Against an average sale price of RON20 per one pizza, between RON180,000 and RON240,000 is spent daily on pizza in Bucharest. Annually, the sum gets to RON65-88 million (EUR15-20 million), according to ZF calculations.
Bucharest is as a matter of fact the most important market for pizza chains. International chains such as Pizza Hut or Pizza Dominium have made shy inroads into other markets such as Ploiesti, Cluj or Timisoara, but the focus is still on Bucharest. Some businesses have preferred to stay in Bucharest where there is the culture of pizza.
“I believe Bucharest accounts for 70% of the overall pizza market,” says Matei Ionescu, owner of Gargantua restaurant and Pizzicato home delivery service. These are the first figures provided by a player about the total pizza market in or outside Bucharest.
He says 1,000 pizzas are daily delivered through Pizzicato. “On the home delivery market, pizza accounts for 65% in sales. The battle is fought on the lowest price”.
Home delivery services are not as profitable as sit&dine restaurants as sales of beverages are small.
Matei Ionescu preferred to set up a special service for home delivery beside the classical restaurants. Pizza Hut has a similar model, with the Pizza Hut Delivery service. However, both units focus on pizza sales, though the menu includes other products as well. In the case of Matei Ionescu, the menu of restaurants is completely different from that of the home delivery service.
“Pizza Hut sells 1 million pizzas per year nationwide in classical restaurants,” say the company’s representatives without providing further details. The figure does not include sales operated by the home delivery unit.
Eight restaurants in Bucharest, two in Cluj and one in Constanta, Iasi, Timisoara and Ploiesti are opened under Pizza Hut brand. The 14 units sell 2,700 pizzas daily, out of which around 1,500 in Bucharest, according to ZF calculations.
Under Pizza Hut Delivery brand, there are nine units, 8 in Bucharest and one in Cluj. Both arms are operated on the same legal entity, with revenue of around EUR28 million last year. The figure positions the business third among the most important restaurant players after McDonald’s and KFC.
No other top ten company by revenue has pizza as the main business “ingredient”.
Pizza Hut is an international pizza brand brought in Romania by Romanian businessmen Gabriel Popoviciu and Radu Dimofte. Other foreign brands that entered Romania are Domino’s Pizza brought by Radacini group, a major car dealer locally, and Pizza Dominium, a Polish group that arrived directly.
“We sell around 1,200 pizzas daily, 8% more than last year,” says Daniel Grigorescu, the Romanian who has run the local operations of Pizza Dominium since 2007. He says a slight consumption pickup, of 5-8%, has been felt in the past two years.
Six restaurants are opened under Pizza Dominium brand, five in Bucharest and one in Ploiesti, but the company also has a home delivery service.
There are also businesses that have focused on delivery from the very beginning, such as Trenta Pizza or Pizzicato. A similar model is embraced by many district businesses, focusing only on a certain area of Bucharest.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)