Pizza Capers and Crust have a new direction this year.
It’s a new year, new brand direction for the quick service restaurant (QSR) division of Retail Food Group (RFG), as the company’s Pizza Capers and Crust brands look towards lunch as a driver in the highly competitive pizza market.
2017 is the year of “occasion relevance” for both brands, with Pizza Capers recently announcing a nationwide launch for a new product offering dubbed the ‘Phatboy’ – a pizza wrap made from a tortilla base, filled with a selection of toppings and run through a pizza oven.
The new item retails in combination with a 450ml drink for $9.95 and is the first step in a wider brand strategy designed to help RFG differentiate itself from the likes of Domino’s and Pizza Hut.
“The foundation of our brand strategy this year is a reality check,” QSR marketing manager, Zoe Jacovou, told Inside Retail Weekly (IRW).
“We need a strong, relevant and differentiated position in the marketplace to be able to compete […] the key strategy to meet that objective is growing occasion relevance, specifically targeting the lunch occasion,” she continued.
While even Jacovou admits that pizza has traditionally skewed towards a dinner offering, she said that RFG research shows that lunch is the most popular QSR occasion with consumers, accounting for 43 per cent of purchases.
The market research has left the company bullish on what they see as a largely untouched segment of the market, but upon coming to the realisation that lunch-goers want something fundamentally different, Jocavou says product innovation was necessary.
“We identified the lunch opportunity and we knew it wasn’t about trying to sell pizzas at lunchtime, it was about getting an offer that was actually relevant at lunch time,” Jacovou explained. “It’s a very different pricing model but we feel like we are tapping into a whole new market segment that provides incremental sales opportunities.”
Domino’s and Pizza Hut owners Yum Restaurants controls more than 35 per cent of the $3.7 billion annual pizza market compared to RFG’s four per cent, according to IBISWorld data.
Whilst their slice of the market is relatively small, IBISWorld’s senior industry analyst , Brooke Tonkin, notes that a successful launch will nevertheless turn heads in the industry.
“If the product is well received by consumers, then other companies in the industry are likely to attempt to create similar products that will compete with the pizza wrap in an attempt to win back market share,” she said.
“The product is also likely to appeal to time-pressed consumers that are on the go and leading a busy lifestyle. It gives these consumers the option of pizza, without the difficulties associated with eating traditional pizza on the go,” she continued.
RFG’s quick service segment contributed $14.7 million in EBITDA for FY16, up from $12.8 million in FY15. The company acquired its QSR division in 2012, but Pizza Capers and Crust have been operating since 1996 and 2001 respectively.
IRW understands that plans exist to roll out the pizza wrap into Crust stores down the line, with Jacovou confirming that further product innovation is underway to expand on their lunch refocus.
In particular, she says that the grazing platters released through Crust last year —which include a selection of breads, meats and dips— could be combined with pizza wrap products and sold as a catering offer.
“The pizza occasion doesn’t just have to be two pizzas and starter bread anymore. We see a great corporate catering opportunity,” Jocovou said.
She claimed that sales have increased week-on-week since it soft launched the product in December last year, predicting that the success of the offer will grow stronger as consumer education surrounding lunch-time pizza products increases.
Pizza Capers and Crust operate a total of 329 stores nationwide combined, with 20 stores opening in the last financial year
This article first appeared on Inside Retail Weekly.