Centralized restaurant take-out services have proven popular in recent years, and at least one of them is growing. Stellar Restaurant Solutions, a Colorado Springs-based call center business that takes delivery and takeout orders for restaurants, is one of them.
Colorado Springs' Gazette is reporting today that Stellar employs approximately 250 people, five times the amount it employed just a year ago. Thanks to the need to expand to meet growth, the company plans to double that number to 500 this year. If growth continues, the company says it could need as many as 2,000 employees in the next few years. Colorado Springs-based Stellar, which was formed in 2007, is a partnership between Bigari’s consulting company, i3, and Stellar Global Inc., a global call center and business process outsourcing (BPO) provider.
“I think the headline is that we’re very excited about staying in our hometown,” said Steve Bigari, CEO of Stellar Restaurant Solutions.
Colorado Springs pizza chain Borriello Brothers was Stellar’s first client, and its first national client was California Pizza Kitchen. It has now picked up several other national chains, including P.F. Chang’s and Qdoba Mexican Grill. Stellar says it is currently in talks with over 80 restaurant companies.
“Qdoba is historic from that standpoint that it was the first and only client that we’ve won so far without a pilot,” Bigari said. "They went straight into a national rollout.”
By handling calls such as takeout and delivery, the idea is to free up staff at the restaurants and reduce wait times; it’s one less ball the restaurant owner has to juggle, reports the Gazette. According to its website, Stellar has handled nearly $238 million in takeout sales since it began.
Bigari says the “500 employees by year’s end” estimate is actually as a conservative number. If Stellar lands one large pending contract, it could mean 1,000 more jobs to handle that contract alone. The company prides itself on offering more than ordinary call center jobs to employees.
Said Bigari, “These are not minimum wage jobs. These people are partners; they make way above the minimum wage. Secondly, we’re an open book management company, so we share the profits. I don’t view this as a call center company. This is a restaurant company... We are a restaurant company that doesn’t cook food.”