Pizza Hut has introduced a number of new products to its menu in an attempt to compete with its more gourmet counterparts, meanwhile Eagle Boys is choosing to focus on perfecting its already existing ones.

PIZZA HUT

More recently, the brand has introduced its Signature range, which includes 11 pizza varieties such as chicken and fetta, garlic prawn, Italian chicken and steakhouse.

Here the emphasis is on quality ingredients such as crumbled feta, garlic oil, sundried tomatoes, baby spinach, balsamic glaze and strips of real meat.

Andy Masood, head of development, Pizza Hut says the range reflects consumers increasing desire for gourmet pizza options.

“The signature range is more of a gourmet offering for the customers – because in the marketplace there is definitely a demand for gourmet options as far as pizzas are concerned.

“For several years now many pizza chains have emerged in the pizza marketplace such as Crust, whose whole menu is developed around gourmet offerings. We have always had a segment of the gourmet range in our menu mix, but we have made it a little more specialised with more varieties,” he explains.

The limited edition $10 meal deal 

To mix it up a little, the company also offers limited edition items, such as the hot dog pizza and $10 meal deal.

“We release limited edition products four or five times per year, and if a particular product becomes very popular we introduce it into our permanent menu. If the consumer requirement is there and it goes very well then absolutely we keep it alive and keep it available for the customer,” he explains.

Pizza Hut has a product development team and chef who spend their days researching what it is that consumers want.

“They engage with our suppliers, as most are big Australian companies that service the restaurant and retail industries, and they work on bringing whatever taste profiles are in high demand into our pizzas,” says Masood.

The company provides franchisees and their employees with the appropriate training when introducing new products to the market, too.

Tandoori chicken is one of Pizza Hut’s more gourmet offerings

“It is a fairly elaborate process when we roll out new products. Product development, operational and procedural manuals are prepared and all the stores and their teams learn how to make and communicate information about the new product.

“Our operations team also provide support when required,” he adds. 

EAGLE BOYS

Eagle Boys has taken a slightly different approach when it comes to new product offerings. Rather than introduce new products, the company has instead chosen to focus on perfecting its already existing ones.

Kate Pettiford, head of marketing, Eagle Boys says the company recently made a number of improvements to its menu. “We refreshed our menu in October last year. It was one of the biggest refreshers we have had in a while and it was about delivering a higher quality product with higher quality ingredients.

“Our motivation for that came from listening to our customers, watching consumer behaviour and trends change, and a desire to suit their needs,” she explains.

The company also added a number of its most popular limited editions pizzas such as the chicken Hawaiian and tex mex to its menu. 

Eagle Boys has made the limited edition tex mex pizza a permanet menu item

Rather than go down the path that many other pizza franchises have and devote its time to developing new products, Pettiford explains Eagle Boys is adopting a different approach.

 “I think the pizza sector is certainly expanding much more rapidly than in the past and it is evolving in a number of different directions, and from an Eagle Boys perspective we are really focusing on our core products and our core traditional range.”

The move is in part driven by the fact that even though there has been an increased demand for more gourmet product offerings, customers still love the company’s traditional range.

“We have some very loyal Eagle Boys customers who love their core set of products; they love their Hawaiian and Meatlovers,” she says.

Traditional pizzas such as hawaiian are still popular with Eagle Boys customers

When the brand does develop new products or makes improvements to existing ones, Pettiford says franchisees play an important role.

“We speak to our franchisees very regularly and when we are developing products it is often something we will run past our network first to say this is what we are thinking and to ask them what they are thinking.

“It is quite a long process bringing a new product to market and our franchisees play an integral role in that,” she adds.

When a new product or promotion is implemented, Eagle Boys works hard to ensure franchisees and particularly their in-store staff receive sufficient training.

“Our corporate chefs provide a lot of training, but there are also sales and training tools that go out with any part of our menu and we are constantly increasing on that to make sure not only our franchisees but our in-store staff receive as much information as possible.

“They are the best people to get feedback from because they are the ones speaking to our customers, they are the ones getting the feedback from the people who come into our stores and who are using our online service, so they often have the best insights,” she says.

In the fourth and final part of our pizza franchise story, we look at the new Chef’s Best range from Domino’s.