Domino's to expand product offering in India, eyes small towns

In line with its target to make India one of its top five global markets in three years, US quick service restaurant chain Domino's Pizza today said it will expand its product offering and focus on smaller towns for growth opportunities.
    
The company also said it going ahead with an aggressive brand building exercise, including increased spending on marketing and special offers, as it seeks a bigger pie in the estimated Rs 1,000-crore Indian pizza market.
    
"Our strategy now is to introduce at least one new product every 3-4 months and this fiscal we will add three more items," Domino's Pizza India Vice-President (Marketing) Dev Amritesh told PTI.
    
The Indian pizza market is of around Rs 1,000 crore. The home delivery segment consists of around half of it and Domino's claims a 65 per cent share in the segment.
    
In terms of top global markets for Domino's, India is currently ranked at ninth position.
    
"While remaining focused on the core category of pizzas, Domino's will also launch new products in the non-pizza segment," Amritesh added.
    
Domino's currently has 19 pizza variants in the Indian market, besides five non-pizza items, including choco lava cakes and pasta which were introduced last year.
    
"Product innovation is a priority for us. It gives consumers more choices and increase our brand value," he said.
    
The company will be undertaking a major brand building exercise which will include substantial use of advertising, besides special offers.
    
"We have just launched our wheat thin crust pizza and revived our Pizzamania campaign. Our focus is on increasing our brand visibility among all segments, specially with focus on smaller cities," Amritesh said.
    
He, however, declined to share the spending that the company has planned to make on its brand building exercise.
    
The firm plans to open 60-65 outlets every year for the next three years in India. It currently has around 310 stores across the country.
    
"A major chunk of the new outlets will be in smaller cities. There is a huge untapped market in those places and we want to be at the forefront of the action," Amritesh said.
    
Bhartia Group-promoted Jubilant Foodworks is the Indian master franchise for Domino's Pizza. Earlier this year, the company went for an IPO in India, becoming only the fourth subsidiary outside the USA where the brand is listed.
    
During his visit to India in March, the company's global President and CEO J Patrick Doyle had said that the country would become one of its top five revenue garners within three years. India currently contributes around two per cent of its annual revenue of $6 billion.