Italian fire-baked pizza concept The Pizza Room has confirmed that it is targeting 50 locations by 2030 through franchising alongside growing its coffee room format, Coffee Room.
Founded by Pamela Aiko Tironi, whose background is in investment banking, and Awet Ogbaghiorghis, who previously worked at City University, The Pizza Room opened its first site in 2013.
The company has since grown to six locations in London, four Pizza Rooms and two Coffee Room shops – and it has also developed a pasta house concept.
Franchise director Mike Pieri said: “Our plan is to grow the business through owned and franchised new shops to get to more than 50 locations by 2030. We are also looking for investors to support this development plan. We are considering other locations in London and outside the capital too.
At the moment, we are accepting applications from all over the UK, but our focus is on the belt surrounding London, which is logistically and strategically more logical for us. The next opening will be Walthamstow, with an estimated opening time of after the summer, later this year.”
He added: “We have been franchising for just one year and already have one franchisee on board for The Coffee Room, located in Deptford. We are discussing two other openings with franchisees in two other areas of London, but the agreement has not been finalised as yet. We want to grow all of our concepts.
Depending on the size of the future shops, our pizza, coffee and pasta formats can be implemented as physical or virtual brands in the shop, expanding the opening time and the offering of the shop itself.”
Pieri said The Pizza Room, which exhibited at the London International Franchise Show in April, offers six models of franchising – “from a virtual brand solution to a single site, and from a rent-to-own plan for franchisees who want to take over one of our existing location to a regional develop.”
Its first 20 franchisees will have the chance to implement all three brands at the price of a single brand affiliation. Its franchising entry fee is £10,000 and its fixed monthly fee is £1,000, plus a marketing fund fee or £250 per month.
