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Say CHEESE
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Today, there's more cheese than chutney in Chennai going by the phenomenal success of pizza outlets, says SHONALI MUTHALALY
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SO, YOU'VE burnt dinner. Again. The sambar is solid and your masala potato is sticking to the frying pan with an enthusiasm that would make superglue go green with envy. This is the moment of reckoning. Freak out? Or order in?
Let's assume you decide to order in. It is time for the next ordeal. Your kitchen drawer is bursting with menus offering every thing from pepper chicken to pepper water. So, the big question is — what do you feel like eating? Chinese or Chettinad? Homestyle cooking or hummus? Dosa or dhaba? Or maybe, just pizza.
If you've settled for pizza, don't heave a sigh of relief or collapse dramatically on your couch — yet. You still have a long way to go before dinner arrives. (Heading back to the smelly kadai and scraping hopefully at the sambar in an attempt to retrieve a drowning drumstick at this point is perfectly understandable.) But be strong. There are decisions to be made.
Which glossy pizza menu are you ordering from? Dominos, Pizza Hut, Pizza Corner, Chef Express, Pizza Deli... vegetarian or non-vegetarian pizza? Italian or tandoori? Deep pan, regular or thin crust? Stuffed crust? If it's stuffed, cheese or chicken? Side orders? Garlic bread, coleslaw, twisty bread? As you've probably figured out by now, pizza is a complicated business these days.
But it hasn't always been this way. Not too long ago, if you wanted pizza, you could either make it yourself (but considering how you just murdered the sambar, that's probably not the best of ideas) or put some onion rings on a slice of bread, top it with ketchup and listen to Italian music.
Today, there's almost more cheese than chutney in Chennai. Pizza outlets are practically decking the halls with boughs of jalapeno, as Chennai dives into pizza with all the enthusiasm of a chronic dieter heading for the lettuce. Whether it is the small pizza drowning in ketchup from the local bakery or a special gourmet quiche pizza, the Italian staple is doing great business in Chennai, judging by the sales, burgeoning outlets and consistent inaugurations of new chains.
Dominos recently began baking in its seventh store, set in Anna Nagar, to serve a catchment area of more than 15,000 households. The all-new Pizza World plans to turn what Chennai has always considered fast food into a gourmet experience. And Smokin' Joe, the popular Mumbai chain, just opened its doors to give Chennai a whiff of its baking bases and sizzling cheese.
Pizza Hut records a 40 per cent growth annually, Dominos pegs it at 25 per cent and the rest of the players agree that the growth rates are phenomenal — especially in the beginning. "When we opened in 1995, we were growing 100 per cent annually," says Reshma S. Patel, director, Chef Express. "And business kept doubling every year."
Although the big weights have the advantage of big bucks, backing and brand-recognition, Chennai's thriving smaller players do give them a run for their money. When Chef Express directors Reshma S. Patel and Nanda Kumar began their pizza outlet with just "Rs. 1 lakh and a small wood fire oven," they were selling six or seven pizzas a day. Today, they sell an average of 100 and are worth more than a crore.
"The growth is partly because of changing lifestyles," says Rakshit Hargave, chief of marketing, Dominos Pizza India. "It's a functional food. Our customers include kids of double income parents and working couples who don't have time to cook." Pranay Kumar Parimal, store manager of Dominos, Adyar, says they sell between 600 to 700 pizzas a day. "If there's a cricket match, it's a lot more. And on holidays and weekends, the number goes up dramatically," adds Hargave.
Pankaj Batra, director - marketing, Indian Subcontinent, Yum! Restaurants International (the company behind Pizza Hut), says the season before any festival is a major traffic generator since people are often too tired to cook after hectic shopping sprees. Kumar says he's ever grateful to `The Bold and the Beautiful' for Chef Express' success, since cable television began around the same time as his outlet.
"The big pizza chains actually did all of us a favour," says Bhushan, director of Pizza Deli, another of Chennai's `big' small players. "They created awareness with mass publicity. All we had to do at that point was make sure we were visible," he says. "Once people like something, they tend to look for a cheaper alternative."
Although the smaller players face a shortage of funds for advertising, they do tend to recover their losses and start making profits faster, since their initial investment is smaller. "The smaller guys don't need to invest in a big restaurant or hire a large number of personnel," says Hargave of Dominos.
Each chain gradually develops its own band of supporters, according to Hargave. Bhushan, for example, says 70 per cent of his customers are regulars. Brand loyalty makes pizza unique, for with other kinds of cuisine, where people enjoy trying new restaurants, pizza patrons tend to stick with their favourite cheese.
Loyalty was not a big issue until now, since there was always enough pepperoni to go around. Today, however, as the Chennai market slowly gets saturated, pizza chains are vying with one another to lasso consumers with everything, from extra stretchy cheese to perfectly sautéed onion rings.
The major move every player is making for the biggest slice of the pizza pie, is introduce Indian curry to Italian dining and Swiss cheese. "We began the chicken tikka pizza trend," says Kumar. "When the international chains came in, their campaign was all about `real pizza.' They said what we were selling was not `authentic.' Today, they sell kurma pizza. At the rate they are going, I won't be surprised if they add thayir sadham pizzas to their menus!"
It's not just the pizzas that are changing, menus are getting larger and more varied. Dominos says it has struck gold in Chennai with its `cinnastix with apple dip' and garlic breadsticks. Pizza Deli and Chef Express offer a wide variety of sandwiches along with pizzas.
Each chain is also coming up with various marketing gimmicks to stand out. So while Pizza Hut has now introduced its "all new heated pouch to keep your pizza sizzling hot," Pizza Deli sends out its pizzas on bicycles to both protect the environment and avoid traffic jams. Smokin' Joe is beginning its campaign by offering pizzas at a 50 per cent discount, provided you dine in — thus creating a mock rush at their new restaurant.
And while the pizza people are on what they call an "aggressive expansion spree," they're pulling out all the stops. With everything from discounted pizzas to complimentary desserts; perfectly timed deliveries to waiters who do the birdie dance while you eat... it's the best time for Chennai's pizza enthusiasts. After all, now you get everything an all-Italian experience could possibly offer. Well, except for the Leaning Tower of Pisa, perhaps.
Part of the pizza pie
Dominos: (28474444) The biggest pizza. They claim their pizza has more pizza than most pizzas.
Pizza Hut: (28215125) The dine-in pizza. Waiters who actually do the gangsta rap between courses.
Pizza Corner: (26287111) The original pizza. Taught Chennai to tell impostor pizzas from the real thing.
Chef Express: (24360202) The pizza with pizzazz. They claim to make true-blue Italian pizzas. With paneer tikka.
Pizza Deli: (52131414) The eco-friendly pizza. Do Chennai a favour. Get your pizza on a bicycle.
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