Pizzacutters
30 Jun 2008

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The Business

Pizzacutters is a family owned business specialising in gourmet pizza. The owners, Simon and Sam Lumbroso pride themselves on their original menus serving pizza made using the freshest local produce, with pizza dough and sauces prepared in-house.

From the day the first store opened its doors in 1998, the positive response to the Pizzacutters experience has been overwhelming. Pizzacutters has won many awards for their Pizza at competitive cook-offs judged by top chefs and food critics from around Australia. Simon and Sam are on a continuing journey to expand their business while always creating the highest quality and best tasting pizza available.

The Challenge

Pizzacutters was in a position to leverage its expertise and experience in the gourmet pizza industry to dominate its category and redefine the takeaway pizza market. The core challenges confronting the organisation were the development of the growth strategy, brand positioning, business model, and infrastructural capability to achieve the objective of becoming Australia’s premier gourmet pizza brand.

The commitment of the Pizzacutters team meant all areas of the business were being critically assessed to ensure the detail in the challenge was understood. The alignment of people, business mode, branding and operations were significantly intertwined which ensured a solid foundation was being created for growth.

The Solution

Aiming to leverage the systems and process of the existing company network, franchising was identified as a strategy to enable Pizzacutters next phase of growth. DC Strategy (DCS) was engaged as a franchise and distribution specialist to develop the franchise system and growth plan. The scope of work included:

• An economic analysis to define the structure for a profitable network
• The commercial strategy and policies for operating the network
• The network growth plan and expansion strategy
• A recruitment screening and selection process
• Development of operations manuals and management processes

The ensuing process outlined the necessary structure and control mechanisms to enable national growth while funding the rollout of the company owned network. Importantly, the owners developed the necessary understanding of the critical issues relating to growth.

The Outcomes

Pizzacutters is well positioned to bring exciting, innovative menus, slick branding and a sound business approach to the growing gourmet pizza sector. The project produced a number of outcomes for Pizzacutters:

• There is a defined growth plan in place and management are now confident of the steps required to achieve their objectives
• The optimum organisational structure has been identified to support further expansion and will evolve over time
• The operational procedures have been documented, which not only assist franchisees, but ensure the network is more scalable and robust

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