Fledgling pizza chain Pizza Time is planning to add 10 sites to its six strong chain, M&C has learned.
“Our issue at the moment is, we need to open up a few more shops and once we have done that we will be knocking on the doors at least of the smaller franchised groups – the Pizza GoGos, the Tops Pizza, chains like that,” Jonathan Seale, equity partner, told M&C.
“Our product is by customer endorsement some way better than those businesses – although in terms of scale those are larger than us at the moment.
“By the end of this year I think we will have achieved a scale where we are at a similar sort of position as some of those smaller groups and then we’ll probably make a bit more of a noise.”
Pizza Time started in Hampshire and currently has stores in Alton, Bordon, Dartford, Sidcup, Southend-on-Sea.
“We’ve got six licences altogether with 10 in the pipeline,” Seale said.
“With a tailwind, we hope to hit 15 by the end of the year.”
Farnborough, Kingston and Hull stores were currently in the pipeline, he said.
The company is also eyeing London for further expansion, eyeing the periphery of the city within the M25, “the equivalent of Kingston, Sidcup and Dartford”.
Two of the stores in the Pizza Time portfolio were company owned and the rest were franchised, Seale said.
“There aren’t any current plans to increase the number of company owned stores.”
