By James Jose, IANS,
New Delhi : New York-based pizza chain Famous Famiglia is all set to enter India through the franchise route and is scouting for partners.
“We will open our first outlet in about a year and will rely exclusively on our channel partners to expand in the country,” Giorgio Kolaj, company co-founder and executive vice president, told IANS in an interview here.
“The chain will be opening its first outlet at the Bangalore airport, and will be targeting locations like airports and major metros in the first phase of the entry,” he said.
Kolaj identified Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai as the metros that his company was targeting in the initial phase.
However, Famous Famiglia doesn’t plan to open company-owned outlets and will appoint a master franchisee for its Indian operations very soon, he said.
The prices of its offerings will be comparable to that charged by other western quick service restaurants and fast pizzeria chains, Kolaj said, but played down competition Famous Famiglia faced from established pizza chains like Pizza Hut and Dominos.
“The key for new entrants in any business is differentiation and we believe that our offerings will make us stand apart from the rest of the competition. For instance, we have something called ‘Pizza by the Slice’ – each slice of a pizza can have a different topping giving you variety at the same cost,” he said.
While Pizza Hut and other popular chains have high advertising spends, new entrants have not been very big on this front. However, Kolaj said exclusivity and product differentiation would help the chain grow faster rather than big ad spends.
“We are not against ads or celebrity endorsements, but really that is the mandate of the master franchisee; they will be doing the spending. However, I would say that local celebrity association is something that we do as well,” he added.
Famous Famiglia, founded by the Kolaj family in 1986, has expanded to more than 100 outlets worldwide by targeting captive markets such as airports, motorways, universities, shopping centres, casinos, stadiums and theme parks.
It is 41st in the US-based Pizza Today magazine’s Top 100 pizza company rankings.