Pizza Capers eyes NSW for growth

Pizza Capers has been dominant in QLD for many years, they are now extending their brand to other parts of Australia. QSR Media sat down with Scott Geiszler, their co-founder to find out how they are bucking the retail trend, we asked Scott:

QSR Media: Pizza Capers, what's new?
Scott Geiszler: We're continually developing the business and setting new benchmarks. Here are just a few examples of what we've been up to recently:
After developing and launching Australia's first gluten free pizza bases well over 10 years ago, we've now created a totally new Gluten Free base. It’s lighter and crispier than other offerings and it's so good, we're now seeing guests who are tolerant of gluten ordering it just because of the taste and the texture, and not because of a gluten intolerance.

We're continuing to embrace the use of technology both inside the business and for guest enjoyment, with ground breaking new tools to be released in the very near future.
We're very proud of our exciting new CaperClub, where our guests can share in the benefits of membership with rewards and VIP offers.

Development of new stores and new areas continue to rollout with our National Expansion Plan. With well over 110 stores open and trading and a further 30 in planning and development for the near term, there are new regions in Sydney, Tasmania and regionally throughout the Eastern areas of the country. We have a steady stream of highly developed franchisees and partners working with us to further develop the brand and our offering.
At a Head Office level, 2011 saw a major strengthening of the people side of the business, with extremely well-skilled professionals joining us to work in five key areas of the business. These excellent people are working with us to drive the business to new heights for our customers, franchisees and other stakeholders, much higher than we could achieve on our own.

QSR Media: How are you finding the current retail environment?
Scott Geiszler: There's no escaping that it is a tough climate. Certainly there is some less than positive consumer sentiment being reported which is causing consumers to conserve and to save, rather than to spend. We managed to solidify our operations and to continue to grow through this period by continually adding value to our offering, maximising satisfaction in the customer experience. Examples of this include the recent overhaul of the CaperClub, a membership based club which delivers value and rewards to its members. The CaperClub has experienced 300 per cent growth over the last nine months as a result.

QSR Media: OS - what's happening with your brand in Singapore and beyond?
Scott Geiszler: The pilot store in Singapore is continuing its strong growth, and additional sites are being sought and worked on presently. In addition to that we have interest from and negotiations ongoing in half a dozen other countries and regions internationally. We expect that international expansion will become a major focus, and teams are being assembled to head up these ventures. We recognise that a lot of businesses get distracted by the excitement of international expansion and can take their eyes off the ball at home, a pitfall we're keen to avoid.

QSR Media: Your recently opened your first store in NSW, Miranda, what are your plans for NSW?
Scott Geiszler: We've got six stores in active planning and development right now for Sydney, and we have extremely strong interest coming from there. We're very excited by the quality of the franchisees and the applicants coming through, and we can see that this will be a great market for Pizza Capers in the near term. There are also many stores in development for Regional NSW. We're confident we'll hit our critical mass targets by the end of 2012, most probably by the end of the 3rd quarter.

QSR Media: Online sales, how much of a percentage does this comprise of your total sales? Do you see it as a trend of the future?
Scott Geiszler: At the moment we're processing about just over 15 per cent of our takeaway orders online. This is an area that is receiving much attention at the moment both internally and in the market in general, and it’s certainly very trendy. We're deeply into providing the customer with a positive and personal experience when they touch base with Pizza Capers, and we see online forming to be a part of that. A lot of businesses jump into these things with a kind of a fad approach, and forget to anchor it back to the core ethos of their brand. This is exactly what we are not about. What you've seen from Pizza Capers in terms of our online activity, like our social media strategy, our website overhaul and what will soon be seen rolling out, is about incorporating an online experience into the overall product the brand offers, further delivering value to our customers.

QSR Media: What marketing initiatives are planned for the year, how much are you investing in social media platforms?
Scott Geiszler: We are continuing to invest ever increasing sums into the marketing of the brand. 2012 will see a continuation of the "Gourmet the Everyday" philosophy. We will be communicating to our guests that because we use high quality, natural ingredients, the overall health attributes of the Pizza Capers product are quite good and can form part of a well-balanced diet. Additionally it’s important that we highlight the fact that we're about amazingly good pizza, pasta and other products, and that we're a treat that can be enjoyed and savoured, maybe with a nice glass of vino, and some good friends.

Social media is an interesting phenomenon. We often tell people that we've always been into social media, even in the 90s when we called it "word of mouth" and "talking to your customers". Our social media strategy is really just a digital extension of that. While we don't commit a huge sum of money to it, we do think that it’s important to invest time into social media and to develop it. When you have a product-led business, a situation where the product is genuinely good and noteworthy, people like to talk about it. What we do on our social media platforms is simply serve, talk to and have a bit of fun with our customers. Our aim is to provide them with a great, value-driven experience - something which Anthony and I have been doing since we opened the doors to Pizza Capers for the first time in Kenmore in 1996.