El Pollo Loco Announces Winners Of 3rd Annual Pollo Bowl Of Tournament Of Champions

Covina, California Crew Captures Top Honors

IRVINE, CALIFORNIA (Tuesday, January 03, 2006) - The competition sizzled as El Pollo Loco’s top 19 teams, each representing a different restaurant location, assembled in a theatre filled with balloons, noisemakers and cheering fans to tackle questions that tested each team’s knowledge of the company’s operations procedures. The event, held earlier this month at the Anaheim Convention Center in California, brought to an electrifying finish five rounds of competition spanning seven months and involving more than 7,000 employees.

El Pollo Loco kicked off the event back in April with Round 1, which consisted of individual restaurant study sessions. In Round 2, the top six performers from each restaurant were selected to form the team that would represent their location in advanced rounds. Round 3 measured the performance of each team against other restaurants within their area to determine which team advanced to the next level. Round 4 brought together the top four teams in each of the company districts and tested their knowledge in greater detail. Round 5, the final Pollo Bowl Tournament of Champions, held December 5 in Anaheim, California, brought together the top team from each district to compete in a final competition for cash, prizes and the coveted title of Pollo Bowl Tournament Champions.

Of the company’s more than 330 restaurants, the winning team, calling themselves the “Lions of Grand Covina,” hailed from Covina, California. The restaurant, located at 106 South Grand Avenue, is one of 14 El Pollo Loco restaurants operated by the Peg-Lion, LLC franchise group. Led by General Manager Alma Garcia, the team also included Sandra Rosas, restaurant manager, and four crewmembers: Griselda Ramirez, Yecenia Carachure, Aida Guererro and Erika Nolasco. Nolasco was additionally recognized as a Pollo Bowl Wizard for answering correctly every question throughout every round of the tournament.

El Pollo Loco Division Leader, Noel Buan, helped lead the Covina, California team to its victory. Explains Vice President of Operations for Peg-Lion, LLC Dave Anderson, “Buan is an excellent champion of our brand, our employees and our guests. His collaborative style of leadership helped guide his team to a first place finish in the Pollo Bowl Tournament and also contributes to the exceptional execution of our brand each and every day in the restaurants he oversees.”

The tournament, hosted by El Pollo Loco, was created in 2003 to promote exceptional guest service through employees’ knowledge of the company’s operations procedures. “I am very proud of the camaraderie and teamwork demonstrated by the teams that participated this year in our Pollo Bowl Tournament. Each spent many hours preparing for the tournament by studying our operations procedures,” said Steve Carley, president and CEO for El Pollo Loco, Inc. “The magic of this event is the way that it enables us to reinforce our commitment to exceptional guest service in a spirited way that also fosters collaboration and rewards our top performers.”

Each member of the winning team from Covina, California was awarded $1,000 plus a home computer. Each member of the second place team from San Pablo, California was awarded $500 plus a 27” flat screen television. A tie for third place occurred between the El Pollo Loco restaurants in Fullerton, California and Pico Rivera, California. Each member of both teams was awarded $250 plus a digital camera.

Company executives, along with managers from El Pollo Loco’s operations and training divisions, judged the teams on their ability to answer correctly both individual and team questions based on information in El Pollo Loco’s operations manual.

El Pollo Loco currently operates more than 330 restaurants (a combination of company- and franchise-owned) in five states: California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas and Illinois.

View all El Pollo Loco Press Releases

This article has been read 225 times.

Printed From:
http://www.thefranchisemall.com/news/articles/12536-0.htm