Irish pizza chain Four Star Pizza returned record sales in 2019, fuelled by a 17% increase in online sales and an investment of more than €1m in the brand.
Four Star Pizza opened five new outlets, making a total of 60 stores across the island, 14 of those in Northern Ireland.
Director Brian Clarke (pictured) said: “Our online business has really taken off over the past two years. The development of our online ordering system has made it easier for customers to place an order, and the introduction of our Four Star Pizza loyalty programme has been a huge success in terms of driving online sales.
“Our loyalty scheme now has c.150,000 members, and the points redemption rate is over 50%, which equates to more than €200,000 of free pizza redeemed in the past year. We also launched an online video game enabling people to win more loyalty points which is also proving extremely popular, with more than 1,000 people playing every month.”
Clarke added that there is a ‘capacity ceiling’ for growth in Ireland which means that expansion into the British market is definitely on his menu for 2020.
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“Last year saw us add five new stores and we’d like to do the same again this year, which would take our total to 65, but we are very conscious of the fact that there is only so much room for growth in this market with every franchise having its own dedicated delivery territory as part of its contract," he stated.
The first Four Star Pizza store in Ireland opened in Crumlin, Dublin, in 1986 and the company now employs c.1,000 people on the island. The company says it sold 4.75 million pizzas in 2019, using 63 million pepperoni slices, 525 tonnes of cheese and 1,050 tonnes of flour.
The Four Star Pizza business is controlled by Gonville Ltd, owned by businessman Michael Holland. He took control of the pizza chain in 2013 when he acquired Four Star’s €3.6m bank loan from Danske Bank. During 2018, €150,000 was repaid to Holland and €3.4m was outstanding at year end.
Gonville’s franchise fees and other income amounted to €1.8m in 2018 and operating profit was €400,000 after accounting for €350,000 in depreciation and amortisation.
