Stelios Haji-Ioannou (left) with easyPizza franchisee James Kendall. Photograph: Tim Ockenden/PA
Domino's Pizza has a new rival. True to his reputation as a "serial entrepreneur", Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the founder of easyJet, has started a pizza business.
EasyPizza, which launched last December in Milton Keynes, today named its first franchisee, one James Kendall in Segensworth East, between Portsmouth and Southampton.
The latest addition to the easyGroup empire, which already consists of over a dozen businesses, will operate on the same principle as easyCinema and easyBus. If you order pizza outside of peak times of lunch and dinner time, delivery costs will be cheaper.
"Currently the assets used in the industry (ovens and delivery vehicles) are under-utilised," easyPizza says. "They do nothing all day and then are heavily used during the evening period from about 6pm to 10pm."
By spreading demand over a wider period, easyPizza will make more efficient use of its assets, it says, and the incentive given to consumers to alter their demand is price.
The easyPizza chain intends to set up 9,000 franchises across the UK, which sounds incredibly ambitious considering that Domino's Pizza, the UK's leading pizza delivery company, has 400 stores, with ambitions to have between 800 and 1,000 in all.
EasyPizza reckons it will also save money as it does not cater to "walk-up" trade or other collections - although you can collect from the Milton Keynes location. But essentially, easyPizza is a delivery service and will save on costs by avoiding the relatively high cost of high street rents.
"It is well priced, it is easy to operate, it offers a centralised kitchen and one national phone number and web address, wherever the delivery might be made," the company said.
The company is currently offering three types of pizza - the Indiana (chicken tikka, onions and red and yellow peppers), double pepperoni, and the El Stel. Stelios's namesake features red onions, green peppers, ham and spicy pork.
