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Thomas Kochmann, UNO Pizza co-founder, at Dodo Pizza

17 May 2019

A Surprising Turn of Events: Papa John’s Acquires Uno Pizza

The Papa John’s Russian master franchisee has acquired Uno Pizza, the German pizza chain. Uno Pizza has 13 restaurants in Germany. Their pizzerias will be renamed as Papa John’s; they will be the first Papa John’s pizzerias in the German market.

We are very happy to become a part of the Papa John’s team,” said Thomas Kochmann, the Uno Pizza cofounder. Christopher Wynne, the majority stakeholder and CEO of Papa John’s Western and PJ Germany, confirmed.

To be honest with you, this news was a total surprise for us. Early last year, we announced that...

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Dodo Pizza in Hangzhou: Day 5

13 May 2019

Dodo Pizza in Hangzhou: Day 5

Our pizzeria in Hangzhou has been working for five days now, and I’ve just gotten around to sharing our first results, findings, and observations with you.

Last year, we made the decision to launch a pizzeria in China in a completely new format for us. We called this project “the pizzeria of the future” because it would be without cash or cashiers, and all orders would be processed via the Chinese messenger WeChat app. We also planned to use a new kind of dough (pre-baked dough) that would allow us to make a small pizza for...

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27 March 2019

As Smooth as Riding on Uber: How Benjamin Calleja (LIVIT) Creates a Next-level Dining Experience

"If no one is doing it, we have to."

Benjamin Calleja wants to spy on you, and he bets you'll love it.

Actually, there is a chance that he already tracks your moves—though you might be completely unaware of it. He knows, for instance, if and how often you pass by his restaurant.

Smart sensors he installed at the front door count how many times you do that without going in. And when you do go in, the same pesky little sensors measure how much time you spend at the counter or which area of his fine establishment you prefer.

But for such a man as Benjamin Calleja, that's simply not...

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20 March 2019

Dodo Brighton total relaunch: our first win

It looks like our UK team (AKA Dodo’s special task force) just had its first win. Last Friday, Dodo Brighton made £996.5 in sales.

For any other Dodo Pizza shop, this would be a paltry achievement (see our top sales ranking). But for our first pizzeria in the UK, it’s a huge step forward.

Our partner, Konstantin Yudintsev, launched Dodo in Brighton more than a year ago. He did it at his own risk. Back then, we couldn’t allocate enough resources to support him. So his ambition was modest: to survive in the competitive UK market.

The shop has survived, yet...

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18 March 2019

Last week, we rolled out one small but very important feature on our website in Russia. Now you can see average delivery time and average customer ratings retrieved from our mobile app for every city. Why is that so important?

We’re giving real statistics from Dodo IS, our internal IT system. The naked truth. Openness is our company philosophy. We are merciless with ourselves. We burn bridges, so to speak, denying ourselves a chance to work poorly. If our pizza delivery takes too much time somewhere, you will see it at once. Perhaps, it will deter you from ordering; so we will have no choice but to work better. We focus on the point, and the point is our customers.

Interestingly, one of our main competitors also publishes the “average delivery time” of the previous week on its website in Russia. And their figures—which are very low indeed—remain constant for weeks, no matter what city we’re talking about. With our approach, we will seem to be slower than our competitor, yes, but we believe that in business you can’t achieve long-term success through manipulation. Such is our approach. In truth we trust.

For example, when I checked our pizzerias in different cities, I was ashamed for Dodo Pizza in Yaroslavl. They deliver in 59 minutes on average (!), and their rating is rather low, as far as we’re concerned. And I’m proud for 50 pizzerias in Moscow with the average delivery time of 37 minutes, which is good for such a complex megalopolis, though we definitely could do much better.

I’m certain that now that we’ve opened our ratings, our performance will improve, because openness doesn’t leave us a chance to work poorly. And that’s just the beginning. We are going to develop these tools further. Soon, there will be ratings for every pizzeria (for instance, some Moscow franchisees work well, and others, not so well). You will be able to see rating lists and pick the best pizzerias in a particular city or country.

Further reading: Rate your pizza: Dodo testing its killer feature

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