US-based quick delivery restaurant chain Domino’s Pizza has planned an investment of around Rs 800 million to launch about 80 outlets in 2009, as part of its expansion plan to tier II and tier III cities across India. Further, the company plans to invest around Rs 2.25 billion by 2012 for auxiliary spread out, according to a top company official.
Speaking to IndiaRetailing, Ajay Kaul, CEO, Domino’s Pizza India Ltd revealed, “We are planning to invest Rs 800 million to open 80 stores in 2009. Further, we plan to invest around another Rs 2.25 billion towards outlets extensions by 2012.”
The company plans to open high-street delivery and dining outlets at cities including Indore, Bhopal, Nagpur, Jamshedpur, Vishakhapatnam, Gangtok and Bhubaneshwar.
“Our research and survey has highlighted that especially in tier II cities, people enjoy the concept of dining out. So with the delivery outlets we plan to open dining space outlets as well over there. We prefer to open our pizza outlets at high-streets as it blends well with our delivery concept and connects to our entire target customer base,” opined Kaul.
Moreover, the company also plans to invest Rs 200 million in upgradation of their manufacturing facilities in south and west zone. Added Kaul, “We also plan to upgrade all our manufacturing facilities on which we will spend Rs 200 million. We have already upgraded it in north zone and we are planning on similar lines in south and west in the course of the next two years.”
Ever since it has been established in 1995, Domino’s Pizza India has grown into a countrywide network of around 240 outlets in 45 cities.
Talking about the market share, Kaul informed, “Our market share is 42 per cent in the fast food chain outlets and we have attained 65 per cent of the market share in terms of delivery.”
When asked about the impact on the company’s sales due to the economic slowdown, Kaul concluded, “The impact has been very marginal on our business. In fact, our delivery scheme is still growing, but the dining business is marginally affected. To overcome this, we have planned new marketing and promotional initiatives including the launch of our Rs 35 product in December 2008, because of which our orders got a boost as customers loved that product.”
— Akansha Srivastava
