Pizza franchise chain Crust Gourmet Pizza Bars has been named winner of the Australian Business Award for Retail Excellence, a national awards program honouring business and product excellence, sustainability and commercial success.

Crust is one of 105 Australian Business Award recipients, chosen from a total of 1849 separate entries from 962 organisations across Australia.

The burgeoning business has grown from four to over 50 stores since it became a franchise in 2007. Costa Anastasiadis, founder and managing director of Crust Gourmet Pizza Bars said the business has seen a major growth phase this year.

“We have taken the Eastern Seaboard by storm, opening over 20 new stores in the last 12 months. We have further established ourselves in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane and expanded to the Gold Coast, ACT, and regional centres Newcastle, Wollongong. On top of this we are set to open our first store in WA and first international store in Singapore within the next couple of months.

“Our 100 percent growth in turnover the 2009 to 2010 financial year to nearly $70 million is proof of the success of the business model, products and our customersÕ satisfaction. Our growth would not have been possible without listening to feedback from our customers and striving to perfect our offering. The Retail Excellence award means a lot to our business as it recognises all that we achieved in the past year,” Anastasiadis added.