Business Spotlight: Sands Café & Catering

Owner: Ronald and Carri Sands

Founded: 1989

Address: 211 E. South St., Ozark, MO 65721

Phone: (417) 581-1412

Services: Breakfast and lunch café, catering for private events

2007 Revenues: $212,000

Employees: 7

Ronald and Carri Sands have always kept things fairly simple.

In the face of rising food prices and ever-changing technology, they’ve kept Sands Café & Catering open for almost 20 years, partly because they’ve stayed the same.

“There are so many unpredictable situations,” Carri Sands says. “But we’ve managed to be consistent.”

The fresh, home-cooked meals they offer are the result of an equally simple style of business.

The eatery’s consistency and stability impresses Gjetta Moss, a waitress at Sands Café for more than a year.

“I’ve had other jobs that I loved at first, but then after two or three months, the claws come out,” she says.

It’s been different at Sands Café, Moss says, where she still feels “taken care of” a year later.

In keeping with their focus on simplicity, the café’s owners have skipped some of the more popular changes in technology.

Carri Sands doesn’t see a problem with the lack of a Web site, e-mail address or fax machine, preferring to rely on word-of-mouth for publicity.

In the heart of Texas

The couple opened Sands Café & Catering in October 1989 in an Arlington, Texas, shopping mall.

In 1997, they moved to Ozark because they owned land in Stockton and wanted a good school for their children.

They’ve carved out a niche about a mile east of U.S. Highway 65, where the café gets customers “wandering in off the beaten path,” Carri Sands says, in addition to its regular customers.

When it comes to catering, which makes up about 25 percent of the business, the Sandses will do just about whatever the customer needs.

About 95 percent of their catering work is noncorporate, typically events such as rehearsal dinners, Carri Sands says. They’ve handled a barbecue for 500 people – just a few months after opening – and fed a private gathering as small as four.

The larger event was for a French helicopter manufacturer held in an airplane hangar near their apartment, which served as a makeshift kitchen. The Sandses, along with two friends, smoked 200 pounds of brisket on their balcony. They also prepared homemade potato salad and smoked pulled pork on mostly rented equipment.

“It was quite the fiasco,” she remembers. “We were just a sandwich shop then. But we pulled it off.”

Pinching pennies

Like other restaurants large and small, Sands Café & Catering has had to address rising food prices. But the Sandses have had a head start, as they’ve been carefully watching overhead from Day 1. They do this a few different ways.

First, almost all the food is homemade.

“Like my soups – I can make three to four gallons for $5,” she says, noting that prepared soup might cost her as much as $30 for two gallons.

Second, they minimize labor costs, with only seven employees. Saving money means investing time, however, as either spouse is always on site during working hours: 6 a.m.–3 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Sands says they’d have to add a second crew if they added dinner hours.

A third key is to always shop for the best deal. Sands considers herself somewhat of a haggler. And if she’s getting a bad deal, somebody’s going to hear about it, she says.

“My bread company mispackaged my wheat bread,” she recalls. “I noticed there was only 14 slices, and there’s normally 18 slices. That’s two orders of toast per loaf. If I go through eight loaves a day, that’s 16 orders of toast times $1.25. That’s a lot of money.”

Sands, who got a free loaf out of the deal, says she always thinks in those terms. “People might make fun of me, but that’s how we stay in business,” she says.

Jerry Agee, a Springfield Grocer Co. sales representative who works with the café, says he’s developed a good working relationship with its owners. Agee says Carri Sands’ haggling efforts are not uncommon these days.

“It’s just a war out here,” he says. “It’s like a used car dealership.”

Financial matters also are affecting the way the catering business operates.

A survey of caterers by the National Association of Catering Executives suggests that customers are choosing cheaper options and avoiding luxury items. For example, a customer might choose a seasonal fish option as opposed to a higher-cost meat, NACE President Daniel Briones says.

While a change in size or frequency of events is not apparent, such menu decisions reflect a consciousness of trying to control costs.

Setting the table

The Sandses say they’ll make adjustments when necessary, such as surrendering to the pressure of technology four years ago to purchase an answering machine. In the meantime, their eighth-grade son has expressed interest in opening a barbecue trailer after graduation, and they’ll just keep doing things the way they always have.

“We’ve talked about staying in business until we retire,” Carri Sands says. “Until then, it’s just flipping eggs.”