Zoup! Fresh Soup Co. says it strives “to provide the most varieties of the best-tasting soups ever made.

Premier Business Partners:

U.S. Foodservice

Based in Southfield, Mich., Zoup! has 20 quick-casual restaurants in the states of Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. In addition to soup, the restaurants offer sandwiches, salad and desserts.

Although the company strives “to provide the most varieties of the best-tasting soups ever made,” it says its “true goal” is even larger. “What we really want to do is create an oasis in people’s lives,” Zoup! states, noting that “soup has powerful and intangible qualities that provide comfort and promote a genuine sense of well-being for many people.”

‘Hard to Find’
Ersher and his partner, David Elias, founded the company in 1998. Previously, the two worked in the wholesale spice industry and produced soup premixes for a restaurant chains. As Ersher and Elias served the chains, the work brought them into the back areas of restaurants where they “saw what kind of soups they were preparing,” Ersher remembers. 

“A lot of times, it [seemed like] they viewed soup as a vehicle to get rid of leftovers or grilled chicken, or they were using a commercial and less than high-quality product,” he recalls. “We started asking around, [and] the consensus was [that] really good soup was hard to find.”

Linked with Comfort
On the other hand, Ersher and Elias also noticed customers tended to link soups with memories of growing up. “People often associated soup with comfort, home [and] family,” Ersher says.  

“We recognized that soup, unlike any other food category, had many other intangibles,” he continues. “Our charge, at the onset of the creation of [Zoup!], was to create a brand that combined really good soup with those intangibles.”

Becoming the Best
Before opening their first location, Ersher and Elias spent a year testing soup recipes with friends and family members. “Needless to say, we were pretty nervous about going into the restaurant business,” Ersher recalls.

“Based on those evaluations for each of the soups, we would keep them, tweak them or kill them,” he says.

Points of Difference
Today, the quality and variety of the company’s soups are major points of difference, Ersher says. Zoup! uses only all-natural meats and vegetables in its 100 varieties, including lobster bisque, spicy black bean chili and chicken potpie, which are some of its most popular selections.

In its restaurants, Zoup! works with a rotation of 50 that it selects and deselects from its list of 100, Ersher says.

Zoup! has received local awards for its products. In 2005, Detroit Metro Times named Zoup! as the “Best Place to Get Full From Liquid Based Meals,” while in 2003, The Detroit News voted the restaurant as the “Best Place for a Hearty Bowl of Soup.”

Additionally, in 2003, Inc. magazine’s Inc. 500 placed Zoup! as No. 155 of the 500 fastest growing private companies in the United States, while in 2005, AOL City Guide Detroit named the company as the “City’s Best Healthy Dining.”

Making Zoup! Stronger
As Zoup! grows, the company continues to nurture a culture focused on providing the intangible qualities of comfort and satisfaction to its customers. “We call it our passion,” Ersher says.

To sustain this passion, he says Zoup! focuses on identifying great people by a selection process using its core values, which are: “Ideas are Appreciated,”  “Execution is Worshiped,” “Can-Do Attitudes,” “No Jerks,” and “Open and Honest.”

“Core values are, for us, all about people,” Ersher says. Employees who fit with Zoup!’s culture often “feel like they’ve found a home and are successful.”

The company also reinforces its culture with a monthly, four-hour staff and franchisee orientation. Although 15 of the company’s locations are franchises, “We haven’t done much in actively soliciting [franchisees],” Ersher says.

Instead, the company focuses on growing carefully, so it can find franchisees who are the right fit for the concept. “We’re much more focused on strategic and sensible growth that we can support than we are on driving franchise development numbers,” he says.

On Top of Technology
The company uses state-of-the-art technology to manage its growth, Ersher says. For instance, the company now has a Web-based, proprietary point-of-sale system that populates databases in Z!Net, its intranet site. “From that, we have great access [to] information for us and our franchisees to run the stores by the numbers,” he says. 

“We have found that you can not control that which you don’t measure,” he says, noting that Zoup!’s two largest costs, the costs of goods and labor, are the most controllable.

“Conversely, it has been our experience that if locations are not run by the numbers, they will leave thousands of dollars on the table.”

Ready and Waiting
The company also uses technology to serve its customers. At the company’s Web site, www.zoup.com, “customers can sign up for a daily e-mail and get a list of the day’s soups at the stores they select,” Ersher says.

The Web site allows customers to order and pay for their meals online. “They just indicate their pick-up time, and the orders are ready and waiting [for them] at the pick-up-only area,” Ersher says.

Although Zoup! prides itself on keeping up with technology, “it is an ongoing challenge,” Ersher admits. “It’s so highly specialized and touches so many areas of the business.”

He notes that the company copes by employing “substantial resources, including weekly tech meetings and store participation through management of the tech fund.”

Fighting Hunger
In the company’s early years, the only marketing initiative that Zoup! could afford was participation in community events, Ersher remembers. Although it has grown successfully since then, the company has not stopped getting involved.

Instead, Zoup! participates in organizations that fight hunger, such as Forgotten Harvest and the Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan.

Reaching Out
Ersher adds that the company also participates in The Bear Hug Foundation, which provides an opportunity for at-risk and special needs children to enjoy a northern Michigan summer camp experience that they otherwise would never experience.

These activities are consistent with the “Zoup!ism” of reaching out, Ersher says. “It’s something we quite enjoy and have become very proficient at,” he adds.

Staying Focused    
Zoup! will soon be adding two new locations in Michigan, Ersher says. In addition, “[We have] new stores that will be opening in New Jersey in the next 12 months,” he declares.

However, the company will stay focused “on what we do very well,” he says, noting Zoup! will also focus on its staff, culture and training, while enhancing the customer experience.