How to reinvent franchising with tech and transparency

How successful can Dodo Pizza be outside Russia? Our branch in Estonia might give you a hint. In 2017, Dodo’s first pizza shop in Tallinn ranked as the tenth pizzeria in the chain in terms of sales. It made $1,185,356 last year.

In June 2018, our partner opened another pizza shop in Tallinn—just for delivery to start. Dine-in was launched in August. And last month, in the third month of its operations, our second location in Estonia’s capital saw €58,971 in sales. Which made it profitable right away.

Usually, it takes a pizza shop six to nine months to reach the break-even point. Kudos to our partner, Viktor Ivanov!

Top 10 Dodo Pizza shops in terms of yearly sales in 2017

1. Samara‑3 (Russia): $1,545,053
2. Samara‑4 (Russia): $1,454,154
3. Ukhta‑1 (Russia): $1,424,159
4. Syktyvkar‑1 (Russia): $1,415,581
5. Tolyatti‑1 (Russia): $1,398,384
6. Dolgoprudny‑1 (Russia): $1,364,285
7. Samara‑2 (Russia): $1,305,968
8. Samara‑1 (Russia): $1,305,839
9. Ulyanovsk‑2 (Russia): $1,299,802
10. Tallinn‑1 (Estonia): $1,185,356

Looking for funding for our pizza chain in Germany.

Our partners, brothers Thomas and Michael Kochman, set an ambitious goal for themselves and Dodo in Germany. Together, we are gunning for top places in the pizza market of the largest economy in Europe.

Thomas and Michael are our master franchisees in Germany. For 25 years, they have been developing their own brand: UNO Pizza. And this year, they decided to partner with Dodo Pizza. A few months ago, they launched a large dough commissary that will become the base for the future growth of Dodo Pizza in the German market.

Besides attracting partners via franchising, the Kochmans are going to develop their own corporate chain. It’s an important part of our plan. One of the possibilities is to grow the corporate chain and then sell pizza shops to franchisees to grow the chain faster. The brothers already have a pizza chain of 17 units.

Over the course of 25 years, they have never resorted to external sources to fund their growth—not even for bank loans. It’s time to change. The market spurs them to move faster. So the Kochmans are now studying different options for funding. They need money for re-branding of their existing pizzerias into Dodo Pizzas and further development of their corporate chain under our brand.

We proposed that they use our network to secure funding. So they put together a proposal for prospective investors (in German). If you are looking for business opportunities in Europe, send a letter to the manager in charge of our global growth, Renat Sagadeev, at r.sagadeev@dodopizza.com.

We now receive requests for our franchise from all over the world—from Germany and Nigeria, Canada and Australia, Switzerland and the UAE….

These emails prove to us that people from different countries have started to see the same value in what we’re building (our cutting-edge IT system, up-to-date branding, and agile business culture based on radical transparency).

The question is: what should we do with these requests? The Dodo Pizza brand is already present in 10 countries, from the United States and China to Lithuania and Romania. And to an outsider, our choice...