Four Star Pizza may have to consider advertising abroad for drivers if it cannot solve its current labour shortage problems.

Owner Marico Thomas said that the company was having severe difficulties finding 30 additional drivers to deliver pizzas to customers on time and that the response to a full-page ad in Monday's Royal Gazette promising $14 an hour and a $150 signing bonus had been small.

The previous rate was $8 an hour plus commission.

Only a few people have made telephone enquiries and filled out applications in Four Star Pizza outlets. But Mr. Thomas said each branch required 15 drivers during peak periods to deliver pizzas and that the Somerset branch was currently operating with only four drivers at a time.

"You would think that with the number and the exposure, there would have been a much greater response,'' he said after delivering pizzas himself from the Flatts outlet for three hours.

"It's maddening. The people that want to work already have a job, despite the closure of the Marriott. We may have to end up stealing employees from other people.'' And Mr. Thomas predicted that with the re-opening of the hotel, the new hotel at Par-la-Ville and redevelopment of the baselands, he could be scrounging around for new employees for another two years.

He said he foresaw the shortage two years ago, when the construction boom began, but the effects did not hit home until this year. And he said that the company may have to consider a "sweeter'' compensation structure and that the cost of hiring more drivers might be offset by charging customers a delivery surcharge.

Mr. Thomas said that immigration would "laugh at (him)'' if he went to ask for work permits, but also said that he had not ruled out any measures.

And he admitted that closure of one or more of the branches might also be a possibility further down the road.

Mr. Thomas said the shortage was negatively impacting business, with deliveries sometimes taking an hour an a half instead of half an hour, as before.

"We've had to slow down production,'' Mr. Thomas said.

"And we need to provide incentive for people to pick up their pizza. We're shifting our focus more to the take-out and eat-in business. We have the ability to serve more people that way, even though we would have preferred to deliver.'' Four Star is currently offering a 20 percent discount to take-out customers.

Delivery man: Owner of Four Star Pizza Marico Thomas has been forced to deliver pizzas instead of running the company because of the company's desperate shortage of drivers.

BUSINESS BUC