IndiaRetailBiz

“During last four months, we have opened outlets in Jammu, Panipat, Surat, Baroda, Nashik, Trivandum, Meerut and Patiala. While earlier, 70 per cent of our business used to be in metros and mini-metros, now the ratio is 50:50 between big cities and smaller Tier II and III cities.” — Dev Amritesh, Senior Vice-President (Marketing), Domino’s Pizza India.

Domino’s Pizza, one of the world’s biggest quick food chains known for its home delivered pizza products, is going in for a massive expansion in India.

The Michigan (US)-based quick food company, which sells more than one  million pizzas worldwide every day, is known as the company that pioneered the pizza delivery business. Domino’s is currently operating over 3,500 stores outside of the United States in over 60 international markets.

The global chain has drawn out a plan to invest Rs 200 crore (around $50 m) in the  next three years to more than double the number of its retail outlets from 207 across 45 cities at present to 500 across 75-80 cities by 2010-11. It will, thus, be adding another 300-odd outlets in the three years’ period and bringing a few more tier II and III cities within its focus. During the current year, there will be an addition of 43 outlets at an investment of Rs 80 crore and expansion of its footprint from 45 cities to 55 cities across the country.

Domino’s has also decided to go in for an brand revamp exercise and has set aside Rs six crore for expenditure on a new advertising and marketing campaign spread over the next three months. This will help the company to reposition its brand.

The company, which dominates home delivery market by virtue of two-third of its sales in the country coming from this segment, is changing its famous but comical tagline of “Hungry Kya?” to a more serious “Khushiyo Ki Home Delivery.” It has also recently launched a new ‘Pizza Mania’ for just Rs 35 to bring home the ‘value for money’ concept.

“As a category leader, we believe it is our responsibility to demonstrate that we care for our customers. The brand positioning would highlight this aspect when inflation and price rise have deeply affected everybody,” said Amritesh.

Currently, Domino’s is enjoying 42% share of the Rs 550 crore organised pizza maket. The company is expecting to increase the share to 45% of the expanded market during the year after stores expansion and repositioning of its brand. The market itself is expected to go up to Rs 700 crore this fiscal.