Domino''s effect: Dine-ins join delivery stores

New Delhi: The Pizza Delivery Experts, as the company prefers to call itself, is now foraying into waiting tables.

Deviating from its global practice of pizza delivery, Domnio''s has begun opening stores, which offer dine-in services as well.

According to CEO Ajay Kaul, consumer feedback is the primary reason for this departure from convention. Indian consumers, especially in smaller towns, prefer to go out and eat instead of ordering, which has driven the company to offer a dine-in service as well in the interest of business. Of the last 50 stores that Domino''s has opened, most are dine-ins.

Domino''s expects a large 45 per cent slice of the Rs500 crore organised pizza market by the end of this fiscal. It also foresees a net profit of about 5 per cent of the top line.

Currently Domino''s has 156 outlets in India. The company is investing in new stores and setting up Central Kitchens to make pizza dough across various locations.

Through a mammoth expansion, Domino''s plans to set up 500 outlets across India by 2010-11, at an investment of Rs350 crore.

60 new Domino''s outlets would mushroom by March 2008, with another 70 being added by 2009, and eventually growing at a total of 350 new outlets by 2010-11.

Each Domino''s store is owned and maintained by the company, with no franchisees. By the turn of the decade, Domino''s is eyeing the Rs1,000-crore turnover.

Domino''s recently replaced the huge success of Paresh Rawal as its brand ambassador with the younger Arshad Warsi. On its'' tag line of "30 minutes or free", CEO Kaul said about 1 per cent of all pizzas sold in India by Domino''s are given away free. If the chain''s claims of selling 1.1 million pizzas a month is to be believed, that would mean sales in excess of 30,000 pizzas a day, and around 300 free pizzas every day!

With other fast-food chains such as Subway pegging their wares on the health plank, Domnio''s remains unfazed. Kaul does not foresee Domino''s using the health platform in the near future, and says that the pizza chain''s products are completely trans-fat free.

Domino''s has about 30 per cent localised, or ''Indianised'', offerings on its menu presently, and according to CEO Kaul, is constantly evaluating Indian options.