Soon you will also find New York Pizza almost everywhere in Germany. “New York Pizza’s ambition is to eventually become one of the largest players in Germany and eventually have around a thousand branches in Germany,” says Joost Geurtsen, marketing director of New York Pizza.
The pizza chain wants to achieve this by making more acquisitions and by opening its own branches. He cannot say how long New York Pizza will be at a thousand locations in Germany. That depends on the pace at which other acquisitions can be made and at which it opens new branches itself.
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With the acquisition of Flying Pizza and Pizza Planet, New York Pizza is a little further on its way to achieving that goal.
107 branches
Flying Pizza has 43 branches in the north and east of Germany and Pizza Planet has 30 around Berlin. New York Pizza had two branches of its own and through the acquisition of Stückwerk, more than a month ago, it added 32. After the two acquisitions that have now been announced, the counter stands at 107 branches.
All acquired locations will be converted to the New York Pizza formula. At the end of November it will be the turn of a Stückwerk branch for the first time.
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Attractive market
Germany is an interesting market for New York Pizza, Geurtsen said recently. Germans eat more pizzas on average than the Dutch, according to a study conducted by the company together with KPMG.
Furthermore, there are still few chains that are located throughout the country. They mainly have branches in one state. By being located throughout the country, you can reach more people, which means you can also advertise nationally, for example.
He would not say how much New York Pizza was paid for Flying Pizza and Pizza Planet. It has been agreed with the former owners of the chains not to say anything about this.
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Brand awareness
New York Pizza has opened a headquarters for the German market in Oberhausen, in the densely populated Ruhr area. The priority now is to convert purchased branches and after that the company wants to open new branches soon, including in areas where it is already active.
In doing so, the company wants to make use of the brand awareness it then has, because it already has branches there that have been converted into New York Pizza.
“In Amsterdam we have about 20 branches, in Cologne soon 4, but that can easily go to more than 10,” says Geurtsen.
Last summer, the Norwegian Orkla bought 75 percent of the shares in New York Pizza. With that shareholder behind him, there is basically money for New York Pizza to grow further.
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