like we have in the past,” he said. “Business has been great. We want to keep opening stores.” Last week Covelli enterprises opened its sixth store in Canada and is preparing to open another one. “And then we’re going to really start rolling in Canada,” he said.
The company also plans to open an O’Charley’s restaurant in Strongsville over the next few months, bringing the total to six. While the restaurants have been doing “great,” Panera’s growth has meant focusing on that chain, but he intends to open additional O’Charley’s restaurants as well.
Covelli also reports he is pleased with the performance of the newly added Dairy Queen franchise. Earlier this year he opened a stand-alone Dairy Queen Chill and Grill at the Eastwood Mall Complex in Niles, near the Panera and O’Charley’s restaurants there, and two combined Panera/DQ restaurants at the Ohio Turnpike’s Mahoning Valley and Glacier Hills service plazas in New Springfield.
“Those are doing great,” he remarked. “Our visitors on the turnpike love it. They stop in there and they love the combination.”
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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