The Pizza Company has strong first half, expects further leg-up as it enters fried-chicken sector
The Pizza Company, Thailand's leading pizza brand operated by the Minor Food Group, has announced sales revenue of Bt3 billion for the first six months of the year, registering strong growth of 21 per cent over the corresponding period last year.
This performance will be boosted as The Pizza Company advances into the fried chicken sector, a move that it expects will enable the business to achieve targeted revenue of Bt5.9 billion for the full year.
“Throughout the past 11 years, our management and team have been working strenuously and have continued to strive to produce more innovations and even better service to achieve steady growth and become the leader in the [pizza] business. Today, with an 80-per-cent market share, we are operating 243 stores throughout Thailand, 60 of which are run by franchisees,” Andy Holman, The Pizza Company vice president and general manager of international franchising, said yesterday.
Globally, the Minor Food Group – the brand owner – has vigorously expanded its operations to include 41 The Pizza Company stores in seven countries: China (14 stores), Saudi Arabia (11), Cambodia (eight), United Arab Emirates (four), Bahrain (two) and one each in Laos and Vietnam.
Plans are also afoot for the opening of eight new stores by year-end in China, Southeast Asia and the Middle East, he said.
“The overall system target for The Pizza Company in 2012 is Bt5.9 billion [in revenue], with all the stores in Thailand generating 85 per cent of the total. In order to achieve this, we will focus on three main strategies – brand strength, new stores and creative new menus with promotions. The first two quarters netted sales of Bt3 billion, a healthy growth of |21 per cent over the same period last year, and we are confident we will achieve this year’s target,” he added.
Coupled with yesterday’s announcement of The Pizza Company’s first-half sales results was the introduction of its fried chicken range.
“Each and every one of us, our president and founder William Heinecke in particular, is very proud of this new creation. He had actually been involved with the project from the very beginning; selecting ingredients, chicken and spices, and even the dipping sauce. As an American growing up in Thailand, working in the food business throughout his life, he is extremely confident this is going to be ‘the’ new favourite for Thai customers,” said Holman.
He said that in the initial stage, The Pizza Company aimed at only 3 per cent of the fried chicken market, which is valued at Bt10.3 billion this year.
“We concentrate more on answering the demands of our customers. We never stop pleasing them by offering innovative menus together with great promotional campaigns. As Thai consumers love eating chicken, be it local or international dishes, our research and development team had to explore and experiment extensively to come up with this delicious menu,” he added.
