Taste Holdings this morning announced that it has signed an exclusive 30 year master licence agreement to develop the international Domino’s Pizza brand, initially in seven Southern African countries, including South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Zambia and Malawi will follow on the fulfilment of certain conditions. Domino’s Pizza is considered the world’s leading pizza delivery brand in both store numbers and unit sales, and has over 10,800 outlets in more than 70 countries.
The brand will form part of the growing Taste Holdings stable and will become the group’s leading pizza franchise offering as Scooters Pizza and St Elmo’s franchisees will be given the opportunity and assistance to convert to Domino’s Pizza.
CEO of Taste Holdings and founder of Scooters Pizza, Carlo Gonzaga, says that the both Scooters Pizza and St Elmo’s are based on similar principles and operating standards to Domino’s Pizza and that the entry of a leading global pizza brand was a logical next step in the evolution of the South African pizza market. Scooters Pizza pioneered the “39 minutes or it’s free” delivery promise in South Africa and it is this culture of on-time-delivery within Scooters that makes the conversion to the world’s leading pizza delivery brand such a good fit.
“Scooters Pizza and St Elmo’s have been providing pizza lovers across South Africa with their favourite Italian takeaway for more than two decades, and with the conversion to Domino’s Pizza that is not going to change. If anything, things are only going to get better from here on out as customers will now have access to the world’s largest and most established pizza delivery brand, one that is synonymous with outstanding quality products, friendly service and unbeatable delivery standards.”
Founded in 1960, Domino’s Pizza is the recognised world leader in pizza delivery, with more than 1 million pizzas being delivered daily worldwide, a figure that is set to escalate once the first Domino’s store opens in South Africa.
Impressively, Domino’s Pizza currently holds the number one pizza delivery and carryout market position in 38 markets, including the U.K., India, Mexico, Australia, South Korea, Turkey and France and their international outlets have experienced 20 consecutive years of positive same store sales growth – a record that Taste intends to emulate in the future.
“We are very excited to make this announcement and we look forward to working alongside our franchisees to assist them to convert their stores to the Domino’s Pizza brand, and to continue building on the successful foundation they have already laid down with their customers. This will be the largest conversion in Domino’s Pizza history and certainly a big first for our market as well. This is a long term strategic decision that ultimately benefits our franchisees: being part of a global and word-class brand gives our franchisees access to a myriad of global resources including best operating practices; new product pipelines; and very importantly, access to Domino’s global online ordering platform. In this last respect, Domino’s is an exciting global leader in online ordering and pizza delivery technology.”
While the company is being tight lipped about the exact timeline for converting stores, these are planned to start during this year. No new Scooters Pizza or St Elmo’s stores will be opened for the next few months, although new franchisee applications for new Domino’s Pizza stores will be accepted.
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