Business Opportunities: On-Line Articles - Unique NYC Company Finds Excitement in Food

Unique NYC Company Finds Excitement in Food
by Michael J. McDermott

When it comes to finding a word to describe Yipeee, Inc., a New York City business owned and operated by Michael and Karen DiPeri, "unique" barely does it justice.

As Michael DiPeri, the company's president, puts it, "As far as New York State and the federal government are concerned, we are the only company of its kind. There is no SIC (Standard Industrial Classification) code that describes who we are and what we do."

That's not a problem for the DiPeri s-or for their client base-however, because Michael and Karen know just what their company is and what it can do. They also know that no other company currently in business offers exactly what they offer to their clients. And therein, says Michael, lies the key to Yipeee's success.

The best way to describe the company, launched in 1997, is as a total event management and resource firm, but even that does not do justice to what sets it apart from similar ventures.

It started out providing supplemental staffing to catering establishments but quickly grew into a much broader-based operation, one functioning as a primary resource for service professionals such as bartenders and waiters who specialized in serving the most appealing locations and events in the Big Apple.

New York is a town of deep pockets and big egos, with an upper crust of uber-consumers among the most demanding in the world. Yipeee's professional staffers specialized in delivering the kind of impeccable service required to meet those demands.

;As far as the federal government is concerned, we are the only company of its kind.'

Impressed by the caliber of its service professionals and the manner in which Yipeee dealt with both them and those who hired them, clients soon began asking Yipeee to manage more aspects of their special events and private functions.

Through organic growth, Yipeee quickly developed a vast network of resources and contacts that makes the best of everything available to its clients-cuisine, venues, entertainers, props and decorations, along with the all-star service professionals that got it all started.

Certainly, the concept's viability has been borne out by Yipeee's scorching financial success. In less than 10 years, the company has grown from about $600,000 in annual billings to about $5 million, maintaining an average annual growth rate of about 35%.

In the year following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a period when most of the foodservice and hospitality industry in New York City was devastated, Yipeee managed a 10% increase in sales.

Impressive, you might say, and unique in its own way, but what's so special about Yipeee's business model? What does it do that can't be done by some competitor? In fact, you might begin to wonder, how the heck is it racking up those growth numbers? Why hasn't competition pulled the rug out from underneath this company, perhaps by the kind of predatory price-slashing that characterizes so much of the foodservice and hospitality industry?

SECRET FORMULA

A big part of the answer is that most of Yipeee's potential competitors-and even some of its clients, initially-don't really understand just what the company is, does and stands for, Michael DiPeri says.

"We have two sets of clients, foodservice clients who consume the services channeled through our company and the professionals who provide those services," he explains. "We treat each set of clients on an equal basis, we cater to both of them and we market each group to the other."

DiPeri stresses that the truly unique aspect of its business model is the "equal basis" part. People who work in the foodservice industry, even-or maybe especially-in the rarified atmosphere which Yipeee caters to, generally are not treated well, and they come to expect that.

"Inside Yipeee, it is the complete opposite," he says. "We want them to market their services through us, and we treat them with the respect and professionalism they deserve. Our foodservice clients are treated the same way; respect is the key."

This balanced approach is a total anomaly in the foodservice industry, DiPeri admits. "What we are doing amounts to paradigm shifting, and it can take some time before clients and potential clients actually "get it." But it is the key to our success. Through our first seven years in business, all our growth resulted from word-of-mouth promotion. We did zero advertising or marketing for Yipeee itself."

Yipeee developed a vast network that gives its clients access to the best of everything.

While it has been the key to the company's success, DiPeri acknowledges that paradigm shifting has also been its biggest challenge. The traditional mindset of what constitutes a server-client relationship proved to be a difficult one to change. "But we did it," he says. "Ninety-five percent of our volume is repeat business. When clients see how well our approach works, they come back again and again."

Over the years, Yipeee has expanded into several business segments, including staffing, training, event management, consulting services and a celebrity chef alliance. The DiPeris credit that diversification with helping them continue to grow in the wake of 9/11.

"We have evolved with the needs of an expanding market and developed an innovative method of consulting to the foodservice industry," says vice president Karen DiPetri.

Yipeee has built a team of professionals and a core of expertise that allows it to evaluate and consult on a business's operations from the most important perspective: the overall guest experience, she says.

Yipeee's client list reads like a "Who's Who" of New York City's corporate and philanthropic elite: AT&T, Avanti (formerly Philip Morris), Bank of New York, the Bessemer Trust, Credit Suisse First Boston, Fortune Brands, NBC Studios, Saatchi & Saatchi, Skadden Arps and the Yale Club of New York City, to name a few.

RICH AND FAMOUS

The rich and famous from Long Island's Hamptons to Manhattan's toniest precincts also populate its private client list.

Yipeee's Celebrity Chef Alliance service gives clients the opportunity to have a world-renowned culinary master prepare a meal for an intimate gathering or a large event. The company can arrange for a celebrity chef to offer a cooking class or demonstration of a signature dish, discuss food and wine and trendy ingredients, and mingle with guests on a one-to-one basis.

It has relationships with dozens of chefs, including Bobby Flay, Daniel Boulud and Jacques Pepin, and also provides celebrity hosts and emcees such as Bill Boggs and Sara Moulton.

As Michael DiPeri notes, there are no "do-overs" in the event management business.

"It's a one-time shot, for us and for the client running the event," he says. "There's a lot of finger-pointing in the foodservice industry, but we'll never do that. You have to be supportive, especially when things go wrong-and they do, sometimes. Assigning blame is useless, and it can be counterproductive. Our attitude is to be part of the solution."

That attitude has also won Yipeee the support and loyalty of some of the best vendors in the industry-a critical asset in a business where you are judged by the people you surround yourself with, especially when they are supposed to be the best, DiPeri says.

As Michael DiPeri notes, there are no "do-overs" in the event management business.

The company's approach to vendor relations incorporates the same core values that define its respect-driven approach to dealing with service providers and vendors. Collectively, that philosophy pays huge dividends to Yipeee.

"There is a method and mindset at Yipeee, a corporate culture that makes us unique," DiPeri says. "To some extent, what we do cannot be duplicated. I get HR (human resources) guys from big companies all the time who ask me what my secret is. They are blown away by the performance of our people. Bottom line, we don't ask them to do anything; we just put them in an environment where they can excel. You have to get people to invest in this philosophy."

And as the government's inability to assign Yipeee an SIC code attests, there is no way to classify a business like that-except, maybe, as "uniquely superb."