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team
6 stories
How to survive this crisis

31 March 2020

How to survive this crisis

As Dodo Pizza CEO, I've decided to lower my own salary to the lowest legally allowed figure. Why am I taking such a drastic measure?This past weekend our chain's sales in Russia—that's close to 90% of our business right now—have fallen by more than 30%. The quarantine enactment and the prohibition of restaurant work have taken their toll. Delivery revenue increase couldn't make up for the dent in our sales made by our closed restaurants. Obviously, our revenue will continue to decline in the near future.

Of course, we're not even thinking about giving up. We've already made...

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15 March 2019

A real pro of the British pizza delivery market has joined the Dodo Pizza UK team.

For the next few years we’re going to concentrate heavily on the Dodo Pizza development in the United Kingdom, among other things. The UK is the largest European pizza delivery market. Domino’s has about 1000 pizzerias there. The competition is stiff, but we see great potential in the UK. We’re certain there is room for new interesting players in this complex market.

David has been working in this industry for more than 20 years. For 11 years, he had been the franchising and business development director at Papa John’s International in Great Britain.

David is a unique person. Frankly, I’ve rarely seen such energetic people in my life. Our company is very young, so in comparison to David we’re just newbies, but his energy and enthusiasm match ours. Birds of a feather flock together indeed.

We consider David’s decision to be a gesture of great trust. We’re just setting about our development in the UK, and there is a difficult and exciting way ahead of us. We set ourselves the most ambitious goals. We believe that the total openness of our company, its integrity and customer-oriented approach as well as our IT platform will allow us to attract strong business partners from among British entrepreneurs, and together we will create a hot product and successful and sustainable business.

Thank you for your trust, David!

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Our CFO: From Merrill Lynch to Dodo Pizza

25 January 2019

While working in Merrill Lynch investment bank, Kirill Vyrypaev made a “wild” decision to become the chief financial officer of Dodo Pizza. At the time, our headquarters was still in Syktyvkar, a small town in northern Russia, so he moved there and had a first-hand experience of a severe northern winter. I guess he probably got a glimpse of the future then….

In two and a half years, Kirill did a lot for our company growth and development. We’ve raised $7.5 million in investment capital. That has allowed us to further expand our team, develop our own IT system, launch our first nationwide advertising campaign, open a commissary in Moscow, create a nationwide logistics network, and ultimately make our parent company profitable, all our investments in IT notwithstanding.

Nowadays, Kirill is not only our global CFO, but also the CEO of our Western division in charge of Dodo Pizza business in the EMEA region (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa). His team has already started working actively in Europe and the UK, and this year, he will return to London. So this is his path, from investment banking to a startup company, business, and entrepreneurship :-)

This will be a very interesting year. Our perspectives, new goals, and challenges that await us in Europe, Asia, Russia, and the rest of the world are breathtaking. After such a game, any movie will seem boring. Look into the future and join us. Dreamers know no boundaries. Drop me a line at fedor@dodopizza.com.

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Stopping by at the first Dodo Pizza opened in Saint Petersburg

10 June 2018

Stopping by at the first Dodo Pizza opened in Saint Petersburg, Russia…. It belongs to our franchisee Sergey Gritsenko. Sergey was one of our first partners—and he is among the toughest. He opened his first Dodo Pizza in his home town in Bashkortostan. Then he sold it and set out on a journey to conquer the Northern Capital, AKA Saint Petersburg. Now his Dodo Pizza is considered a legendary pizzeria in our chain. Showing pretty impressive financial results (in May, it netted 6.7 mln rubles—around $106,000), its team manages to provide customers with superb service. They follow all of our rules, they keep the place super clean, and they are fast. I’m proud to have such an amazing team aboard.

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“It will be a goldmine”

21 May 2018

“It will be a goldmine”

How Yuri Kostin turned things around at a failing Dodo Pizza shop

Twice he almost cried because of Dodo Pizza. First, after reading a book about the company’s founder, Fyodor Ovchinnikov. Second, when washing the dishes at Dodo Pizza in Pargolovo in the suburbs of St. Petersburg.

Yuri Kostin didn’t consider himself a softy. He used to work at a market. He handed out leaflets in the streets and helped with the family business. He grew up in Syktyvkar, Russia, earned a scholarship in Sweden, and studied and worked in Finland. He now was a father of three kids.

An arduous toil couldn’t scare him off. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have come to...

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