Kotipizza Oyj is the largest pizzarestaurant chain in the Nordic countries. Koti is Finnish and translates to "home". Kotipizza is part of Kotipizza Group, and it operates a pizza franchise in Finland. In 2017, Kotipizza restaurants were run by almost 300 franchisees, who in total had approximately 1,700 employees. On average, each restaurant employed six people, some of whom may have been working on a part-time basis. Its head office is in Helsinki, Finland.
History
Kotipizza was founded in 1987 by Rabbe Grönblom in Vaasa, Finland. During the first operating years, business grew fast, and the 100th Kotipizza restaurant opened in 1992. In 1995, a shop-in-shop concept was introduced to the business model, when Kotipizza concluded an agreement with the Neste Oil service station chain. The model reduced start-up costs for the new location. The 200th Kotipizza restaurant was founded in 1996. In the 21st century Kotipizza's motto was "Pizza, Love & Understanding". In 2008, Grönblom's family company sold the majority of Kotipizza to a company founded by Kotipizza employees. Next year, Kotipizza concluded a cooperation agreement with Teboil service station chain. By the end of 2010, the Kotipizza chain constituted some 281 restaurants in over 130 municipalities. Some Kotipizza restaurants were located in conjunction with gas stations. The most northern Kotipizza restaurant in Finland was located in Karigasniemi in the municipality of Utsjoki. In 2011, Grönblom returned as the chief shareholder of the company, but by August 2011, he had already sold three quarters of his shares in Kotipizza to Finnish private equity company Sentica Partners and remained a minority shareholder, with a one-fifth share, of the company. The overall revenue of the Kotipizza restaurant chain in 2012 was 72 million euro. Over 95% of the Kotipizza restaurants in Finland were operated by franchising. In addition to Finland, Kotipizza restaurants were found in Saint Petersburg, Estonia and in China in Suzhou, near Shanghai. In 2014, Grönblom gave away the ownership of the company completely. In the financial year 2016, the total sales of Kotipizza restaurants amounted to EUR 90 million with net sales of EUR 67 million. In December 2017, the Kotipizza chain's monthly sales exceeded EUR 10 millionfor the first time. In April 2018, the same-store sales of comparable Kotipizza restaurants had increased for 37 months in a row. The number of restaurants stood at 260. In November 2018 European food manufacturer Orkla announced that it will acquire Kotipizza's owner, Kotipizza Group.
Business
Over 99% of the Kotipizza restaurants in Finland are operated by franchising. In 2018, Kotipizza operates only in Finland. Some restaurants offer delivery and accept orders by phone or via the internet. Most of the home-delivery restaurants utilise the home-delivery concept created in cooperation with the chain's franchisees. Built-in warming delivery boxes in delivery vehicles keep pizzas at 60 degrees Celsius even for an hour.
Products
In 2016, 62 per cent of all ingredients used at Kotipizza restaurants came from Finland. For instance, the million kilograms of cheese used by the chain was acquired from 70 Valio dairy farms located in the area of Lapinlahti, Finland. In 2014, the most popular pizza of the Kotipizza chain was Perfetta, for which four pizza toppings are picked freely. The second most popular pizza was Special Opera, a pizza with ham, salami and tuna. The third most popular pizza was Americana, which includes Aura cheese, ham and pineapple. Furthermore, Tropicana, Kotzone Chicken, Opera, Quattro Stagioni, Bolognese, Mexicana and Burger were among the top 10 products. In 2018, the top 10 most sold products via Kotipizza's online store were Perfetta, Custom Monster, Special Opera, Americana, Kotzone Chicken, Tropicana, Custom Kotzone, Meat Master, Quattro Stagioni and Texas Monster. Monster is a product developed by Kotipizza which includes bread sticks on a pizza. In the Helsinki metropolitan area and in larger cities, Kotipizza sold significantly more vegetarian pizzas and toppings than anywhere else in Finland.
Pizza Berlusconi
Pizza Berlusconi is Kotipizza's product name for a pizza of smoked reindeer, with tomato, cheese, chanterelle mushrooms and red onion. Kotipizza named the pizza after Italian Prime MinisterSilvio Berlusconi in their summer 2008 ad campaign and menu. Berlusconi had caused a minor diplomatic incident in 2005, when he said that he had had to "endure" Finnish cuisine, and joked disparagingly about Finns eating "marinated reindeer". Although marinated reindeer is a common dish in Lapland, in the rest of Finland the meat is traditionally stewed or dried.
Recognition
Kotipizza has been chosen as the best franchising chain of the year in 1992, 2009 and 2017.
In 2017, the Kotipizza chain received the MSC ecolabel, confirming that all fish and seafood served by the chain come from sustainable sources and certified fisheries. Kotipizza was the first pizza chain in the world to be licensed to use the label. Products with the MSC ecolabel are guaranteed to have been responsibly caught by a certified sustainable fishery.
With Pizza Berlusconi, Kotipizza won the America's Plate International pizza contest in New York City in March 2008, beating the Italian-Americans, who came in second place, and the Australians in third.
