Local Friendly’s Employees Named Winners of the Company’s 1st Annual Grill Games

Seth Funk and Izudin Krdzic take top honors in company-wide competition that keeps the focus on food quality, presentation and quick service

Wilbraham, MA (Grassroots Newswire) December 19, 2011 – A team of two Camp Hill-area residents earned first place honors in Friendly’s 1st Annual Grill Games company-wide competition. Seth Funk of New Cumberland, PA, and Izudin Krdzic of Camp Hill, PA, out-cooked seven other teams at the Grill Games finals, held December 8 at the company’s headquarters in Wilbraham, MA, to take home a prize of $5,000 each. Both of the winners are Certified Grill Leads at the Friendly’s restaurant in Camp Hill, PA.

“Everyone who knows and works with these young men is delighted with their success,” said Steve Crouch, Region Director for Friendly’s of Camp Hill. “This competition was designed to identify the best of the best in our restaurants, and we’re proud to have this year’s winners on our staff.”

Izudin Krdzic, 21, has been working at Friendly’s of Camp Hill for five years, joining the local restaurant’s staff as a fountain employee.   He was promoted to Certified Grill Lead in 2011.  “Winning the first annual Grill Games competition is unbelievable,” said Krdzic. “It’s very important to me to do the best job I can every day, and I guess that paid off in the finals. The competition was tough, but I had a great teammate and I’m really proud that we were chosen as the winning team.”

Krdzic’s team mate, Seth Funk, 19, has been on the restaurant’s staff for a year and a half, starting out as a cook and moving up to the position of Certified Grill Lead in 2011.   Like Krdzic, Funk plans to put his winnings toward his car.  “Izudin and I work really well together,” said Funk. “The Games tested all of us on how well we could produce great quality food under pressure. No matter how busy our restaurant gets, we need to turn out food that looks and tastes great.”

The Grill Games Competition starts at the individual restaurant level. The General Managers at each of the local restaurants choose a winning team to compete in the District competition.  From the District Competition, the winning teams move on to a Region competition and then to the finals at Friendly’s Support Center in Wilbraham, MA.

Each team was asked to prepare 10 items – from appetizers to burgers to SuperMelts® sandwiches – in under 10 minutes.  Each team was judged on speed and presentation of the food, and the teams did not know what they were going to prepare until it was their time to compete.

At the District competition, each team competed against seven or eight teams.  At the Region level, the teams competed against nine or 10 opposing teams. At the finals, Krdzic and Funk faced seven other teams of finalists and were named the winners.

About Friendly Ice Cream Corporation
Friendly Ice Cream Corporation is a vertically integrated restaurant company serving signature sandwiches, entrees and ice cream desserts in a friendly, family environment with system-wide sales of $700 million and distribution through more than 7,500 retail locations. With a 76-year operating history, Friendly’s enjoys strong brand recognition and is currently revitalizing its restaurants and introducing new products to grow its customer base. For additional information please visit www.friendlys.com.