The Challenge
Midland Pizza Factory handles a steady mix of everyday walk-in and delivery orders alongside larger catering orders for office lunches, school events, and local gatherings. As catering demand grew, the team found itself managing these orders through a patchwork of phone calls, spreadsheets, and manual follow-ups, with the catering program essentially existing on third-party platforms only. There was no direct channel for customers to access the catering menu, which made it difficult to build repeat catering relationships or capture that revenue directly.
As order volume increased, the manual, third-party-only process started to show its limits: the team had no owned channel for catering customers, and fulfillment depended on delivery drivers with no catering-specific training, leaving Midland Pizza Factory completely reliant on third parties for a growing part of its business.
The Solution
Midland Pizza Factory adopted Nibble to bring catering and bulk ordering into a single, structured workflow. With Nibble, the team was able to launch a branded catering menu directly on its own site, letting customers order straight from Midland Pizza Factory instead of through a third-party marketplace. Catering orders are now routed to delivery drivers who are pre-vetted specifically for catering, handling the timing and handling requirements catering orders demand, rather than being treated like standard takeout deliveries.
The rollout focused on giving Midland Pizza Factory a direct ordering channel that could reduce reliance on third-party platforms and give the team more control over the customer experience. The Nibble ONE team worked closely with Midland throughout onboarding to build out the menu, configure the ordering experience, and make sure the platform reflected how the restaurant actually operates.
Rather than simply handing over a new tool, the rollout focused on getting the system ready for both the team using it and the customers ordering from it. From menu setup and ordering configuration to staff support throughout onboarding, the goal was to make the transition simple and create an ordering experience that customers could actually use without friction.
The Results
Since implementing Nibble, Midland Pizza Factory has moved from being completely reliant on third-party platforms for catering to being, in co-owner Ruston Hicks’ words, “essentially self-sufficient.” The restaurant is now building out a direct catering channel and generating an average of $1,700 per month in direct online catering sales, revenue that did not exist through a direct channel before Nibble. The team also reports getting meaningfully more catering orders overall than before, now that customers can order directly rather than only through third parties.
| Metric | Before Nibble | After Nibble |
|---|---|---|
| Direct online catering sales | $0 | ~$1,700 avg / month |
| Catering order channel | Third-party platforms only | Direct via branded site + Nibble |
| Delivery fulfillment | Ad hoc / general delivery | Drivers pre-vetted for catering orders |
| Direct catering orders per month | 0 | 7 |
In Their Words
We implemented Nibble because our catering program essentially existed on third-party platforms only, and we really needed a way for our customers to access our menu directly. Nibble works perfectly for that—we now have a catering menu on our site where customers order directly from us, and we send those out with drivers who are really, you know, pre-vetted for catering orders specifically. So where we were completely reliant on third parties, we're now essentially self-sufficient. And we're building out direct catering orders, and we're getting a lot more of them than we used to.
— Ruston Hicks, Co-Owner, Midland Pizza Factory
Looking Ahead
Midland Pizza Factory plans to continue growing direct catering volume, build repeat customer relationships, expand catering menu offerings, and deepen use of Nibble’s driver network as catering demand continues to grow.
About Nibble
Nibble helps restaurants and catering teams manage bulk and catering orders in one place, replacing manual, phone- and spreadsheet-based processes with a streamlined catering online ordering workflow built for how catering actually works.