How to reinvent franchising with tech and transparency

In 2019, Dodo Pizza launched 141 new pizzerias and closed 5, capping off the year with 576 units in 13 countries. Outlets outside of Russia generated 11.4% of total revenue, up from 9.5% a year before. Our annual system sales exceeded 20.2 billion rubles—around $314m. In US dollars, that’s a 46% year-over-year growth in sales. Building at such a pace, Dodo remains one of the fastest-growing QSR brands in the world.

At the end of 2018, the founder of Dodo Pizza, Fyodor Ovchinnikov, set a new Big Hairy Audacious Goal for our team: to grow the number of Dodo pizzerias in Europe, the US, and China from 16 to 200 by the end of 2021.

At the time, the franchise already had more than 400 units up and running, but most of them were located in Russia. To achieve this new goal, our team had to find a way to grow the brand globally as fast as it had been growing in Eastern Europe.

The capacity of our home market...

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...

I have been hovering in and around the pizza world for almost twenty years but believe it or not it’s taken me until now to find something truly amazing, Dodo Pizza.

Dodo is something extraordinary on several levels. Which is why I’ve left the world of consulting to join Dodo Pizza to develop the UK market.

Firstly, there is the product. Behind every pizza sold there is a quality control system that starts with product development and runs through to when the pie is placed in a box and given the Dodo seal of approval.

Secondly, the stores are bright with open kitchens where nothing is hidden and if you are not in the store you can log on and see your pizza being prepared with the Dodo kitchen cam…now that is an open kitchen!

Thirdly, the whole operation is controlled by one IT ecosystem called Dodo IS allowing the store owner to concentrate on making great pizzas and providing a great customer experience.

Finally, there is a whole new approach to franchising with the emphasis on store economics and innovative marketing enabling the franchisees to get a quicker return on capital and then open more stores.

I believe that Dodo has some truly innovative ideas in action that will redefine how pizza is experienced in the UK for consumers and business owners.