Aussie pizza chain hungry for NZ sales

By KATHERINE HOBY

It's a food fight ... two pizza chains head to head in the New Zealand market.

Australian Domino's is challenging Pizza Hut for the mozzarella mantle and plans to open 60 stores over three years.

Marketing manager Michael Locke said though Domino's was quite a small player in New Zealand it aimed to give consumers an option.

Pizza lovers here had been the losers when Eagle Boys sold out to Pizza Hut three years ago, he said.

"We will bring fairness and value back to the New Zealand market."

As of Monday , Domino's will have three stores in the Wellington area, and plans to make expansion there its priority.

It will have eight to 10 stores in that region by the end of the year, and 40 nationwide by the end of 2005. It plans to have 20 more to serve hungry pizza fans by 2006.

It also intends to add 50 to its family of 246 in Australia over the next year.

Mr Locke said pizza was viewed as the value meal in Australia, while New Zealanders still preferred fish and chips. He hoped to change that by competing hard with Pizza Hut, and offering special deals.

He said Domino's was a "more innovative, very young, modern, slightly irreverent" pizza business.

Restaurant Brands chief executive Jim Collier said he took the new competitor seriously.

"Domino's is certainly a serious player in our market," he said.

"And we have got very aggressive plans in place to defend our position."

He said Pizza Hut was in a strong market position. The phone number was the third most recognised in the country after the emergency number and Telecom directory inquiries, according to its research.

Mr Collier said it was a mistake to assume Australian and New Zealand consumers were the same.

"One of the things they'll find is New Zealand isn't Australia," he said.

"This isn't a branch office of Australia and can't be treated as one."

The Australian and New Zealand pizza markets were very different. Mr Collier said one example of the assumptions Domino's was making was that it did not have chips on its menu.

Unlike many other countries, Pizza Hut in New Zealand offered chips. New Zealanders were big fans of hot chips, Mr Collier said.

Restaurant Brands plans its own expansion and will open between three and six new Pizza Hut outlets in the next year.

Consumers' Institute chief executive David Russell said more choice was always a good thing for consumers.

"If they are going to go head to head with Pizza Hut, that could have good price implications for consumers as well," he said.

"I will say, though, that taking on New Zealanders' love of fish and chips is going to be a tough battle."