High investor interest in pizza business

Despite an overall decrease in global demand, Domino’s Pizza Turkey still receives a large number of franchise requests, said managing director Aslan Saranga.

Compared to the previous year, franchise requests have shown a 30 percent increase this year, Saranga said in a press conference late Monday.

Noting that Domino’s Pizza, which uses the “pizza taste in 30 minutes” delivery strategy, has 121 restaurants in 14 Turkish cities, Saranga said the company has shown rapid growth in new restaurants over the past three months.

Domino’s Pizza Turkey has also been receiving the “world’s best Domino’s Pizza” award for the past three years. “We are proud of being able to maintain this success and stability consecutively for three years,” Saranga said.

Last year, Domino’s Pizza Turkey saw 50 percent growth in turnover and a 25 percent increase in the number of restaurants; in the first nine months of 2009, turnover rose 16 percent and the number of restaurants grew by 25 percent.

“The fast-food industry in Turkey has grown 10 percent, collecting 1.2 billion Turkish Liras in turnover last year. Home delivery and takeaway services have shown record growth, reaching 581 million liras in turnover,” added Saranga. The company predicts it will reach 120 million liras in turnover by the end of the year, along with a 56 percent market share.

Saranga said that Domino’s Pizza Turkey aims to have 200 restaurants and take in 250 to 300 million liras by 2012.

“Our largest investment is to build a central kitchen with 2 to 3 billion liras’ investment in Gebze to provide shelf life to our franchises,” he added. “Also, we are opening in new cities such as Samsun, Konya and Kayseri.”