Having your slice and eating it too

Pezzo Pizza's co-founder talks about his business model and also why he chose to open kiosks instead of full-size restaurants.

IF you think about eating large amounts of food, pizza is one of the choices that jumps to mind. It's easy to share and comes in a variety of flavours and sizes to suit any party.

But should you choose to order one, there are caveats. You'd best be hungry as a horse to polish one off, since you couldn't order anything smaller than a whole pizza.

You also either had to wait for someone to deliver it to your house, or go to a restaurant and pay S$30 to order one.

But entrepreneur Chiang Zhan Xiang decided that consumers needed more choice and changed all of that with Pezzo Pizza.

"Firstly, pizza by the slice is not a new concept," explains Mr Chiang, co-founder of Pezzo Pizza. "It's practically on every street corner in the US."

Taking inspiration from that idea, he decided to bring the practice of selling pizza by the slice to Singapore. He started from a kiosk at ION Orchard back in December 2012, and the company has grown from there ever since.

"Our sales from that one kiosk showed us that people were warming to the idea of eating a slice of pizza on the go," he shares.

In just three and a half years, the brand has grown from one kiosk in the middle of Orchard to 30 stalls - with plans to expand to 35 - all of which are located in both heartland and major shopping malls across Singapore.

Sporting bright pastel colours and lighting, Pezzo's kiosks around the island are reminiscent of a carnival or funfair, which is reflected in their slogan "A Carnival in Every Bite".

The company invested in its first five outlets, and subsequently saw organic growth across the rest of its stalls.

When asked why he chose to open kiosks instead of full-size restaurants, Mr Chiang replies that tight labour costs and flexibility were key factors in deciding on this business model.

"We prefer to operate brands which are in a small format that are process driven and minimally staffed," he adds. "We wanted to have less reliance on individual skill but still produce high-quality products."

Keeping productivity high

Focusing on the grab-and-go kiosk format was important because it kept productivity high and hence allowed more competitive wages to be paid, he notes.

According to Mr Chiang, one kiosk takes about S$100,000 to set up, compared with nearly S$1 million for a restaurant, including renovation and furnishing.

"On average we were opening a kiosk every month," Mr Chiang says. "We definitely would not have been able to compete as competitively if we had opened a restaurant every month."

Since opening Pezzo, Mr Chiang has expanded the kiosk format to include two more brands, going into partnership with the famous Selera Rasa Nasi Lemak at Adam Road to establish Crave Nasi Lemak in Singapore, as well as becoming an area franchisee for Stuff'd in West Malaysia. (see clarification note)

The nasi lemak brand is an apparent favourite of the Sultan of Brunei, and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong once served it to Indonesian President Joko Widodo when he visited in November 2014.

The Crave kiosks also feature teh tarik from Rafee's Corner in Amoy Street, another crowd-pleaser.

Mr Chiang says the partnership stems from the fact that they are provided a strong platform to expand on, while bringing with them the food they are best known for. "They do what they do best, and we do what we do best."

Beyond Singapore, Mr Chiang has expanded to cover other countries in the region. Pezzo stalls can be found in Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, the Philippines and China.

In September, Pezzo made its Middle East debut with its first outlet in Saudi Arabia at the Al Hokair Group's Mall of Arabia in Jeddah.

The kiosk will operate within Sparky's Family Entertainment Centre, and Mr Chiang hopes the collaboration will eventually expand to other Sparky's outlets as well.

Pointing out the success which other pizza brands have had in the kingdom, Mr Chiang says the Saudis have been "used to Western pizza brands for a long time", and that he wanted to tap on Sparky's customer base and eventually grow the brand as rapidly as possible.

In Singapore, the three brands - Pezzo, Crave and Stuff'd - have finally coalesced under one roof at a combined outlet in Compass Point, in a strategic partnership with the respective brand owners.

"It is an interesting pilot project for us, where we combine these brands and take a slightly bigger and strategic location in the malls," said Mr Chiang, speaking at the opening of the store earlier last month.

"It's a win-win for all as we get to provide a new dining experience for our customers who have traditionally been used to our grab-and-go format but now have the option to dine in."

The challenges of coordinating three brands are not lost on him. Building a company from scratch and expanding quickly did not come easy, but he has managed to pull through with sound advice and a strong work ethic.

"Singapore is a great platform and testbed for innovation. There are also a lot of opportunities in the region and I know many companies which have broken out of their comfort zone to operate overseas and are doing well," Mr Chiang points out.

He hopes to continue growing the brand and bring better value to his customers, and encourages budding entrepreneurs to take the plunge. "Rome wasn't built in a day, but think big, start small and start now!"

Clarification note: An earlier version of this article stated that Mr Chiang expanded the kiosk format to include two more brands, Stuff'd and Crave. The article has been amended to clarify that Mr Chiang did not found Stuff'd and has no dealings with the operations of Stuff'd. Instead, Pezzo is a master franchisee of the Stuff'd brand and only within the West Malaysia territory. Stuff'd is an independent company headquartered in Singapore, founded by Adrian Ang in 2014.

This article was first published on November 1, 2016.
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