KEY POINTS:
You have to watch your knuckles when you take them through a door,' warns Wholly Bagels founder Charlie Daily. At 20 inches (51cm), the giant pizzas are a little ridiculous, but that's the size of an authentic New York-style pizza, so that's the size they make them.
If
pizzas seem out of place in a shop called Wholly Bagels, that is part of the plan. This change is more than just a new product line. Three nights a week, at 4pm, the stores will change from Wholly Bagels to Wholly Pizzas - a new identity for a Wellington-based chain that, until now, had zero presence in the dinner market.
While it makes business sense to make the most out of the existing store space, that was not the real motivator behind the move, says Daily. "I just thought that Wellington needed a good pizza. The [delivery] pizza market in New Zealand has been bastardised by all the big corporates and, at the other end, you've got really beautiful high-end pizzas, but I don't think there is a truly authentic New York-style pizza.'
It is not the first time that the United States native has bought an idiosyncratically New York product into New Zealand. Before he started Wholly Bagels 10 years ago, Daily could not find an authentic bagel in Wellington, nor was there a demand for them. Since then, his chain, and its bagels, have established themselves as something of an institution.
"New Zealanders want something that's unique,' says Daily. "A lot of people have gone overseas and seen something that they really liked and brought it back - but they've found it at its best, and brought it back here at its best."
Prior to launching Wholly Pizzas, Daily worked in five different pizza parlours up and down the east coast of the US to learn the tricks of the trade. He went through the same process with Wholly Bagels, and he says it is that authenticity that binds the two products together under the Wholly brand.
But he pauses over one compromise that he has had to make for Wellington - table numbers. "I guess if it was really authentic, I'd be screaming at the customers: 'Who's got the pumpernickel bagel with pastrami?'."
The brand and the product are personal for Daily, but that has its drawbacks. While he trademarked Wholly Pizzas eight years ago, finding the time to develop the idea has been a long road. At the height of Wholly Bagels' expansion, Daily managed four stores on his own.
"I was [stretching myself thin], and it was quite capital-intensive. Each store would cost between $220,000 to $350,000 to set up, and that was quite a lot of capital."
Since opening the fifth store, all the stores except for the original one have been sold off to franchisees. "It's great to have a business owner on the ground. Managers do a really good job, but there's just something to be said for someone that puts the money down."
His energy has been directed towards growing the franchise with ventures like Wholly Pizza and expanding beyond Wellington. The latest addition to the chain is a Palmerston North store, which opened in December last year.
"When we opened, it was the busiest store in our whole group. And we did no advertising. It's quite easy to stay within your comfort zone in Wellington, but to crack another city is huge."
Managing the six stores has been made easier by the point-of-sale system developed by Wellington firm Spikefin. The web-based system connects supply, sales and other data across the entire business and allows up-to-the-minute access for managers, as well as online ordering. "It's made our business a lot smarter,' says Daily. "Stores can compare sales with one another."
Wholly Pizzas is getting rolled out one store at a time, but when the process is finished, Daily reckons it will be time to take on Auckland, where he has had a constant stream of inquiries from potential franchisees. "It's quite time-intensive opening stores. You have to find the right site, the right people. I want to be there on the ground doing it.'
Ten years since it started, is it still an intensely hands-on business for Daily?
"Absolutely. Is there a business that's not?"