The goal of New York Pizza is to eventually become one of the bigger players in Germany. The acquisition of Stückwerk is the first step towards achieving this.
Germany is an interesting market, Germans eat more pizzas on average than the Dutch, says Joost Geurtsen, marketing director of New York Pizza from a study that the company conducted together with KPMG.
Germany is also interesting because the chains that exist mainly focus on one federal state, according to Geurtsen. By being located throughout the country, you can achieve a larger scale, so that you can also advertise nationally, for example.
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Money from shareholder Orkla for acquisitions
Geurtsen does not want to say how much New York Pizza pays for Stückwerk. The talks with Stückwerk were already underway before Orkla was discussed about a takeover.
In itself, there is money to make more acquisitions. That must be discussed with the Norwegian Orkla, which recently acquired 75 percent of the shares of New York Pizza and makes the acquisition financially possible.
Earlier, CEO Philippe Vorst said that the acquisition of 75 percent of the shares is an important step for New York Pizza to be able to grow.
Geurtsen does not want to lose how much money is available from Orkla for acquisitions. Orkla is a large holding company with about 300 brands and has been in the pizza business for a while. In Finland it has Kotipizza. It has been agreed with New York Pizza that Orkla will grow in Germany and Belgium with the New York Pizza brand.
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Opening and taking over branches
Stückwerk is mainly active in North Rhine-Westphalia, which is the state where the two branches of New York Pizza, in Cologne, are also located. It is being considered whether the Stückwerk branches can be renamed New York Pizza.
But New York Pizza also wants to grow in other parts of Germany. To achieve this, it will open its own branches and the aim is to make more acquisitions. “We are in talks with many different parties.”
New York Pizza will in any case also introduce its own dough in Germany at Stückwerk.
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Belgium
New York Pizza also wants to grow further in Belgium. Since December, it has only had one branch there, in Leuven. But by the end of the year there will be six, according to Geurtsen. New York Pizza does not want to grow in Belgium through acquisitions, but only by opening new branches itself.
It also depends on whether good entrepreneurs and good properties can be found.
Foreign ambitions have, however, been scaled back somewhat. At the beginning of January, for example, the intention was to have ten branches in Belgium (at first only in Flanders) by the end of this year. Eventually there should be about a hundred.
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